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Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration--Lessons from The Second City
Executives from The Second City—the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation—reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses. For more than fifty years, The Second City comedy theater in Chicago has been a training ground for some of the best comic minds in the industry—including John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. But it also provides one-of-a-kind leadership training to cutting-edge companies, nonprofits, and public sector organizations—all aimed at increasing creativity, collaboration, and teamwork. The rules for leadership and teamwork have changed, and the skills that got professionals ahead a generation ago don’t work anymore. Now The Second City provides a new toolkit individuals and organizations can use to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by speed, social communication, and decentralization. Based on eight principles of improvisation, Yes, And helps to develop these skills and foster them in high-potential leaders and their teams, including: Yes, And is a must-read for professionals and organizations, helping to develop the invaluable leadership skills needed to succeed today.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published February 3, 2015
340 people are currently reading
2714 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
November 12, 2015
The title of this book comes from the basic concept behind improvisational theater: “Yes, and.” In other words, one actor invents a line on the spot, like, “Wow! Look at all those stars!” The other actor has to come up with an instant response by agreeing to the scenario and adding to it. For example, he might say, “Yeah. Things sure look different up here on the moon.”
Once you become aware of “Yes, and,” you’ll see actors on talk shows doing it all the time. Stephen Colbert does it with Jon Batiste at the opening of every show, but as Batiste is a musician and not an actor, you can tell when he gets flummoxed by the curve balls Colbert throws him. The actors Colbert interviews fare better.
But this book isn’t meant for actors; it’s but for businesspeople. “Yes, and” is the antidote to that idea-killing equivalent of most business meetings: “No, but.” “We should do X.” “No, but Y.” And then nothing gets done.
Considering that our courts follow the adversarial model, our elections are mudslinging contests, and our classrooms, in claiming to teach critical thinking, end up feeling more like dens of one-upmanship, I think the collaborative approach of “Yes, and” would be a welcome cultural change. But as much as I love the concept, I did find my mind wandering in spots. Part of the problem is that the book was written more for employers, and I’m an employee. Also, while it was fun to read about the improv exercises and learn what skills they’re meant to develop, actually practicing the exercises would have made the book more meaningful. I did one exercise with my mother, who pointed out that I was saying, “Yes, but,” not “Yes, and.” In other words, “Yes, you’re right about X, but you’re wrong about Y.” I guess my critical side needs some taming.
Overall, I loved the main lesson of this book, but I got the feeling that an article would have been enough to do the subject justice. Some of the success stories the authors cited came across as self-promoting filler. So good book, but not uniformly compelling. Or perhaps that’s just me saying, “Yes, but,” again.
Once you become aware of “Yes, and,” you’ll see actors on talk shows doing it all the time. Stephen Colbert does it with Jon Batiste at the opening of every show, but as Batiste is a musician and not an actor, you can tell when he gets flummoxed by the curve balls Colbert throws him. The actors Colbert interviews fare better.
But this book isn’t meant for actors; it’s but for businesspeople. “Yes, and” is the antidote to that idea-killing equivalent of most business meetings: “No, but.” “We should do X.” “No, but Y.” And then nothing gets done.
Considering that our courts follow the adversarial model, our elections are mudslinging contests, and our classrooms, in claiming to teach critical thinking, end up feeling more like dens of one-upmanship, I think the collaborative approach of “Yes, and” would be a welcome cultural change. But as much as I love the concept, I did find my mind wandering in spots. Part of the problem is that the book was written more for employers, and I’m an employee. Also, while it was fun to read about the improv exercises and learn what skills they’re meant to develop, actually practicing the exercises would have made the book more meaningful. I did one exercise with my mother, who pointed out that I was saying, “Yes, but,” not “Yes, and.” In other words, “Yes, you’re right about X, but you’re wrong about Y.” I guess my critical side needs some taming.
Overall, I loved the main lesson of this book, but I got the feeling that an article would have been enough to do the subject justice. Some of the success stories the authors cited came across as self-promoting filler. So good book, but not uniformly compelling. Or perhaps that’s just me saying, “Yes, but,” again.
March 5, 2018
Just finished reading this book for my second time, nearly 3 years since I first read it. I found the book to be equally as inspiring as the first time, reminding me of so many powerful concepts of leadership and high performing organizations, specifically:
- Communication as an operational imperative
- Break down Organizational Silos
- Failure as a driver of success (so many similarities with Lean Startup)
- Listening and Empathy
- A culture of building on people’s ideas
- How to foster a culture of creativity
- Ability to think fast, adapt and respond
- Gain comfort with fear
- Follower-ship is as important as leadership
- Give and Take (Adam Grant) - it is about the balance
- High performing leaders “read”....people, rooms, organizations....
- High performers know when to listen, lead, follow, change on the fly
I really appreciated the variety of exercises that the book introduced and the summation in the appendix that listed each exercise and its purpose. I can see a wide host of applications for organizations to play with these exercises.
Favorite Quotes:
It is common knowledge that diet and exercise are keys to staying physically healthy, but practicing improvisation is like yoga for your professional development—a solid, strengthening workout that improves emotional intelligence, teaches you to pivot out of tight and uncomfortable spaces, and helps you become both a more compelling leader and a more collaborative follower. Even better, these qualities are fully transferable to your life outside the office. The benefits of improvisation can extend to your personal relationships, whether with your partner, your family, or your friends.
The biggest threat to creativity is fear, especially the fear of failure. By deflating the negative power of failure, you erode fear and allow creativity to flourish.
Many of us believe that we are good listeners, but there is a huge difference between listening to understand and listening while waiting for the chance to respond.
Team before Self: What improvisation does, in its most simple form, is to take the focus off ourselves and allow us to dial down our personal judgment. When we’re concentrating hard and fully present in the moment, there’s no room for self-consciousness or shaky nerves. All your energy goes into the task at hand.
*** In one-on-one meetings with colleagues, don’t check e-mail and don’t answer any calls. Focus on the person in front of you; listen to what they are saying as well as to what they are not saying. Creating a space where a fully engaged conversation can take place is part of staying in the moment. This will not only earn you the respect of your colleagues, it will also make it more likely that they will choose to engage and confide in you, giving you a decided edge in your organization.***
It may be surprising to some, but being a good ensemble member or a good teammate or a good colleague is an excellent way to spur personal growth.
One tenet we take extremely seriously at The Second City is “always take care of your partner.” It means that we take great care to support our cast members, not judge them. It means we work together, onstage and off.
Final words to live by:
Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don’t check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word no from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you’re sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Lead as you would want to be led.
Don’t be an asshole, and don’t abide assholes.
Be on time. Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don’t revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say we rather than I whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you’re trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser.
Closing:
I recommend this book to leaders at every level. There is something in this book for everyone; from the most senior executive to the newest team-member. This book does a fantastic job of explaining the importance of culture, how to create it and tools / exercises to reinforce High-Performing Behavior.
TEAMS!
- Communication as an operational imperative
- Break down Organizational Silos
- Failure as a driver of success (so many similarities with Lean Startup)
- Listening and Empathy
- A culture of building on people’s ideas
- How to foster a culture of creativity
- Ability to think fast, adapt and respond
- Gain comfort with fear
- Follower-ship is as important as leadership
- Give and Take (Adam Grant) - it is about the balance
- High performing leaders “read”....people, rooms, organizations....
- High performers know when to listen, lead, follow, change on the fly
I really appreciated the variety of exercises that the book introduced and the summation in the appendix that listed each exercise and its purpose. I can see a wide host of applications for organizations to play with these exercises.
Favorite Quotes:
It is common knowledge that diet and exercise are keys to staying physically healthy, but practicing improvisation is like yoga for your professional development—a solid, strengthening workout that improves emotional intelligence, teaches you to pivot out of tight and uncomfortable spaces, and helps you become both a more compelling leader and a more collaborative follower. Even better, these qualities are fully transferable to your life outside the office. The benefits of improvisation can extend to your personal relationships, whether with your partner, your family, or your friends.
The biggest threat to creativity is fear, especially the fear of failure. By deflating the negative power of failure, you erode fear and allow creativity to flourish.
Many of us believe that we are good listeners, but there is a huge difference between listening to understand and listening while waiting for the chance to respond.
Team before Self: What improvisation does, in its most simple form, is to take the focus off ourselves and allow us to dial down our personal judgment. When we’re concentrating hard and fully present in the moment, there’s no room for self-consciousness or shaky nerves. All your energy goes into the task at hand.
*** In one-on-one meetings with colleagues, don’t check e-mail and don’t answer any calls. Focus on the person in front of you; listen to what they are saying as well as to what they are not saying. Creating a space where a fully engaged conversation can take place is part of staying in the moment. This will not only earn you the respect of your colleagues, it will also make it more likely that they will choose to engage and confide in you, giving you a decided edge in your organization.***
It may be surprising to some, but being a good ensemble member or a good teammate or a good colleague is an excellent way to spur personal growth.
One tenet we take extremely seriously at The Second City is “always take care of your partner.” It means that we take great care to support our cast members, not judge them. It means we work together, onstage and off.
Final words to live by:
Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don’t check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word no from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you’re sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Lead as you would want to be led.
Don’t be an asshole, and don’t abide assholes.
Be on time. Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don’t revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say we rather than I whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you’re trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser.
Closing:
I recommend this book to leaders at every level. There is something in this book for everyone; from the most senior executive to the newest team-member. This book does a fantastic job of explaining the importance of culture, how to create it and tools / exercises to reinforce High-Performing Behavior.
TEAMS!
September 23, 2016
This book is simply a regurgitation of information from bigger and better business books, wrapped in a skin of self-promotion. If you can see past the name-dropping on every other page, the underlying content is somewhat enjoyable.
January 21, 2018
This book came to me at just the right time. I'm not sure how it got on my radar, but I recommended it to my library for purchase and then it came up that they had added it to the collection. So it was automatically checked out to me. So glad it came in the first few weeks of the year! I had been trying to determine what my word of the year for 2018 was going to be... and while reading this book, I realized that my word for 2018 is LISTEN. I need to listen to my husband instead of asking him to repeat himself because I was doing something on my phone. I need to listen to the inner voice in my head warning me that something feels wrong. Listening is such a huge skill that you can apply everywhere!
"Deep listening is essential to improvisation. It is also critical in many parts of business. From selling situations, to employee evaluations, to brain storming sessions and more. In other words, the care and feeding of our listening muscle is absolute priority for anyone who wishes to create, communicate, lead or manage effectively." (8% progress of audio)
"Sheldon Patinkin (sp?), who has worked as a director and teacher at Second City for more than fifty years, puts interesting spin on the axiom 'you're only as strong as you're weakest member'. He offers that at Second City, your ensemble is only as good as its ability to compensate for its weakest member. The difference is that in our case the weakness is put back on the ensemble rather than the individual." (33.7% progress of audio)
I kept pausing to write down good one liners like these:
"Change initiatives require real behavior changes. Before people can change behaviors, they have to change their attitudes."
"Sometimes being a good boss means getting out of the way."
"The best contemporary leaders are skilled at operating in an ever-shifting dynamic that allows them to shift as well, letting the most knowledgeable staff members take center stage when necessary and assuming more direct control of the environment when it's called for. Interestingly, studies show that these traits are more found in women than in men.... A study in leadership in 2011. Although males have a much higher percentage of the top leadership positions, out of the 15 functions of leadership effectiveness, females were rated more positively in 12 of them.... women outscore men in leadership effectiveness. This is due primarily to a change in leadership styles. Moving from a command and control style of leadership to a more collaborative model plays to women's strengths. Women are better listeners, better at building relationships, and more collaborative, and that makes them better adapted to the demands of modern leadership." (88.3% progress of audio)
"Anyone who is a parent or is in a relationship knows exactly what we are talking about. According to Forbes columnist Glenn Llopis, 85% of what we know we learn through listening and 45% of our workdays are spent listening. Yet humans only listen at a 25% comprehension rate. More alarming, only 2% of professionals have actually taken any formal training in listening skills." (91% progress of audio)
“We have a listening problem. In our world, in our country, in our places of business and in our homes. Why? Because we don't practice what we aren't taught. Sure, we are told to listen by our parents and our teachers, but despite the fact that listening is the primary means by which we learn, we've never been given the tools to develop our listening skills." (91.7% of audio progress)
I mean... everyone deals with people. We all need to listen and relate better with others in our families, our jobs, and everyday interactions. This book speaks to so many of those things in such a simple way. It came to me at the right time in my life and I know that I'll be re-reading it in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Thanks to San Diego County Library for the digital audio version via OverDrive.
[Audio: 7 hours, 19 minutes]
"Deep listening is essential to improvisation. It is also critical in many parts of business. From selling situations, to employee evaluations, to brain storming sessions and more. In other words, the care and feeding of our listening muscle is absolute priority for anyone who wishes to create, communicate, lead or manage effectively." (8% progress of audio)
"Sheldon Patinkin (sp?), who has worked as a director and teacher at Second City for more than fifty years, puts interesting spin on the axiom 'you're only as strong as you're weakest member'. He offers that at Second City, your ensemble is only as good as its ability to compensate for its weakest member. The difference is that in our case the weakness is put back on the ensemble rather than the individual." (33.7% progress of audio)
I kept pausing to write down good one liners like these:
"Change initiatives require real behavior changes. Before people can change behaviors, they have to change their attitudes."
"Sometimes being a good boss means getting out of the way."
"The best contemporary leaders are skilled at operating in an ever-shifting dynamic that allows them to shift as well, letting the most knowledgeable staff members take center stage when necessary and assuming more direct control of the environment when it's called for. Interestingly, studies show that these traits are more found in women than in men.... A study in leadership in 2011. Although males have a much higher percentage of the top leadership positions, out of the 15 functions of leadership effectiveness, females were rated more positively in 12 of them.... women outscore men in leadership effectiveness. This is due primarily to a change in leadership styles. Moving from a command and control style of leadership to a more collaborative model plays to women's strengths. Women are better listeners, better at building relationships, and more collaborative, and that makes them better adapted to the demands of modern leadership." (88.3% progress of audio)
"Anyone who is a parent or is in a relationship knows exactly what we are talking about. According to Forbes columnist Glenn Llopis, 85% of what we know we learn through listening and 45% of our workdays are spent listening. Yet humans only listen at a 25% comprehension rate. More alarming, only 2% of professionals have actually taken any formal training in listening skills." (91% progress of audio)
“We have a listening problem. In our world, in our country, in our places of business and in our homes. Why? Because we don't practice what we aren't taught. Sure, we are told to listen by our parents and our teachers, but despite the fact that listening is the primary means by which we learn, we've never been given the tools to develop our listening skills." (91.7% of audio progress)
I mean... everyone deals with people. We all need to listen and relate better with others in our families, our jobs, and everyday interactions. This book speaks to so many of those things in such a simple way. It came to me at the right time in my life and I know that I'll be re-reading it in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Thanks to San Diego County Library for the digital audio version via OverDrive.
[Audio: 7 hours, 19 minutes]
February 22, 2015
Summary: If you're looking for books on how to get your team to be more creative, this should likely be on the list. I know a lot of the elements to be true. Yes and vs. No but is all the difference in communication.
While the book is excellent for advice on brainstorming and collaboration, I think at times, it assumes always the best of intentions. In work settings there are an array of things that people are trying to accomplish. There is a section where they even discuss this a bit, i.e. the Yes and response that allows you to disagree. If you're working with people who already has an established common goal and good intentions, then yes and can be fabulous. I think if you've got a harrier situation than that, you have to marry when to use Yes and and other methods of salesmanship.
I docked it 2 stars, because at times I felt the book was slightly too self-aggrandizing. Yes they deserve praise for their work, and yes, much of the work is ubiquitous, it is also true that there are some basic assumptions involved. Leadership isn't always about getting along. Sometimes, there should be creative tension vs. simply everyone agreeing into a tide. Indeed, I find that the agreeing it a tide can be extremely alienating for people that have an introverted or slightly slower twitch thinking process, i.e. people that would not be good at improv.
All and all, a great book to read for perspective and ideas on how to communicate effectively.
While the book is excellent for advice on brainstorming and collaboration, I think at times, it assumes always the best of intentions. In work settings there are an array of things that people are trying to accomplish. There is a section where they even discuss this a bit, i.e. the Yes and response that allows you to disagree. If you're working with people who already has an established common goal and good intentions, then yes and can be fabulous. I think if you've got a harrier situation than that, you have to marry when to use Yes and and other methods of salesmanship.
I docked it 2 stars, because at times I felt the book was slightly too self-aggrandizing. Yes they deserve praise for their work, and yes, much of the work is ubiquitous, it is also true that there are some basic assumptions involved. Leadership isn't always about getting along. Sometimes, there should be creative tension vs. simply everyone agreeing into a tide. Indeed, I find that the agreeing it a tide can be extremely alienating for people that have an introverted or slightly slower twitch thinking process, i.e. people that would not be good at improv.
All and all, a great book to read for perspective and ideas on how to communicate effectively.
March 28, 2015
Given the association with Second City and improv comedy, I was expecting a more captivating book than this was. It was only so-so, and I skimmed through the 212 pages pretty quickly. There were a few interesting anecdotes, but overall, kind of a 'meh...' book. That is, until I got literally to the last two pages, that contain "One Last List", which is taped to the wall of the Second City office, and is the best part of the whole book (repeated below verbatim)!
Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don't check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word "no" from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you're sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Don't be [a jerk], and don't abide [jerks].
Be on time.
Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don't revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say "we" rather than "I" whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you're trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser.
Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don't check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word "no" from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you're sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Don't be [a jerk], and don't abide [jerks].
Be on time.
Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don't revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say "we" rather than "I" whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you're trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser.
July 11, 2018
This was a very different take on leadership, from the perspective of improvisation. I'd attended a session at PLA one year that had us do "Yes, And" exercises - it's quite a challenging mindset to put yourself into when you're used to saying NO most of the time. Reading this book helped me put it in perspective, and I think now I'm better equipped to embrace the philosophy. Not sure I'd survive the "don't say NO for an entire day" concept - I might explode the way one of the examples did in the book.
There was a lot of name-dropping, but I wrote it off to the authors' need to prove their credentials.
There was a lot of name-dropping, but I wrote it off to the authors' need to prove their credentials.
March 25, 2015
There are a lot of books out there about improv, but very few good ones on how to apply the principles in your work and career. This one fills that gap with an easy conversational style. I have worked with both Kelly and Tom at the Second City and they really know their stuff. If you want to help improve your work relationships, have more fun in your job, and be more creative and innovative to help advance you business and career, start here. Highly recommended.
March 22, 2016
It's good. Mine will be better ;-) ;-) ;-)
January 24, 2020
This book has so much good insight into how and why seven elements of improv can improve your business and build better teams. I just wish it didn't read so much like a marketing tool for Second City.
Some of the case studies presented seems highly relevant to the element being put forth, but others seemed shoehorned in, like "we should tell them about this thing but where does it go? Oh, just put it this section on listening." All that makes the book about half as long as it needs to be.
As a person who loves improv, I did learn some exercises and ways to make those more accessible outside of performers and relevant to all collaborative endeavors. That, of course, gives this book value, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. It's like a chip bag. You think you are going to get a lot, but most of it is just air.
Some of the case studies presented seems highly relevant to the element being put forth, but others seemed shoehorned in, like "we should tell them about this thing but where does it go? Oh, just put it this section on listening." All that makes the book about half as long as it needs to be.
As a person who loves improv, I did learn some exercises and ways to make those more accessible outside of performers and relevant to all collaborative endeavors. That, of course, gives this book value, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. It's like a chip bag. You think you are going to get a lot, but most of it is just air.
December 16, 2020
Doubles as a history of Second City with a dash of improv exercises. Definitely a lot of neat nuggets to use when approaching your team or if you're trying to get some new energy into the office.
Read it if you're looking to have an entertaining read instead of one of those run of the mill business books.
Read it if you're looking to have an entertaining read instead of one of those run of the mill business books.
November 29, 2020
This is a great book- if you'd like to hear how great Second City is and why they're successful. If you're hoping for more of a guide to how to work successfully as a team that improvises and builds together, you can probably just skip to the exercises in the back.
Read
August 7, 2025just been making the rounds on random books with low waits on Libby about improv - this is cute but doesn't really spark joy or whimsy to me - reads like a corporate sell instead? still fine and pretty short
November 7, 2020
Original, light, and intriguing. I especially like the list of improv exercises at the end of the book.
February 16, 2026
Learn a lot. Very repetitive.
October 16, 2023
Anoth review complained about the name-dropping. I liked the book for that reason. As someone who loves improv/scetch comedy - this book was a great vehicle for conveying important leadership and teamwork (ensemble) theories and practices.
April 10, 2015
It’s a great read if you are in business, interested and amazed by dynamics in theatre - or if you are taking improv classes and want to learn more how to apply improv skills to business, or life in general.
There are many similarities between comedy and business:
1) Both face an audience (investors)
2) Both must work in teams
3) Both must deliver some valuables to audience (investors)
4) Both face unexpected challenges as we move on.
Yet there are many differences between principles around improv and business:
1) Comedy doesn’t emphasize on plans going on stage; Business has concrete solid plans before pursuing a goal
2) Great comedy shows in great group dynamics, great company shows in great group culture
3) Great comedian has amazing listening skill and ability to commit to the moment. Great business leaders require great listening skills and focus on most important task at hand.
At the center of the book, the author asserts that many improv skills can benefit business, and she suggests that we use improv skills to form new kind of leadership that focus on listening, helping each other grow, and committing to trying new things, embracing failures, and learning from past mistakes.
Like any other skill, improv is a skill, leading a business a skill, listening is a skill. At the last chapter, the author emphasized on the skill that is at the core of all skills discussed - active listening: Listening is a muscle, one must deliberately practice it. We are professional listeners (that is, a big part of our profession is to listen to other people.
Some other notes:
We all need to “create something out of nothing”
We need to practice “active listen”, not “listen to repond”
We are afraid because:
- We need to carry the whole scene ourselves (we do not!)
- We need to say something funny (we do not!)
- The group relies on us (No! We are part of the whole group)
The right way to think about group and goals:
- Our goal is to “create something out of nothing”, for anything - create an intimate conversation between the couple; create a new project idea for the engineering team..
- "Yes, and” opens up the dialog for the group, it allows flows of thoughts continue.
- Trust the group (intimate couple, including yourself, a team you are in) to create a continuous something out of nothing
- Be genuine about your thoughts, open share feelings, active listen to the team, TRUST that the flow will continue.
Never let a great crisis go to waste - "YES AND” works magic when facing challenge.
Comedy is a great way to start an uncomfortable conversation
- Use comedy to address elephant in the room
- E.x corporate conduct training can be com edified.
Pay attention -> Change attitude -> Great team
Respect vs. Reverence
Reverence: awed respect
In a dynamic: be respectful but irreverent
To stay relevant, we must constantly challenge and reinvent ourselves.
Failure is great, the fear of failure is paralyzing.
Following the followers - if your goal is to maximize your interaction with a crowd (you want the crowd to benefit from your action), and say I’m speaking about a subject that I have little knowledge about, THERE IS awesome way to maximize the benefit for your audience - be an information coordinator, listen and ask insightful questions, and let the audience drive the content.
Listening is a muscle, one must deliberately practice it. We are professional listeners (that is, a big part of our profession is to listen to other people.
There are many similarities between comedy and business:
1) Both face an audience (investors)
2) Both must work in teams
3) Both must deliver some valuables to audience (investors)
4) Both face unexpected challenges as we move on.
Yet there are many differences between principles around improv and business:
1) Comedy doesn’t emphasize on plans going on stage; Business has concrete solid plans before pursuing a goal
2) Great comedy shows in great group dynamics, great company shows in great group culture
3) Great comedian has amazing listening skill and ability to commit to the moment. Great business leaders require great listening skills and focus on most important task at hand.
At the center of the book, the author asserts that many improv skills can benefit business, and she suggests that we use improv skills to form new kind of leadership that focus on listening, helping each other grow, and committing to trying new things, embracing failures, and learning from past mistakes.
Like any other skill, improv is a skill, leading a business a skill, listening is a skill. At the last chapter, the author emphasized on the skill that is at the core of all skills discussed - active listening: Listening is a muscle, one must deliberately practice it. We are professional listeners (that is, a big part of our profession is to listen to other people.
Some other notes:
We all need to “create something out of nothing”
We need to practice “active listen”, not “listen to repond”
We are afraid because:
- We need to carry the whole scene ourselves (we do not!)
- We need to say something funny (we do not!)
- The group relies on us (No! We are part of the whole group)
The right way to think about group and goals:
- Our goal is to “create something out of nothing”, for anything - create an intimate conversation between the couple; create a new project idea for the engineering team..
- "Yes, and” opens up the dialog for the group, it allows flows of thoughts continue.
- Trust the group (intimate couple, including yourself, a team you are in) to create a continuous something out of nothing
- Be genuine about your thoughts, open share feelings, active listen to the team, TRUST that the flow will continue.
Never let a great crisis go to waste - "YES AND” works magic when facing challenge.
Comedy is a great way to start an uncomfortable conversation
- Use comedy to address elephant in the room
- E.x corporate conduct training can be com edified.
Pay attention -> Change attitude -> Great team
Respect vs. Reverence
Reverence: awed respect
In a dynamic: be respectful but irreverent
To stay relevant, we must constantly challenge and reinvent ourselves.
Failure is great, the fear of failure is paralyzing.
Following the followers - if your goal is to maximize your interaction with a crowd (you want the crowd to benefit from your action), and say I’m speaking about a subject that I have little knowledge about, THERE IS awesome way to maximize the benefit for your audience - be an information coordinator, listen and ask insightful questions, and let the audience drive the content.
Listening is a muscle, one must deliberately practice it. We are professional listeners (that is, a big part of our profession is to listen to other people.
February 24, 2023
My fav quotes (not a review):
"The word team implies competition, which inherently suggests some external foe that the group is working against. Ensemble carries no such baggage;"
"In response to that reality, people struggling with big projects usually do what most rational people do: They keep their efforts close at hand and their spheres of approval small. We’ve heard this called the Saving Private Ryan effect, where people ultimately save their best efforts for the small circle of people closest to them. In the case of the movie, the soldiers sent out to find and rescue Private Ryan ultimately fought and died for each other, not for the more abstract ideas of freedom and democracy."
"Talk Without I helps people recognize how they filter information through their own perspectives when sharing ideas, feedback, or recommendations."
"To be honest, the axiom “surrender the need to be right” sounds more likely to be found in Buddhism, but it is also inherent in improvisation."
"We heartily endorse respect. We urge caution at reverence. Here’s the difference: Respect is like the rules of the road—it’s how we’re constantly not crashing into each other at intersections. Respect demands that you consider the other. Reverence, however, turns respect into a thing so perfect that it can’t be touched."
Game Alert: "One improv exercise we incorporate into change leadership sessions is Emotional Option, or Emo Op for those in the know. Emo Op is generally regarded as a performance game in improv circles, but it can be an interesting choice in training programs as well. It’s simple to do. People pair up and talk about anything at all. At various points, our instructor will shout out an emotion—angry! giddy! somber! worried!—and the pairs must continue their conversation in the tone of that emotion. Imagine how that might play out if you happen to be having a conversation about fly-fishing or popcorn. The key here is to teach individuals that the content of their speech will change simply by attaching an emotion to the way in which the words are delivered. They can be the exact same words, but they mean completely different things when said through the filters of different emotions."
"We love individual geniuses, and we agree with the late, great adman David Ogilvy, who once said, “Search the parks in all the cities, you’ll find no statues of committees.”"
"One tenet we take extremely seriously at The Second City is “always take care of your partner.”"
"Remember the improv axiom, bring a brick, not a cathedral? This adage suggests that the best improvisers don’t feel compelled to bring wholly formed, finished ideas into an improvised scene."
Game Alert: "One example of a great listening skills exercise is Last Word Response. In this exercise, we pair people up and instruct them to have a conversation about anything at all, business-related or not. The only catch is that participants must begin whatever they say with the last word spoken by their partner. In practice, it might sound something like this: PERSON 1 Boy, I love hot summer days. Can’t wait to go for a run and jump into the pool after work. PERSON 2 Work has been hard lately. I’m really struggling to connect with my new boss."
"We took account executives Jen and Tim and creative director Nate through a sequence called “Touch to Talk and Eye Contact to Speak.” They weren’t allowed to talk unless they made physical or strong eye contact with their partner. Over a few minutes, this simple exercise required Jen, Tim, and Nate to form a specific physical connection to each other before they could communicate."
Game Alert: "We followed that with a Gibberish Game. Jen and Tim both spoke in complete gibberish—made-up words and sounds—while Nate was tasked with “translating” what they said to the others in the room."
Game Alert: "1. EXERCISE: EXPOSURE, SETUP: Divide your group into two lines, facing each other, about ten feet apart. Have the two groups stand looking at each other. Give this some time, and once there is noticeable discomfort, have them look somewhere else in the room, to complete a counting task (e.g., bricks on the wall, ceiling tiles, etc.)."
Game Alert: "3. EXERCISE: TALK WITHOUT I,"
Game Alert: "4. EXERCISE: MIRROR. SETUP: Split participants up into pairs facing each other. Assign one person the job to lead by making small movements with her face and body; the other person is to mirror every action of the first. Then have the pair switch leaders. Finally, see if they can mirror each other when no one is assigned to lead."
"5. EXERCISE: GIVE AND TAKE, SETUP: Have your group spread out in the room. Starting with one person, ask them to “give focus” to another team member, using a simple physical cue (e.g., looking them in the eye, pointing at them, or touching them on the shoulder). Next, ask the group to “take focus” in the same manner (e.g., by standing in front of them or waving their arms while standing next to them). Finally, challenge the group to do it all—give focus, then take focus, then give it back."
"EXERCISE: TAKE THAT BACK, SETUP: Players improvise a scene based on a suggestion. Each time the leader rings a bell the actor speaking must replace his last sentence, phrase, or word with a different one and continue the scene from there. For example: PLAYER I have a dog. DING! PLAYER I have a cat. DING! PLAYER I have a rash."
Large group Game Alert: "EXERCISE: WHO’S THE LEADER? SETUP: Have the group stand in a circle, with one member in the middle—eyes closed. The rest of the group then silently chooses one member to be the leader, whose body language and movements they slowly and silently begin to mimic. When called to do so, the member in the middle opens her eyes and tries to figure out who in the circle is the leader."
Large group Game Alert: "EXERCISE: SILENT ORGANIZATION SETUP: Have the group line up according to age, oldest to youngest. To do this, the players are allowed to communicate, as long as they don’t use words—they can use only eye contact, noises, gestures, etc. Have them repeat the exercise, organizing members by increasingly abstract characteristics (most pessimistic to sunniest outlook; fewest siblings to most numerous, etc.)."
Game Alert: "EXERCISE: STRING OF PEARLS, SETUP: Have the group stand in a line facing forward. The person at one end of the line is given the first sentence of a story, and the person at the other end, the last sentence."
Game Alert: "EXERCISE: REPETITION, SETUP: Break your group into pairs. Have each pair sit or stand, facing each other. Have the two begin a conversation, each speaking one sentence at a time. The first person initiates with any random line of dialogue, but before her partner can answer, he must repeat the line she just said. This continues throughout the exercise. For example: PERSON 1 This new boss really knows how to dress. PERSON 2 This new boss really knows how to dress. She’s putting my pajama jeans to shame."
"The word team implies competition, which inherently suggests some external foe that the group is working against. Ensemble carries no such baggage;"
"In response to that reality, people struggling with big projects usually do what most rational people do: They keep their efforts close at hand and their spheres of approval small. We’ve heard this called the Saving Private Ryan effect, where people ultimately save their best efforts for the small circle of people closest to them. In the case of the movie, the soldiers sent out to find and rescue Private Ryan ultimately fought and died for each other, not for the more abstract ideas of freedom and democracy."
"Talk Without I helps people recognize how they filter information through their own perspectives when sharing ideas, feedback, or recommendations."
"To be honest, the axiom “surrender the need to be right” sounds more likely to be found in Buddhism, but it is also inherent in improvisation."
"We heartily endorse respect. We urge caution at reverence. Here’s the difference: Respect is like the rules of the road—it’s how we’re constantly not crashing into each other at intersections. Respect demands that you consider the other. Reverence, however, turns respect into a thing so perfect that it can’t be touched."
Game Alert: "One improv exercise we incorporate into change leadership sessions is Emotional Option, or Emo Op for those in the know. Emo Op is generally regarded as a performance game in improv circles, but it can be an interesting choice in training programs as well. It’s simple to do. People pair up and talk about anything at all. At various points, our instructor will shout out an emotion—angry! giddy! somber! worried!—and the pairs must continue their conversation in the tone of that emotion. Imagine how that might play out if you happen to be having a conversation about fly-fishing or popcorn. The key here is to teach individuals that the content of their speech will change simply by attaching an emotion to the way in which the words are delivered. They can be the exact same words, but they mean completely different things when said through the filters of different emotions."
"We love individual geniuses, and we agree with the late, great adman David Ogilvy, who once said, “Search the parks in all the cities, you’ll find no statues of committees.”"
"One tenet we take extremely seriously at The Second City is “always take care of your partner.”"
"Remember the improv axiom, bring a brick, not a cathedral? This adage suggests that the best improvisers don’t feel compelled to bring wholly formed, finished ideas into an improvised scene."
Game Alert: "One example of a great listening skills exercise is Last Word Response. In this exercise, we pair people up and instruct them to have a conversation about anything at all, business-related or not. The only catch is that participants must begin whatever they say with the last word spoken by their partner. In practice, it might sound something like this: PERSON 1 Boy, I love hot summer days. Can’t wait to go for a run and jump into the pool after work. PERSON 2 Work has been hard lately. I’m really struggling to connect with my new boss."
"We took account executives Jen and Tim and creative director Nate through a sequence called “Touch to Talk and Eye Contact to Speak.” They weren’t allowed to talk unless they made physical or strong eye contact with their partner. Over a few minutes, this simple exercise required Jen, Tim, and Nate to form a specific physical connection to each other before they could communicate."
Game Alert: "We followed that with a Gibberish Game. Jen and Tim both spoke in complete gibberish—made-up words and sounds—while Nate was tasked with “translating” what they said to the others in the room."
Game Alert: "1. EXERCISE: EXPOSURE, SETUP: Divide your group into two lines, facing each other, about ten feet apart. Have the two groups stand looking at each other. Give this some time, and once there is noticeable discomfort, have them look somewhere else in the room, to complete a counting task (e.g., bricks on the wall, ceiling tiles, etc.)."
Game Alert: "3. EXERCISE: TALK WITHOUT I,"
Game Alert: "4. EXERCISE: MIRROR. SETUP: Split participants up into pairs facing each other. Assign one person the job to lead by making small movements with her face and body; the other person is to mirror every action of the first. Then have the pair switch leaders. Finally, see if they can mirror each other when no one is assigned to lead."
"5. EXERCISE: GIVE AND TAKE, SETUP: Have your group spread out in the room. Starting with one person, ask them to “give focus” to another team member, using a simple physical cue (e.g., looking them in the eye, pointing at them, or touching them on the shoulder). Next, ask the group to “take focus” in the same manner (e.g., by standing in front of them or waving their arms while standing next to them). Finally, challenge the group to do it all—give focus, then take focus, then give it back."
"EXERCISE: TAKE THAT BACK, SETUP: Players improvise a scene based on a suggestion. Each time the leader rings a bell the actor speaking must replace his last sentence, phrase, or word with a different one and continue the scene from there. For example: PLAYER I have a dog. DING! PLAYER I have a cat. DING! PLAYER I have a rash."
Large group Game Alert: "EXERCISE: WHO’S THE LEADER? SETUP: Have the group stand in a circle, with one member in the middle—eyes closed. The rest of the group then silently chooses one member to be the leader, whose body language and movements they slowly and silently begin to mimic. When called to do so, the member in the middle opens her eyes and tries to figure out who in the circle is the leader."
Large group Game Alert: "EXERCISE: SILENT ORGANIZATION SETUP: Have the group line up according to age, oldest to youngest. To do this, the players are allowed to communicate, as long as they don’t use words—they can use only eye contact, noises, gestures, etc. Have them repeat the exercise, organizing members by increasingly abstract characteristics (most pessimistic to sunniest outlook; fewest siblings to most numerous, etc.)."
Game Alert: "EXERCISE: STRING OF PEARLS, SETUP: Have the group stand in a line facing forward. The person at one end of the line is given the first sentence of a story, and the person at the other end, the last sentence."
Game Alert: "EXERCISE: REPETITION, SETUP: Break your group into pairs. Have each pair sit or stand, facing each other. Have the two begin a conversation, each speaking one sentence at a time. The first person initiates with any random line of dialogue, but before her partner can answer, he must repeat the line she just said. This continues throughout the exercise. For example: PERSON 1 This new boss really knows how to dress. PERSON 2 This new boss really knows how to dress. She’s putting my pajama jeans to shame."
Read
January 24, 2023I once tried to tell a former boss about a difficult day in my life. But before I could speak, she interrupted to tell me her own story. About being in an airport and falling down an escalator. I know exactly how you feel, she said after she finished her story. But she didn’t. Because she didn’t listen long enough to let me speak.
According to Forbes columnist Glenn Lopis, “85 percent of what we know we learn through listening, and 45 percent of our workdays are spent listening, yet humans only listen at a 25 percent comprehension rate.”
Instead of listening to learn, we listen to respond. We don’t fully hear what the other person is saying because we are too busy rehearsing what we will say.
Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton quote Lopis in their book, Yes, And: Lessons From The Second City, which they wrote because they believe that “our work and our lives are so much better when we act like improvisers.” The Second City is the Chicago theater that has provided a training ground for comedians since 1959. Famous alums include Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Steve Carell.
In Yes, And, Leonard and Yorton write that improv training can increase individuals’ capacity for innovation, their creativity, and their confidence. The key to being good at improv is to listen. The key to becoming a better listener is through the exercise Yes, And.
In Yes, And, one person makes up a statement: "It sure is cold in here.” Their partner builds on that statement: “I bet we could make a fire if we could just find some wood.” The goal is to say anything that your partner can use to move the story along: “Maybe we can make a fire with this handful of confetti.” The contribution can be completely nonsensical as long as it keeps the dialogue flowing.
The worst thing you can do in Yes, And is to negate your partner’s contribution. To respond to “It sure is cold in here” by saying “But I’m not cold.” Yes, And is like a relay race. You’ve got to take the stick, run with it, and give it to the next person.
Relay races provide a degree of freedom. You try your best when you’ve got the stick, but you’re not responsible for the whole game. You get to be the focus while you are running, but once you pass off the stick, you can catch your breath. All team members get time in and out of the spotlight. Everyone gets to contribute.
Being willing to share the spotlight and collaborate is a key to innovation. Companies that believe that good ideas can come only from the top will fail to grow.
”Creativity cannot thrive in a workplace that clings to the status quo. Your most innovative people—the ones who push boundaries and ask a lot of questions—are going to leave, and your company will be unable to withstand the uncertain and rapidly changing world in which we live,” Leonard and Horton write.
Employee suggestion boxes and ideation sessions are ways to encourage collaboration. Invite all staff members to dream big and write their “what ifs” on sticky notes. Sort through the notes and organize them until themes emerge. Prioritize the themes and decide which ideas to pursue and when and how to pursue them.
Not every idea will be a good one, but consistently saying “no” to ideas as a way to minimize risk and the possibility of failure will create an environment where employees are unwilling to share. “The biggest threat to creativity is fear,” write Leonard and Horton.
Saying “no” too often “exacts a high cost in the form of ideas that are never offered, new approaches that are shut down before that have a chance, and teams that never reach their full potential because people hold back. It may be hard . . . to quantify the adverse impacts of a no culture, but it comes out . . . [through] high customer dissatisfaction and a loss of employee engagement in their work and their companies.”
Some bosses may resist the idea of encouraging “failure” because the concept has an all or nothing ring to it. The much-hyped “fail fast and often” mantra of the tech world suggests a devil-may-care attitude that is not appropriate for a lot of situations. Some failures lead to serious consequences. In some cases, you do need to cut your losses and try a new path.
Improv offers a way to reframe failure. Instead of naming “failure” as your goal when you try a new idea, why don’t you strive for a “small win,” a term popularized by Karl Weick in the 1984 article, “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems”? By trying innovation on a smaller scale, we can achieve small wins that we can use to build bigger, more sustainable, and scalable successes.
Consider Leonard and Horton’s description of taking a chance during improvisation to “ ‘fall into the crack in the game,’ a term coined by Second City alum and teacher Rick Thomas. It’s that moment onstage when a mistake happens—the whole audience knows it, and most of the actors onstage know it. But by acknowledging the mistake and incorporating it into the narrative, something new and unexpected happens that makes the audience go wild.”
In life as in business, you often have to make things up as you go along, to figure things out on the fly. The individuals who are most likely to succeed are those who are willing to be creative, to communicate, and to collaborate—what Leonard and Yorton describe as the three pillars of great improv.
Communication and collaboration are necessary for any successful relationship—whether it’s personal or professional. Both partners need to be willing to give and take something and to be committed to the process.
They need to listen deeply, not just talk. To realize that not all ideas will succeed, but fear of trying will guarantee failure. To know that even when you fall into a crack, you may be able to create something great as long as you keep going.
According to Forbes columnist Glenn Lopis, “85 percent of what we know we learn through listening, and 45 percent of our workdays are spent listening, yet humans only listen at a 25 percent comprehension rate.”
Instead of listening to learn, we listen to respond. We don’t fully hear what the other person is saying because we are too busy rehearsing what we will say.
Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton quote Lopis in their book, Yes, And: Lessons From The Second City, which they wrote because they believe that “our work and our lives are so much better when we act like improvisers.” The Second City is the Chicago theater that has provided a training ground for comedians since 1959. Famous alums include Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Steve Carell.
In Yes, And, Leonard and Yorton write that improv training can increase individuals’ capacity for innovation, their creativity, and their confidence. The key to being good at improv is to listen. The key to becoming a better listener is through the exercise Yes, And.
In Yes, And, one person makes up a statement: "It sure is cold in here.” Their partner builds on that statement: “I bet we could make a fire if we could just find some wood.” The goal is to say anything that your partner can use to move the story along: “Maybe we can make a fire with this handful of confetti.” The contribution can be completely nonsensical as long as it keeps the dialogue flowing.
The worst thing you can do in Yes, And is to negate your partner’s contribution. To respond to “It sure is cold in here” by saying “But I’m not cold.” Yes, And is like a relay race. You’ve got to take the stick, run with it, and give it to the next person.
Relay races provide a degree of freedom. You try your best when you’ve got the stick, but you’re not responsible for the whole game. You get to be the focus while you are running, but once you pass off the stick, you can catch your breath. All team members get time in and out of the spotlight. Everyone gets to contribute.
Being willing to share the spotlight and collaborate is a key to innovation. Companies that believe that good ideas can come only from the top will fail to grow.
”Creativity cannot thrive in a workplace that clings to the status quo. Your most innovative people—the ones who push boundaries and ask a lot of questions—are going to leave, and your company will be unable to withstand the uncertain and rapidly changing world in which we live,” Leonard and Horton write.
Employee suggestion boxes and ideation sessions are ways to encourage collaboration. Invite all staff members to dream big and write their “what ifs” on sticky notes. Sort through the notes and organize them until themes emerge. Prioritize the themes and decide which ideas to pursue and when and how to pursue them.
Not every idea will be a good one, but consistently saying “no” to ideas as a way to minimize risk and the possibility of failure will create an environment where employees are unwilling to share. “The biggest threat to creativity is fear,” write Leonard and Horton.
Saying “no” too often “exacts a high cost in the form of ideas that are never offered, new approaches that are shut down before that have a chance, and teams that never reach their full potential because people hold back. It may be hard . . . to quantify the adverse impacts of a no culture, but it comes out . . . [through] high customer dissatisfaction and a loss of employee engagement in their work and their companies.”
Some bosses may resist the idea of encouraging “failure” because the concept has an all or nothing ring to it. The much-hyped “fail fast and often” mantra of the tech world suggests a devil-may-care attitude that is not appropriate for a lot of situations. Some failures lead to serious consequences. In some cases, you do need to cut your losses and try a new path.
Improv offers a way to reframe failure. Instead of naming “failure” as your goal when you try a new idea, why don’t you strive for a “small win,” a term popularized by Karl Weick in the 1984 article, “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems”? By trying innovation on a smaller scale, we can achieve small wins that we can use to build bigger, more sustainable, and scalable successes.
Consider Leonard and Horton’s description of taking a chance during improvisation to “ ‘fall into the crack in the game,’ a term coined by Second City alum and teacher Rick Thomas. It’s that moment onstage when a mistake happens—the whole audience knows it, and most of the actors onstage know it. But by acknowledging the mistake and incorporating it into the narrative, something new and unexpected happens that makes the audience go wild.”
In life as in business, you often have to make things up as you go along, to figure things out on the fly. The individuals who are most likely to succeed are those who are willing to be creative, to communicate, and to collaborate—what Leonard and Yorton describe as the three pillars of great improv.
Communication and collaboration are necessary for any successful relationship—whether it’s personal or professional. Both partners need to be willing to give and take something and to be committed to the process.
They need to listen deeply, not just talk. To realize that not all ideas will succeed, but fear of trying will guarantee failure. To know that even when you fall into a crack, you may be able to create something great as long as you keep going.
January 8, 2022
The authors provide practical advice on how to improve communication and listening skills and productivity in a corporate environment. Their ideas are developed from training given to comedians in on-stage improvisation; this context may sound strange, originally, but it makes a huge amount of sense. To boot the new skills are taught in a fun and non-threatening way. Many contexts can benefit from this approach.
Die basiese grondslag waarop hierdie boek berus, is die luister- en reaksievaardighede wat komediante benodig om suksesvol te kan improviseer op die verhoog. Dit mag vreemd voorkom aan die begin, maar die moontlikhede wat ontsluit word, sal vele kontekste baat. Ek wens ...
Die basiese grondslag waarop hierdie boek berus, is die luister- en reaksievaardighede wat komediante benodig om suksesvol te kan improviseer op die verhoog. Dit mag vreemd voorkom aan die begin, maar die moontlikhede wat ontsluit word, sal vele kontekste baat. Ek wens ...
June 7, 2021
I love improv. I even attended a few improv workshops and they were definitely helpful both for my management skills and for simply adding more creativity to my life.
Unfortunately, I need to say that this book sucks :( It fails to be a good book about business (re-using simple and generic business stories), it fails to be a good history book about The Second City (and they are a great theatre for sire) and it also fails to be a good improv manual. So it's better if you go and try some improv for yourself then read that many disconnected words.
Unfortunately, I need to say that this book sucks :( It fails to be a good book about business (re-using simple and generic business stories), it fails to be a good history book about The Second City (and they are a great theatre for sire) and it also fails to be a good improv manual. So it's better if you go and try some improv for yourself then read that many disconnected words.
January 8, 2017
Good read for leaders and team members. I felt convicted multiple times throughout this read. This one touches on several essential skills for leaders. From active listening, agility, releasing control, to preparation and environment.
Leaders of all tenure and experience level should pick this one up. You will find good reminders on what you may have already learned and new perspective on your role.
Leaders of all tenure and experience level should pick this one up. You will find good reminders on what you may have already learned and new perspective on your role.
August 1, 2018
I could not finish this book. I was curious about the tips, suggestions and instructions but they’ve surrounded that information with stories all with the same point. It gets boring very quickly. It feels like the actual useful information would only take up 50 pages so they’ve just filled in the rest with useless stories.
August 29, 2016
Many of the points raised in this book are common sense, but sometimes it's valuable to have common sense advice pulled together in a succinct, funny book like this!
October 15, 2015
Many parts read a bit too prescriptive for corporate businesses, and read like a manual, but overall great insights into the imrov values and psychology. Here are some good quotes:
p.9 – The founders of The Second City – Paul Sils, Bernie Sahlins, and Howard Alk, all University of Chicago graduates – approached their work on two important fronts. They created a new form for the comic arts: ensemble based and rooted in the improvisational games that Sill’s mother, Viola Spolin, taught as a social worker for a WPA-sponsored program on Chicago’s South Side, designed to help immigrant children assimilate into their new culture. At the same time, in terms of content, these artists used comedy as a way to challenge the status quo. The combined both to react directly to the Eisenhower era – which they saw as conformist, intellectually bereft, and morally bankrupt – often shocking audiences in the process. The comedy they were creating was rooted in truth, rather than broad parody or exaggeration; the behavior they portrayed onstage was real and recognizable.
p.12 – Professional success often rests on the same pillars that form the foundation of great comedy improv: Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.
p.13-18 – Seven elements of improv:
1. Yes, And – Creative breakthroughs occur in environments where ideas are not just fully explored, but heightened and stretched to levels that might seem absurd at first. That is where the nest comedy comes from, and that’s where invention is realized. It’s a mantra to apply at every level of your work. Work cultures that embrace Yes, And are more inventive, quicker to solve problems, and more likely to have engaged employees than organizations where ideas are judged, criticized, and rejected too quickly. With Yes, And, you don’t have to act on every idea, but you do have to give every idea a chance to be acted on.
2. Ensemble – Unfortunately, shockingly little attention is paid to building, maintaining, and developing ensembles. The consequences of that oversight are all around us, from the conference room full of smart people more interested in showing off their brain power than actually solving a problem, to the leader who takes credit for success and dodges accountability for failure, to the individual who whitewashes all his or her problems.
3. Co-Creation
4. Authenticity
5. Failure – It’s that moment on stage when a mistake happens – the whole audience knows it, and most of the actors onstage know it. But by acknowledging the mistake and incorporating it into the narrative, something new and unexpected happens that makes the audience go wild. Too often we are told that failure is not an option. But the opposite is true. It’s vital to give failure a role in our process. The biggest threat to creativity is fear, especially the fear of failure. By deflating the negative power of failure, you erode fear and allow creativity to flourish.
6. Follow the Follower – The ability to shift status within the group dynamic is an art – and it doesn’t come easily.
7. Listening – Many of us believe that we are good listeners, but there is a huge difference between listening to understand and listening while waiting for the chance to respond. One enriches and broadens our perspective; the other feeds our need to be right and in control of the conversation.
p.18 – At The Second City, we do not teach you how to be funny. You don’t learn jokes or one-liners. Rather, your learn to tap into the part of your brain that so often censors the truth for fear of being judged. When people no longer feel limited to saying what is right or polite – when they are given freedom to express themselves in public, without inhibition or fear – that’s when the funny happens.
p.19 – To put it simply, comedy provides us a safe place to speak and hear the truth.
p.22 – What improvisation does, in its most simple form, is to take the focus off ourselves and allow us to dial down our personal judgment. When we’re concentrating hard and fully present in the moment, there’s no room for self-consciousness or shaky nerves. All our energy goes into the task at hand.
p.23 – As Dr. Mark Pfeffer, a psychotherapist and director of the Panic/Anxiety Recovery Center in Chicago explains, “Every time you learn to be unafraid, your brain changes. [Improv is] the quickest way to get to the neural pathway change, because it puts [people] in a situation where they’re facing their fears.”
Professional success requires the ability to create something out of nothing, which is in many ways at the heart of what it means to improvise.
p.26 – To build a Yes, And culture, you have to model Yes, And behavior. You have to be supportive and committed to building on people’s individual contributions.
p.51 – Team: a number of people forming one of the sides in a game or contest.
Ensemble: All the parts of a thing taken together, so that each part is considered only in relation to the whole.
The word team implies competition, which inherently suggests some external foe that the group is working against. Ensemble carries no such baggage; it is a thing unto itself, an entity that is only its true self when its members are performing as one.
p.52 – Teams have starters and bench players; there is an absolute hierarchy in play that any parent of the twelfth man on a high school basketball team can tell you conveys a clear message that some of the team members matter and some simply do not. Ensembles, on the other hand, may have a first chair, second chair, and third chair, but all those chairs are on the stage and they play in almost every moment.
p.86 – While individuals can come up with great ideas, ensembles that are willing to co-create are ultimately better and more consistent at finding the idea.
p.88 – Fear does not inspire elegant creative thinking; it inspires knee-jerk, path-of-least-resistance ideas. No organization or business will ever gain creative advantage when governed by fear.
p.89 – The best improvisers find a way to put their fear aside. They improvise freely and loosely; they make smart and defined choices; they take care of their scene partners and they let their unique sense of humor shine through in all the choices they make onstage.
p.95 – Another symptom of fear is to freeze and void doing anything resembling taking a position. Instead, fearful people waffle: “I don’t know.” “It could be, but I’m not sure.” “If you say so.” “Maybe.” Waffling is a predominant activity of the fearful improviser that it’s become a penalty in a variety of improvisational games. Waffling is merely a delaying tactic, something you do when you are too afraid to leap into the unknown. Unfortunately, waffling is an all-too-common refuge for people put in the position to make decision, but who lack the confidence to act. In business, not making a decision is almost worse than making the wrong decision. The secret to building confidence is practice.
p.114 – Comedy is tragedy plus time.
Repeated exposure to something negative results in distancing, which explains the gallows humor of soldiers in combat and doctors in emergency rooms (or colleagues in the midst of a workplace debacle).
p.124 – Respect demands that you consider the other. Reverence turns respect into a thing so perfect that it can’t be touched. Respect allows for dialogue between individuals who may think and feel differently, thus creating a path for potential understanding and change. Reverence makes idolatry of individuals and institutions. It speaks to us rather than with us. Reverence is the enemy of change.
p.125 – At the heart of the best satire is the ability to maintain a respectful disposition while being earnestly irreverent. That’s how it makes people think, which opens up the possibility for change. People don’t hear you when they don’t feel respected.
We tear down, but we also build back up to create something better, more magical and more insightful than what existed before.
p.131 – if you’re hoping to change and innovate, you need to be able and willing to tear at the existing power base – to risk offending those who are inextricably married to the way things are currently done – and have the confidence and moxie to build up something completely new in its place (and eventually have the fortitude to cope when the next innovator comes along and does the same thing to you).
Being authentic while toeing the line between respect and irreverence isn’t easy, and it’s probably why most people just assume that change agents and innovators are born with a special gene that facilitates their success. But the reality is, you can train people to become better innovators and agents of change.
p.138 – The inevitability of change in business and in life simply means that we will be continually subject to all sorts of challenges and dilemmas. But comedy makes change more manageable, opening the door for all kinds of conversations. Once that door is open, an expertise in improvisation can make that conversation a whole lot easier to have.
p.145 – To improvise is to create something out of nothing, in the moment.
p.152 – While our society is quick to judge others and criticize failures, we also are willing to reward those who jump back in the saddle after epic failures.
p.153 – When those in charge demystify failure, it opens up the opportunity for increased creative output among individuals who no longer feel the need to simply play it safe.
Ensembles speed up the creation process, they generate more good material, they’re flexible, they actually enable the growth of individual stars… and most important, they provide the creative safety net that allows individual cast members to risk and flourish.
One tenet we take extremely seriously is “always take care of your partner.” It means that we take great care to support our cast members, not judge them. It means we work together, onstage and off. Onstage, it also means that you don’t let your fellow actor hanging – don’t let him fail if you can help it. In corporate culture, it means that you need to support your employees as whole individuals, not widgets.
p.159 – No one can feel free to fail – or conversely, feel free to take risks – if they think they are being judged, wither by their colleagues or their supervisors.
p.163 – Fail early and often, and you’ll have a much better chance of achieving the ultimate goal – a perfect final product. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
p.186 – A leader’s role is recognizing the shift from a hierarchical leadership model to a flat one; knowing when to lead, when to follow, and when to just get out of the way; and trusting your teams and talking to your audience – all while setting the context for both internal and external communication. And the role has changed quite a bit over the years.
p.188 – Here are some of the areas in which women scored higher than men:
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Inspires and motivates Others
• Develops Others
• Champions Change
• Communicates Powerfully and Prolifically
• Practices Self-Development
p.9 – The founders of The Second City – Paul Sils, Bernie Sahlins, and Howard Alk, all University of Chicago graduates – approached their work on two important fronts. They created a new form for the comic arts: ensemble based and rooted in the improvisational games that Sill’s mother, Viola Spolin, taught as a social worker for a WPA-sponsored program on Chicago’s South Side, designed to help immigrant children assimilate into their new culture. At the same time, in terms of content, these artists used comedy as a way to challenge the status quo. The combined both to react directly to the Eisenhower era – which they saw as conformist, intellectually bereft, and morally bankrupt – often shocking audiences in the process. The comedy they were creating was rooted in truth, rather than broad parody or exaggeration; the behavior they portrayed onstage was real and recognizable.
p.12 – Professional success often rests on the same pillars that form the foundation of great comedy improv: Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.
p.13-18 – Seven elements of improv:
1. Yes, And – Creative breakthroughs occur in environments where ideas are not just fully explored, but heightened and stretched to levels that might seem absurd at first. That is where the nest comedy comes from, and that’s where invention is realized. It’s a mantra to apply at every level of your work. Work cultures that embrace Yes, And are more inventive, quicker to solve problems, and more likely to have engaged employees than organizations where ideas are judged, criticized, and rejected too quickly. With Yes, And, you don’t have to act on every idea, but you do have to give every idea a chance to be acted on.
2. Ensemble – Unfortunately, shockingly little attention is paid to building, maintaining, and developing ensembles. The consequences of that oversight are all around us, from the conference room full of smart people more interested in showing off their brain power than actually solving a problem, to the leader who takes credit for success and dodges accountability for failure, to the individual who whitewashes all his or her problems.
3. Co-Creation
4. Authenticity
5. Failure – It’s that moment on stage when a mistake happens – the whole audience knows it, and most of the actors onstage know it. But by acknowledging the mistake and incorporating it into the narrative, something new and unexpected happens that makes the audience go wild. Too often we are told that failure is not an option. But the opposite is true. It’s vital to give failure a role in our process. The biggest threat to creativity is fear, especially the fear of failure. By deflating the negative power of failure, you erode fear and allow creativity to flourish.
6. Follow the Follower – The ability to shift status within the group dynamic is an art – and it doesn’t come easily.
7. Listening – Many of us believe that we are good listeners, but there is a huge difference between listening to understand and listening while waiting for the chance to respond. One enriches and broadens our perspective; the other feeds our need to be right and in control of the conversation.
p.18 – At The Second City, we do not teach you how to be funny. You don’t learn jokes or one-liners. Rather, your learn to tap into the part of your brain that so often censors the truth for fear of being judged. When people no longer feel limited to saying what is right or polite – when they are given freedom to express themselves in public, without inhibition or fear – that’s when the funny happens.
p.19 – To put it simply, comedy provides us a safe place to speak and hear the truth.
p.22 – What improvisation does, in its most simple form, is to take the focus off ourselves and allow us to dial down our personal judgment. When we’re concentrating hard and fully present in the moment, there’s no room for self-consciousness or shaky nerves. All our energy goes into the task at hand.
p.23 – As Dr. Mark Pfeffer, a psychotherapist and director of the Panic/Anxiety Recovery Center in Chicago explains, “Every time you learn to be unafraid, your brain changes. [Improv is] the quickest way to get to the neural pathway change, because it puts [people] in a situation where they’re facing their fears.”
Professional success requires the ability to create something out of nothing, which is in many ways at the heart of what it means to improvise.
p.26 – To build a Yes, And culture, you have to model Yes, And behavior. You have to be supportive and committed to building on people’s individual contributions.
p.51 – Team: a number of people forming one of the sides in a game or contest.
Ensemble: All the parts of a thing taken together, so that each part is considered only in relation to the whole.
The word team implies competition, which inherently suggests some external foe that the group is working against. Ensemble carries no such baggage; it is a thing unto itself, an entity that is only its true self when its members are performing as one.
p.52 – Teams have starters and bench players; there is an absolute hierarchy in play that any parent of the twelfth man on a high school basketball team can tell you conveys a clear message that some of the team members matter and some simply do not. Ensembles, on the other hand, may have a first chair, second chair, and third chair, but all those chairs are on the stage and they play in almost every moment.
p.86 – While individuals can come up with great ideas, ensembles that are willing to co-create are ultimately better and more consistent at finding the idea.
p.88 – Fear does not inspire elegant creative thinking; it inspires knee-jerk, path-of-least-resistance ideas. No organization or business will ever gain creative advantage when governed by fear.
p.89 – The best improvisers find a way to put their fear aside. They improvise freely and loosely; they make smart and defined choices; they take care of their scene partners and they let their unique sense of humor shine through in all the choices they make onstage.
p.95 – Another symptom of fear is to freeze and void doing anything resembling taking a position. Instead, fearful people waffle: “I don’t know.” “It could be, but I’m not sure.” “If you say so.” “Maybe.” Waffling is a predominant activity of the fearful improviser that it’s become a penalty in a variety of improvisational games. Waffling is merely a delaying tactic, something you do when you are too afraid to leap into the unknown. Unfortunately, waffling is an all-too-common refuge for people put in the position to make decision, but who lack the confidence to act. In business, not making a decision is almost worse than making the wrong decision. The secret to building confidence is practice.
p.114 – Comedy is tragedy plus time.
Repeated exposure to something negative results in distancing, which explains the gallows humor of soldiers in combat and doctors in emergency rooms (or colleagues in the midst of a workplace debacle).
p.124 – Respect demands that you consider the other. Reverence turns respect into a thing so perfect that it can’t be touched. Respect allows for dialogue between individuals who may think and feel differently, thus creating a path for potential understanding and change. Reverence makes idolatry of individuals and institutions. It speaks to us rather than with us. Reverence is the enemy of change.
p.125 – At the heart of the best satire is the ability to maintain a respectful disposition while being earnestly irreverent. That’s how it makes people think, which opens up the possibility for change. People don’t hear you when they don’t feel respected.
We tear down, but we also build back up to create something better, more magical and more insightful than what existed before.
p.131 – if you’re hoping to change and innovate, you need to be able and willing to tear at the existing power base – to risk offending those who are inextricably married to the way things are currently done – and have the confidence and moxie to build up something completely new in its place (and eventually have the fortitude to cope when the next innovator comes along and does the same thing to you).
Being authentic while toeing the line between respect and irreverence isn’t easy, and it’s probably why most people just assume that change agents and innovators are born with a special gene that facilitates their success. But the reality is, you can train people to become better innovators and agents of change.
p.138 – The inevitability of change in business and in life simply means that we will be continually subject to all sorts of challenges and dilemmas. But comedy makes change more manageable, opening the door for all kinds of conversations. Once that door is open, an expertise in improvisation can make that conversation a whole lot easier to have.
p.145 – To improvise is to create something out of nothing, in the moment.
p.152 – While our society is quick to judge others and criticize failures, we also are willing to reward those who jump back in the saddle after epic failures.
p.153 – When those in charge demystify failure, it opens up the opportunity for increased creative output among individuals who no longer feel the need to simply play it safe.
Ensembles speed up the creation process, they generate more good material, they’re flexible, they actually enable the growth of individual stars… and most important, they provide the creative safety net that allows individual cast members to risk and flourish.
One tenet we take extremely seriously is “always take care of your partner.” It means that we take great care to support our cast members, not judge them. It means we work together, onstage and off. Onstage, it also means that you don’t let your fellow actor hanging – don’t let him fail if you can help it. In corporate culture, it means that you need to support your employees as whole individuals, not widgets.
p.159 – No one can feel free to fail – or conversely, feel free to take risks – if they think they are being judged, wither by their colleagues or their supervisors.
p.163 – Fail early and often, and you’ll have a much better chance of achieving the ultimate goal – a perfect final product. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
p.186 – A leader’s role is recognizing the shift from a hierarchical leadership model to a flat one; knowing when to lead, when to follow, and when to just get out of the way; and trusting your teams and talking to your audience – all while setting the context for both internal and external communication. And the role has changed quite a bit over the years.
p.188 – Here are some of the areas in which women scored higher than men:
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Inspires and motivates Others
• Develops Others
• Champions Change
• Communicates Powerfully and Prolifically
• Practices Self-Development
April 21, 2018
Some weeks ago, I finished listening to Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration -- Lessons from The Second City, from Kelly Leonard, Tom Yorton.
Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton wrote a book to convey the role Improvisation may have on corporate life, based on their experience in offering training and workshops through Second City, a well-known comedy theatre, from Chicago.
They suggest Improvisation skills can have a positive impact on adaptability, leadership, and capacity of collaboration, affecting team building, corporate communication, creativity, and innovation. To improvise, performers need to develop associated skills that are key to life and work. People can develop those skills through simple exercises and games. They filled the book with stories from the stage and work done by Second City, helping organizations and individuals to use Improvisation skills to overcome challenges.
The authors organized their ideas along seven elements (of improvisation): 1) Yes, And; 2) Ensemble; 3) Co-Creation; 4) Authenticity; 5) Failure; 6) Follow the Follower; and 7) Listening.
Kelly and Tom suggest we should put together ensembles and not teams, that we should cast instead of recruit, and that improvisation skills help to move in this direction. Teams (like a soccer team) compete and have some of the members leading the others; ensembles do not.
The authors also provide a useful set of exercises at the end of the book. Those activities can be used to develop improvisational skills.
I finished the book with a mix of feelings. This book is the first one I read telling about an effort being made to change corporate behaviors through improvisational skills. Along the book, the authors cite many cases, but, considering the broad experience they have on the subject, I missed more detailed information of how they developed those skills in customer organizations. How were the workshops structured? How to insert improv exercises into the corporate life? What is the required effort and amount of practice to develop those skills?
The provided exercises could also be better illustrated and explained to help people like me, that are interested in trying them, without first traveling to Chicago to take a workshop.
Finally, in a business world, are improv skills enough to co-create? Can improv skills overcome a management culture pressing for short-term results and guarantee enough divergence happens, before converging too early to specific decisions? When can improvisation techniques harm? May they restrict critical thinking? Or maybe be used as an escape from meaningful conversations? A daring experiment to try.
Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton wrote a book to convey the role Improvisation may have on corporate life, based on their experience in offering training and workshops through Second City, a well-known comedy theatre, from Chicago.
They suggest Improvisation skills can have a positive impact on adaptability, leadership, and capacity of collaboration, affecting team building, corporate communication, creativity, and innovation. To improvise, performers need to develop associated skills that are key to life and work. People can develop those skills through simple exercises and games. They filled the book with stories from the stage and work done by Second City, helping organizations and individuals to use Improvisation skills to overcome challenges.
The authors organized their ideas along seven elements (of improvisation): 1) Yes, And; 2) Ensemble; 3) Co-Creation; 4) Authenticity; 5) Failure; 6) Follow the Follower; and 7) Listening.
Kelly and Tom suggest we should put together ensembles and not teams, that we should cast instead of recruit, and that improvisation skills help to move in this direction. Teams (like a soccer team) compete and have some of the members leading the others; ensembles do not.
The authors also provide a useful set of exercises at the end of the book. Those activities can be used to develop improvisational skills.
I finished the book with a mix of feelings. This book is the first one I read telling about an effort being made to change corporate behaviors through improvisational skills. Along the book, the authors cite many cases, but, considering the broad experience they have on the subject, I missed more detailed information of how they developed those skills in customer organizations. How were the workshops structured? How to insert improv exercises into the corporate life? What is the required effort and amount of practice to develop those skills?
The provided exercises could also be better illustrated and explained to help people like me, that are interested in trying them, without first traveling to Chicago to take a workshop.
Finally, in a business world, are improv skills enough to co-create? Can improv skills overcome a management culture pressing for short-term results and guarantee enough divergence happens, before converging too early to specific decisions? When can improvisation techniques harm? May they restrict critical thinking? Or maybe be used as an escape from meaningful conversations? A daring experiment to try.
January 3, 2025
Just finished "Yes, And" by Kelly Leonard & Tom Yorton, my first book of the new year. Drawing on principles of improvisational comedy honed at The Second City, Leonard and Yorton deliver a compelling case for the power of “yes, and” thinking to transform organizational culture and leadership.
In today’s fast-paced, decentralized world, business success requires co-creation, emotional intelligence, and the ability to embrace failure as a stepping stone to innovation. These concepts are presented through engaging anecdotes, often with humor, making them relatable and actionable for leaders looking to inspire their teams.
As someone who values collaboration and adaptability, I appreciated the emphasis on listening, authenticity, and ensemble thinking. The idea of "following the follower" resonated with me, challenging traditional leadership hierarchies and promoting a culture where every voice is valued.
I will admit that, at times, the anecdotes seem to oversimplify complex challenges. I believe that some more detailed descriptions or a companion workbook to supplement the exercises woven throughout the chapters would have enhanced the practical value, especially for leaders looking to apply and train on these principles.
"Yes, And" reminds us that fostering a culture of trust, openness, and creativity isn’t just about achieving business goals—it’s about building stronger teams and more meaningful connections. For leaders seeking to innovate while staying true to their people-first values, this book is a worthy addition to your library.
Check it out!
In today’s fast-paced, decentralized world, business success requires co-creation, emotional intelligence, and the ability to embrace failure as a stepping stone to innovation. These concepts are presented through engaging anecdotes, often with humor, making them relatable and actionable for leaders looking to inspire their teams.
As someone who values collaboration and adaptability, I appreciated the emphasis on listening, authenticity, and ensemble thinking. The idea of "following the follower" resonated with me, challenging traditional leadership hierarchies and promoting a culture where every voice is valued.
I will admit that, at times, the anecdotes seem to oversimplify complex challenges. I believe that some more detailed descriptions or a companion workbook to supplement the exercises woven throughout the chapters would have enhanced the practical value, especially for leaders looking to apply and train on these principles.
"Yes, And" reminds us that fostering a culture of trust, openness, and creativity isn’t just about achieving business goals—it’s about building stronger teams and more meaningful connections. For leaders seeking to innovate while staying true to their people-first values, this book is a worthy addition to your library.
Check it out!
August 10, 2018
Note: I listened to the audiobook version.
It's a nice book talking about the history of Second City and giving tips, advice, and exercises on how to be more open and adopt the "Yes, and" attitude. One reviewer said that the book is a big self pat-on-the-back, and while there were moments of pride in there, it was relatively low-key. There were plenty of examples of exercises given to the theater as well as businesses to encourage creativity, but I wish there were more. I suppose I was expecting more of a how-to, which this book wasn't exactly.
This might be a spoiler but not really. I did find it interesting that they said questions end a scene, and people should be in the moment and accept their partners' lines and go with it. As a designer, asking questions (I thought) help move the conversation along to a seemingly creative path. Maybe there's a time and place for each method.
This makes me more curious about doing improv just to improve my creativity, but I'm still too scared to do it because I expect other people in any "improv" class being good already and I would just be embarrassing myself. I guess that's the reason to do a class like this, according to the book, that failure is just a stepping stone to success.
It's a nice book talking about the history of Second City and giving tips, advice, and exercises on how to be more open and adopt the "Yes, and" attitude. One reviewer said that the book is a big self pat-on-the-back, and while there were moments of pride in there, it was relatively low-key. There were plenty of examples of exercises given to the theater as well as businesses to encourage creativity, but I wish there were more. I suppose I was expecting more of a how-to, which this book wasn't exactly.
This might be a spoiler but not really. I did find it interesting that they said questions end a scene, and people should be in the moment and accept their partners' lines and go with it. As a designer, asking questions (I thought) help move the conversation along to a seemingly creative path. Maybe there's a time and place for each method.
This makes me more curious about doing improv just to improve my creativity, but I'm still too scared to do it because I expect other people in any "improv" class being good already and I would just be embarrassing myself. I guess that's the reason to do a class like this, according to the book, that failure is just a stepping stone to success.
November 23, 2019
I'm taking improv at the moment & one of the things are instructor encourages us to do is read books about improv as supplements to the classes. So, I picked up this one because it talks about applying improv principals to your regular life - which is pretty much why I'm taking improv in the first place.
Kelly Leonard is an Exec Director at Second City, an improvisational institution that has trained some of the best in the biz: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mike Meyers, Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, the list goes on and on.
Yes, And lays out principals of improv that can be applied to real life and recounts real ways in which they were applied. Some examples of these elements of improv are: embrace failure, be authentic, co-create, work as an ensemble, and use the "Yes, and" exercise to push thinking and brainstorming beyond stale boundaries.
The book is a reminder to be in the moment, stay positive and remember to let your team members know you've got their back. Maybe it's more interesting if you are into improv, but, to me, these seem like good things for anyone to remember in many situations.
Kelly Leonard is an Exec Director at Second City, an improvisational institution that has trained some of the best in the biz: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mike Meyers, Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, the list goes on and on.
Yes, And lays out principals of improv that can be applied to real life and recounts real ways in which they were applied. Some examples of these elements of improv are: embrace failure, be authentic, co-create, work as an ensemble, and use the "Yes, and" exercise to push thinking and brainstorming beyond stale boundaries.
The book is a reminder to be in the moment, stay positive and remember to let your team members know you've got their back. Maybe it's more interesting if you are into improv, but, to me, these seem like good things for anyone to remember in many situations.
August 4, 2020
This is what happens when a business book is so abstract, it's actually about nothing at all.
Which is a shame, because I want to support The Second City. But it's unlikely I'll retain any of this information.
I'm not sure why this was a book. (It's not that I doubt their methods; I'm sure they're very effective.) But it's clear that it's better in practice rather than in words. And that's another reason I won't retain anything. If it was all an attempt to get people to sign up for Second City improv classes, then writing this book was an exercise in greed. Or if it's better reserved as a post-class refresher, than it serves no purpose other than being a supplement. Either way, it doesn't work as a stand-alone book.
I had serious trouble connecting any of the lessons to real-life despite the authors laying it out clearly. Phrases like "create synergy" and "spur innovation" are thrown around unironically. Those are meaningless and not at all useful.
Occasionally, there's an anecdote that sticks. But those are so few and far between, that it's just not worth your time.
Which is a shame, because I want to support The Second City. But it's unlikely I'll retain any of this information.
I'm not sure why this was a book. (It's not that I doubt their methods; I'm sure they're very effective.) But it's clear that it's better in practice rather than in words. And that's another reason I won't retain anything. If it was all an attempt to get people to sign up for Second City improv classes, then writing this book was an exercise in greed. Or if it's better reserved as a post-class refresher, than it serves no purpose other than being a supplement. Either way, it doesn't work as a stand-alone book.
I had serious trouble connecting any of the lessons to real-life despite the authors laying it out clearly. Phrases like "create synergy" and "spur innovation" are thrown around unironically. Those are meaningless and not at all useful.
Occasionally, there's an anecdote that sticks. But those are so few and far between, that it's just not worth your time.
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