Back in February, before lockdown, Huddle Digital embarked on a new adventure - comedy improv.
Not typically used in a business environment, comedy improv is a comedy performance style that incorporates improvisation supported by structured techniques. It promotes inclusivity, team building and creative thinking.
We enlisted the services of John Cooper of Rocket Steps. John is a seasoned improv performer and provides improv training sessions for businesses.
One game had us crouched on all fours pretending to be a park bench while others mimicked a nearby tree and flock of birds.
During the morning session, John took us through various improv "games" (more like exercises). We warmed up with some word association, before moving onto more imaginative and involved games. We played around 10 games in total, all using different techniques and calling on different skills. One game had us crouched on all fours pretending to be a park bench while others mimicked a nearby tree and flock of birds. Needless to say we certainly got out of our comfort zone and learned a lot.
One particular takeaway of mine was having faith in other people and trusting the process. I am a self-confessed control freak at times, and the games taught me to relinquish that control and trust in the team to enable us to work together and achieve a specific outcome.
It was great learning about improv, exploring new ways of communicating and seeing the impact on our team. John was a fantastic teacher and did a great job of bringing us out of our shell and making the most of the day.
John has some great resources on his website on how improv can be used for various purposes including dealing with change through improv.
We're proud to say we still use these improv techniques to this day! Whenever we have an internal idea session, we warm up with improv exercises like word association or 7 questions.
