Fresh

A big group of us went to a PAF workshop with On Your Feet today. It focused on how to use improv theater techniques to help teams create fresh ideas. It also seemed really beneficial for anyone who needs to think quickly on their feet (presentations!)

One of their key points was that people doing improv need to be really good at going with the flow. It is detrimental to discourage ideas. When someone throws an idea out at you, instead of saying “no, that’s a bad idea” think how you can use it, play off of it, include it into the flow. They spoke about not being too attached to your “shadow story”, which is your pre-conceived notion of what something should be. Instead, be open to new interpretations of a concept. They talked a lot about turning off your “inner censor” and letting ideas flow regardless of whether you think they are good or not.

Another key idea was to look at things from a different angle than you usually do. If you are stuck, get someone who is not used to thinking about the issue to help you come up with solutions.

They taught us three games/techniques that were really fun, too!

1. Swedish Story (this game is good for two people)

First, you both look around your surroundings and find something that you never noticed before. (for example, I saw a hook in the wall, and Charles saw a vase that looked like a tree trunk) you then combine the two things that you noticed to form a simple title. “Tree Trunk Hook” was ours. The point of this is to get a starting place for your story.

Next, one person starts to tell a story based on the title that you came up with. (for example: “So I was walking in the woods, and I saw these trees with hooks in them”) While the first person tells a story, the second person throws out random words. “Octopus!” I yelled. The person telling the story has to work these random things into their story. “So I look up in one of the trees, and there is this tree octopus up there”

Continue in this manner for a couple minutes, and then switch sides, so that the person who was throwing out the random words becomes the story teller.

It’s really fun, and helps you think on your feet. We all thought that the story-telling part would be hard, but it turned out that it was harder to think of the random words. You’ll both be laughing a lot.

2. Object Storm (this game is good for a small group of people to do)

First, identify something that you want to think about differently/brainstorm solutions for. (for example, “How can I keep my employees engaged?”)

Next, pick a random object and list out a bunch of characteristics for it. For instance, you could pick a lamp and list off:

“it gives off light”    “it is pretty”      “it is blue”     “it sits on a table”      “it uses electricity”

The last step is to pick one of the characteristics to focus on, and then think about how that characteristic might apply to your original issue. So if you picked “It is pretty” you might come up with “You could help keep employees engaged by encouraging them to make their work spaces more attractive” or “you could bring in plants to the office, cause they are pretty”

It was surprising all the ideas we came up with based on the object characteristic. You can move on to different characteristics of the object for more ways to think about the original problem.

3. Category Die (this game is good for a large group of people)

Get a few people to stand in a row in front of the rest, and have one person be the the “pointer”. Pick a category that you want to generate ideas for. Our group’s category was “Portland.”

The pointer chooses one of the people who are standing in the row, and when they get chosen they have to say something that Portland has: (for example “rain”     “coffee”    “rose garden”). If they can’t think of something, say somethign that has already been said, or that wasn’t applicable, everyone in the audience would yell “DIE!” (I’m not sure why it is so harsh).

This game was fast paced, and didn’t allow people to censor themselves. You had to come up with something fast! You also had to listen to what everyone else was saying so that you didn’t repeat them.

I encourage you to think about using these games the next time you are stuck on something. Also, check out the Improv Encyclopedia, which is has a great list of more improv games to try.