We all improvise – no one has a script for their life (or their work) and we constantly have to deal with the unexpected and the uncertain. Life is a responsive, adaptive dance and yet we devote hardly any time to develop our improvisational skill or capacity.
I have been working with ideas, tools, and language drawn from improvisational theatre for over twenty-five years. At the University of Oxford (Green Templeton College and the Saïd Business School) I have used this approach to help leaders navigate uncertainty, complexity and change.
Through playful participation, I give people an experience of the simple ideas that improv is based on, quickly and easily, and then connect them to the fabric of everyday work and life. I have run experiential workshops and programmes for clients like YPO, IKEA, Chanel, Nike, Airbus, and the BBC.
I have written two books that document what I have learned along the way. Or, if you want a quick hit, you could watch the Do Lecture I gave in 2011.
This all began way back at the end of the last century when I met Gary Hirsch and together we created On Your Feet. My own particular take on this does not focus on the theatrical applications, but on the connections between improvisation and complexity, linking the arts and science through a playful experiential method.
These days I am more interested in ‘improv without the games’ – i.e. in how the emerging, uncontrollable dance of life shows up everywhere. My abiding curiosity is in how we can use that rather than struggle against it…