This week’s theme is about applying principles from improv comedy to our work and our life! 

If you’re familiar with improv, you may have already heard about the “Yes, And…” rule — but we’re going to dive deep into a few concepts that can lead to improved focus and better teamwork, too. 

We’re going to start with one of the fundamental principles of improv: not judging yourself or others! In improv, the mind has to turn off part of its ability to “judge” so that it can go to fun and new places. 

Don’t Judge Yourself

It’s natural to feel judgment — we are raised with various norms of how to act or think. 

When we release some of these thoughts, we can connect to a version of ourselves that is more authentic, more present, and lets others in more easily… which also makes us an easier person to work with. 

Reserving your judgment may allow you to approach work with more calm, presence, and joy!

If you’ve got an internal talk track that’s letting judgment take up space, remind yourself that judging yourself or others won’t help you be more focused or true to yourself! 

Additionally, if we are spending energy and time judging, we might miss out on something that brings us happiness. 

Once we’ve gotten away from judging ourselves or others, we can take it a step further and begin to embrace the power of silliness. 

I’ll share some suggestions for ways you and your teammates — or fellow Body Doubling community members if you’re a solopreneur — can let go of any judgment and embrace silliness instead.

Try with your team (or on Focused Space sessions!)

🤠 Silly hat day at work

💻 Try some out of character Zoom/Google Meets filters or backgrounds

📛 Do a fun “Name Game” when a new coworker joins, where you come up with a fun alliterative name 

✍️ Pick something for everyone on the team to draw, and share your art! Only compliments accepted. 

Mistakes Are Gifts

When I teach improv classes (yes, I am a focused space host, and an improv teacher!) I’ll tell students: “Everything you say is gold.” 

What does this mean? It means that contrary to what we might think, no mistakes can be made — instead, they give you something to work with. 

If we use this approach in our everyday life, we can more easily move forward from our own (or others’) flubs, considering them as “gold” or helpful material.  

When improvisers mess up a word in a scene or game, they will often make light of it. Usually the audience delights in getting to see this “mistake” play out! 

Before improv troupes go onstage, they often say “I’ve got your back!” knowing that no matter what happens, they’ll have each others’ best interests at heart, and make each other look good. 

If you make a mistake at work or in life, know that most of the time this is still “gold” — it’s an opportunity to show up, learn from, and demonstrate how you can turn anything into “gold.”   

Two ways to move forward and recover after a mistake: 

🖊️ Next time you make a mistake, write a thank you note to thank yourself for the lesson and growth you are experiencing.

⏪ If a project fails or a team member makes a mistake, host a retro to learn from it and think about what you can do together next time, without blame, and using the “everything is gold” mentality.

Connect Ideas to Make Something New

Improvisers are often making connections across disparate words and ideas to bring something to life onstage that’s never been seen before. 

They usually ask the audience for a random word — and then discover a new world where they pull in various characters, environments, and ideas. 

Once in their scenes, they have to get on the same page quickly. 

In work settings, alignment is important but doesn’t happen easily all the time, as we all have different ideas and share different contexts. 

When we recognize all of our different perspectives, it can help us combine, meld, and share new ideas. You never know what might inspire your next idea!

Let’s say you grab a couple of words from your mind, a dictionary, or by looking around the room. If you’re ever stuck on a problem or need a creative boost, you can take each word and think about how it can inspire something new. 

Here’s an example. Say I’m working on a project to build a new website and my words are “Boot,” “Dog,” and “Grandma”... 

“Boot” might inspire how I lay out my homepage so I can show words in a boot-like format, leaving some empty space to draw the site visitor in. “Dog” might inspire me to make the site playful, and “Grandma” might remind me to make the fonts clear and accessible. 

See if you can try this approach next time you have to get creative and feel stuck!  

Three games you can play to make new connections:

📖 Take a random word — let it inspire or help reframe your next task or idea. 

👯 Game of mind meld — pair up and count down from 3 to say one word at the same time. Once you’ve both said your words, try to find a common word between the two. Keep going until you say the same word at the same time, always using the last 2 words said. 

⭕ Practice free associating — let your mind wander from words, concepts, or ideas and see where you land at the end. You can use fun prompts like: “what if I was working on this as a child, or a theme park designer, or a magician?” — unleash new possibilities! 

Being Present

In improv, being present helps keep scenes going — and will naturally lead improvisers to creating memorable, funny moments. 

It’s important to not think about what you’re going to say next, but instead focus on what is already being said… otherwise you’ll miss something! 

Being present allows us to listen to what was just said more closely. This can be especially helpful if you’re used to overthinking, or freeze up, or have ADHD and maybe lose focus in conversations. 

It can be hard in meetings or throughout your day to tap into feeling focused, but if you write down what’s being said or declutter your mind to give yourself one sole objective at a time, you’ll be able to become more present and productive, too. 

I know it is easier said than done to feel present and mindful, but I have some easy games that will help you become more present in life or at work, and get out of a pre-planning or overthinking mindset. 

Try these games with your team, friends, or family: 

💬 Start with one random word. One by one, say new words each starting with the first letter of the last letter of the word just said. Example: Water, Roll, Lack, Kid, Dance, Emotion, Nerdy. And so on!

🖐 Prompt each other to say 5 words about anything — maybe about a season, a brand, or a person. This will make you think on your feet, since you won’t know the prompt in advance! 

👆 Create a story or poem in which everyone can only say one word at a time and go in an order. No pre-planning! 

“Yes, And…”

We’re going to wrap up this week of taking lessons from improv with the most well known improv principle: “Yes, And!”

“Yes, And!” ties into everything we’ve already talked about: not judging ourselves or others, treating mistakes as gifts, being present, and connecting ideas together. 

If we say “Yes, And!” to our brain, and to others’ ideas, we are able to adopt a more positive mindset that can lead to connecting ideas to create something awesome. It can also help us accept mistakes as learning opportunities that can lead to unexpected wins! 

It can be hard to come up with things on the spot in improv, or in your day-to-day, but if you think to yourself “Yes, And…” then you already have a start to whatever you’re going to say next, to build off what was said or thought-of before. 

You don’t have to say “Yes” or add on to everything all the time but this approach can help shift our mindset in helpful ways that will positively impact our lives and work. 

Thanks so much for joining me in this improv “crash course!” What’s one takeaway you have that you could apply to your work or life?

Hope to see you around in our sessions this week!

— Bec, focused space host