Building a Business? Throw in Some Improv.

At the VaynerMedia offices, a group of us have begun taking an improv class at UCB. This is something we’ve been talking about doing for a long time and now, two classes deep, I can honestly say that joining the class has been one of the best decisions of my life. One of the common misconceptions about improv is that it’s all about being funny, when in fact attempting to be funny is one of the best ways to be bad at improv. Instead, you’re trained to become more attuned to your true self, reacting and building on feelings and experiences that are far more personal than we’re used to accessing. Because reality is ultimately more funny than anything anyone can make up, the end result is hilarious.

While the experience has definitely been entertaining, I’d like to also suggest that there are real business benefits to submitting to the improv method. Below I’ve listed four of the biggest ones I’ve noticed, but I’m sure as we get deeper I’ll begin to unearth more.

Becoming Quicker

One of the most valuable traits one develops while doing improv is the ability to think quickly on your feet. At the very core of the word, improvisation is about reacting to stimulus around oneself. Business is a human-driven enterprise and unless you’re a hypnotist, you’re not going to be able to control the people you deal with. Most everyone has conversed with someone who clearly has a planned agenda for a discussion and insists on shoving their talking points into a discussion, regardless of their relevance. It’s frustrating and unconvincing, usually engendering resentment instead of a willingness to work together.

It doesn’t matter what you think if your potential partner in business is unconvinced of the value you can deliver. Being able to think quickly on your feet gives you the ability to react to whatever curveballs they may throw and relate your unique capabilities to the goals they hope to achieve. To be clear, I don’t mean being able to come up with bullshit on the spot to placate a concern, although that’s certainly a less honorable off-shoot of this skill. I’m referring to the ability to explain a valuable concept accurately and in a concise manner in a way that’s relevant to the exact situation you’re in. If you’re able to do that, you’re in an extremely good position to achieve business success.

Greater Self-Awareness

If you’ve followed Gary at all over the past year or so, you may have noticed a topic he’s been very high on is self-awareness. His point boils down to this: when you truly understand yourself, you’re able to put yourself into the best possible position to succeed, however you’d define that. There are two major functions within this theory. The first is that optimizing your talents makes you more valuable to others, giving you greater opportunities, whether it’s monetary or something else you find valuable. Second is that, with some exceptions, people tend to enjoy doing things that they’re good at more than things they’re horrible at. We’re genetically predisposed to being productive and doing things you’re good at allows you to greater satisfy that desire.

Improv trains you to dig deep into yourself and unearth your true feelings and thoughts. Some people are naturally very self-aware, but if the massive demand for psychiatric help is any indication, most people have an extremely difficult time untangling their brain and understanding themselves. The speed of improv makes it an incredible adrenaline rush and that adrenaline helps overcome our natural inclination to stop ourselves from exploring too deep into the depths of our psyche.

Teamwork

If you go and see live improv, most of the shows will be performed by teams, usually in groups of around four or five (or more) people. That’s not to say that improv can’t be done in smaller groups, the best group I’ve ever seen, the Mantzoukas Brothers, was a two person group and you can even find one person shows, but generally it’s a group undertaking. The result of this is that one of they key components of a successful improv performer is the ability to work well with others. If the people on stage are contradicting themselves and not taking advantage of the queues and hints put forth by their teammates, the end result is going to be sloppy and fail to evolve in the way necessary to create something truly interesting and funny. Only by putting your ego to the side and submitting to the common goal of moving the improv “game” along as effectively as possible can a group be truly successful.

The Power of Yes

It’s easy to respond to potential with negatives. Doing so usually results in maintaining the status quo, which is comfortable and safe. Unfortunately, the status quo can many times stand in the way of achieving something truly exceptional. There’s a similar conflict in improv. Denying something a teammate says or contradicting them can often lead to a cheap, easy laugh. For example, if one person says a table is red and you respond, “Are you crazy, the table’s green,” you’ll probably get a nice reaction from the crowd. Unfortunately, by doing so you’ve damaged the trust between yourself and your teammate in the best case scenario and in the worst case scenario destroyed the scene the group has been building for the audience, detaching them and preventing the immersion necessary for a truly successful show.

Because of this, one of the first lessons taught in improv classes is the “Yes, and…” technique. It’s extremely simple but shockingly difficult to grasp at first. The exercise we practiced consisted of two people, discussing a topic they came up with on the spot. The catch was that before you could say your piece, you had to lead with “Yes”, reiterate what they just said, then follow with “and” and finally say your piece. Even if your partner said something outlandish or conflicted with how you internally wanted the scene to go, you had to agree with them and build off of it. Through the process you learn that oftentimes the organic place the discussion went after feeding off each other was far better than anything you could have planned out yourself.

At the end of the day, improv isn’t going to take a bad company and make it great. It can help, however, and you’ll have a great time while doing it. I’d highly recommend checking out a show or two if you can find something in your area and seeing if it’s for you or your company.