Improvisation is defined as “an intuitive, coordinated, and spontaneous response in a dynamic environment.” As such it is both a set of skills to be practiced and phenomena to be studied.

During these sessions students will be guided through a series of exercises designed to help cultivate skills necessary for successful improvisation: teamwork, commitment to ideas and teammates, concentration and listening, thinking creatively on their feet, business improvisational leadership, and adaptive problem-solving. Some of these exercises are adapted from improv games; others have been designed specifically for this course. The skills that students learn in lab sessions will help them to:

• Increase confidence and reduce fear of public speaking

• Promote creativity and facilitate effective brainstorming

• Be open to taking risks and adapting to change

• Take themselves less seriously and use humor as a tool in the workplace

• Improve concentration and listening skills

• Think on their feet and recognize opportunities as they arise

These experiential workshops will be supplemented with classroom discussions exploring the use of improvisation in professional settings. Topics include:

• Rapid decision making

• Dynamic negotiation

• Crisis management

• Teamwork

• Innovation

• Creativity

• Fostering an improvisational culture

• Emergent strategy

• Diversity

In the area of ethical business leader requirements, Improvisation as a learning experience connects with five key points:

1. Build the capacity for leadership to manage diversity

2. Increase effective communications

3. Manage difficult conversations for a win-win situation

4. Create a learning community that upholds conditions of trust

5. Take risks by going outside the comfort zone, and being open to new ideas

The “Yes … And” technique is the framework that creates acceptance and understanding without the initial judgment, The final goal is to develop a common understanding and increase effective communication in today’s global, business environment. Through this framework, students are encouraged to seek out diversity, and understand different ideas and world views. The course is custom designed to create a safe environment where students can specifically:

• build trust

• speak freely and say what’s on their minds

• suspend judgment, and

• take the risk to be honest

So, the intent of Improvisational Leadership is to create conditions that enable authentic thoughts, facilitate genuine conversations, and achieve honest discussions that create the conditions for factual learning.