I really enjoyed chatting with Darren, and think it's probably the clearest I've been in an interview. Explaining just how useful improv skills can be to build relationships and help our clients get the best out of us if we spend more time listening than thinking about sales opportunities.

In this chat we talk about WordPress, Comedy, Presentation skills, TEDx talks,improv and many other things in between.

Booking a talk to find out how improv skills
can increase your team's performance.

The engaging marketeer podcast

Apple podcasts link

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Giving a TEDx talk is an altogether different experience from any stand-up comedy I've done. If you look closely you'll see muscle memory where I'm waiting for laughter and just have to remind myself I'm not in a comedy club. I've earned and owned my space on the stage. Going forward I hope to do more talks on improv. To explain the benefits in more detail to groups who are perhaps a little hesitant about jumping into an improv workshop with both feet I need a little more information before wielding the power of 'yes and'.

Big thanks to my amazing friends and teachers at ComedySportz. I hope what I've learned and shared here is valuable to others. Thanks also to the TEDxWarrington team for putting on this event

This was the first TEDx event in Warrington and there were some amazing speakers on the stage that night with wonderful ideas to share;

Finding freedom in using a wheelchair | Pete Donnelly

Connecting with authentic success | Kate Trafford

Why conservation education matters | Charlotte Smith

From frustration to fascination: Embracing cognitive diversity | Kerry Lockyer

Building an alternate future through grief | Ben Dunne

Everything is connected, connection is everything | Ali Davenport

Poetry never abandons us | Kate Jenkinson

Rachel Morgan Trimmer

Emma Baylin

There is nothing wrong in your life right now | Russell Treasure

My talk with full script

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You're reading this in the future, right now for me it's mid-February 2020. As I move my life in boxes from one location to another I feel a sense of vulnerability. A raised awareness of my environment and the big stuff over which I have no control right now. From flooding in the UK, to political shifts, climate change and a possible pandemic to counter. It has all resonated a little louder as the safe space I call home is in flux. Fortunately, I know my improvisation training. The ability to stay focused in the moment. Dealing with new things as they present themselves, not getting caught in trying to plan for what might happen as I move the boxes. The improvisers mantra is Yes And, not what if - and improv is a great skill for dealing with change.

Yes And, not what if.

Dealing with change is inevitable. When life presents a new challenge and changes our status quo in ways we don't like, it's natural to shy away from or try to control it. In my day to day work, I strive to implement the tenets of improv to the best of my ability to be my best self.

• Yes, and. Accept and build.
• Being present and focussed.
• Actively listening to what is being said during conversations.
• Slowing down to process information effectively.
• Make clear decisions based on what I now understand.

It's easy to get caught up in the 'what if' loop. I used to do this a lot. What if a client doesn't pay? Why did I get passed over for a promotion? How will I cope if a close relative falls ill? There are millions of possible circumstances I could suddenly find myself presented with. What can sound like a negative voice in my head is actually my brain trying to keep me safe. To stop me from taking risks that might put me in danger or out of my comfort zone.

The edge of that comfort zone is where we do our best learning, when we're uncomfortable enough that our awareness becomes heightened. It's common in high stakes situations, like a job interview or buying a new car- or moving house.

A safe space to fail

One of the advantages of improvised learning, where games are played to improve listening skills, memory or communication is that they provide us with a safe space to fail, and a playground for experimentation. Misunderstanding the rules, or simply getting something wrong while playing a game is a small failure without no serious real-world consequences.

Learning how to fail small in improv workshops is positivity encouraged. A student I taught once called it "a healthy level of f&*k it". Meaning that it's not about if you fail, but rather the attitude you adopt to deal with the recovery.

Doing one improv workshop is no quick fix, unfortunately. Improv is skill-based. Working a muscle, not using a tool, think of it more like a couch to five-kilometre run than a can opener. Similar to the process of working up to a 5k, it starts with a little exercise every day. Putting your shoes on at the front door one day, jogging down the street the next and eventually laps of the park.
Regularly working the creative muscles strengthens them and builds resilience. Neurons in the brain begin to fire off down different pathways, that lead to less obvious, more creative thinking.

You don't need to be a performer or even an extrovert to begin building your mental muscles.

Professional improvisers and stand up comedians use these brain muscles all the time on stage, to make fast, smart, decisions that influence and impress those around them. A joke is a problem looking for an original solution, and a good punchline changes the way you see the subject matter.

The ability to think fast spontaneously and robustly can get us out of the mud of the negative 'what if'. You don't need to be a performer or even an extrovert to begin building your mental muscles. Moving house twice in five months, the stress of moving didn't bother me too much, because the mental heavy lifting was well in hand. That's why I believe improv is a valuable way to help us when dealing with change.

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Applied improvisation a term that refers to learning the skills to think on your feet, and then applying them to a particular industry, situation or relationship.

Along with the troupe I perform with regularly CSz UK, I've been a passionate advocator of improv and improving my own listening and communication skills for many years now. Particularly in the digital space where there are oh so many ways to communicate. Technology, software, apps and their developers work in a space where change is the only constant.

This week I delivered a workshop for a team of web developers. A great forward-thinking gang who'd heard enough about improv training to know it was a tool to get in their collective belt. Here's their testimonial;

"Collaboration and creative thinking are crucial to our day to day business, and we're always looking to improve and develop these skills. John taught us various improv techniques and concepts that we could use to work better together.
John was a great teacher, and created a space where everybody felt comfortable to come out of their shell. The improv games we played were fun and engaging, and John encouraged everyone to put themselves out there and get involved. After learning about what our business did in advance, John made sure to explain the relevance of each game to our specific work, which went a long way to get buy-in from the team and senior management. Overall we found the workshop enjoyable, eye opening and motivating - our team were already discussing how we could incorporate the learnings into our day to day work. "

Tom Parson, Manchester Technology Centre.

Could your digital team benefit from improv? If you want to know more, please get in touch here or email info@johncooper.org.uk

Further Reading;

• Improving Agile teams - Paul Goddard
• Humour that works - Drew Tarvin
• To Sell is Human - Dan Pink

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There's nothing in the UK that's really comparable the annual improv championship. It's not really a competition,  more a convention of comedy shows and improv workshops where performers from all over the us - and UK - come together for one week to collaborate and learn new skills.

Improv is on the rise in the UK, but no where near as well established as it is in the US, with it's dedicating schools of improvisation, not just for performance skill, but also as a tool for learning. This annual event attracts some of the worlds best teachers of improvisation. During the week I took workshops in diverse topics such as character types, status, building emotional connections. There was also a brilliant workshop on how to teach improv, weighing up the feedback approach versus side-coaching that It really got into the nuts and bolt of how teachers teach.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A twenty four hour turnaround from landing the Manchester improv gang regrouped and headed to Edinburgh for our twelfth year at the fringe. I've taken up solo comedy shows in the past, and it a lot less stressful to be part of a team.

During my ten days there I was performing in four shows per day including the regular ComedySportz show, guest spots, comparing a couple of night of Salfunny, and a late night improvised true crime show.

Salfunny was a showcase for students studying the comedy degree at Salford University. One of their performers, Erika Ehler, went on to win the Chortle new comedian award.

There were more improvised shows there this year than ever before, and while and that's a good thing for recognition of improv, it's important to keep the quality standard high. With stand up comedy and improv, there is no barrier to entry, to learn the skill is a choice. There are some great places to learn improv best practice around the UK, and hopefully some day soon improv will be as well recognised as a teaching skill as it across the pond.

• CSz Worldwide
• Salford University Comedy Writing and Performance
• Chortle New Comedian of the Year
• Comedy Background

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You'd be right to wonder how this is relevant to proper 'work', but when you strip away the theatrical of Liverpool's 8th annual 'improvathon' you'll see a very impressive model of project management played out at speed.

Improvisation isn't making things up. There are rules and constraints that help unlock the creativity for high levels of collaboration and achievement, for example a six person 'safety song' and dance that was 'slip, trips and falls'. Impressive not only in line and verse, but also as it was a great metaphor for good improvisation. Safety culture in the workplace aims for interdependence over independence, and so does improvisation. If we have each others back, we do good work and we look great too.

I've recently become interested in agile development. An approach to project management that favours interaction over process, and responding to change over 'end goals' to achieve a more satisfying outcome (and a happy client). I'm not an agile developer but I have been a web developer for twenty years and an improviser for ten.

The improvathon is played out in two hour 'episode' chunks with performers creating and discovering stories through interaction. Over the course of the show new cast members join, some leave and some stay awake (and present) for the entire duration fuelled by adrenaline, coffee and the buzz of the show. A 15 minute break between these episodes is just time enough for the director, overseeing the scenes, to gently highlight the more compelling stories from the previous section and suggest new points of focus. Moving events forward towards a rewarding outcome.

During the show, I failed in my many evil attempts at 'conversions' turning other characters into cybermen - to create and army of robotic cybermen - that's just what they do. I was reminded of a chat with a scrum master (Paul Goddard) who used the term 'conversion' to refer to the moment when a newcomer to improv clicks with the 'yes and' principle and comprehends the wider implications and values. Improv isn't just for actors or extroverts, it's for everyone in or out of the workplace.

It's also much better than being turned into a cyberman.

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Chicago put on parties every night and for the first night it's dancing and pizza. This being Chicago the pizzas are immense and I think it's the first time I've seen a real 'pizza pie' which is basically a giant wedge of cheese so big you can loose meatballs inside it. It's so tasty I can almost feel chest pains eating it, but it's so good I don't want to stop. We've also found 'Forever Yogurt', a serve yourself frozen yoghurt shop that does flavours like 'cake batter'.

The team are all here and the next few days are a flurry of shows and workshops. I take a Meisner workshop, which is quite hardcore and somthing I've done breifly before. It's all about learning how to understand and read the emotion within performance, and the theory goes pretty deep and you could spend years studying it here if you wanted to.

Chicago is recognised as the home of improvisation, and evidence of how improv is still in it's infancy in the UK is evident in the wealth of venues here, at least a handful large and small across the city. All dedicated improv theatre venues show 2 or 3 improv shows every night of the week. Some Longform, shortform, drama, comedy, musical and even shakespearean, all unique shows in their own right. Some are ok, some really show high end at it's best.

Saturday. As a group we all head into the city planning to meet up at the beach on Lake Michigan, but we don't find it. Instead we find Navy pier so sit down for a bit. Then we go for food at the Chicago Cheesecake factory and it takes us one hour and forty minutes to get a table, so I sit there for a bit. Once we get served I decide I don't want cheesecake after all.

The Tournament final is L.A versus Chicago and Chicago win. My money was on LA. At the final wrap party the bar, at my request, has ordered in some cider. There is cause for rejoicing.

Monday. The final day of our honeymoon, and I'm ready to go home. I feel like I've been ready to go home for the last week it's been so hot. We make good on our gift from Bron's mate Liz and have a grilled cheese sandwich at 'Cheesie's!' which is awesome and I promise it will be the last fattening thing I eat...apart from the frozen yogurt and the pulled chicken sandwich. Myself Bron and Lynn and see the Bean, a giant shiney metal baked bean shaped object in the middle of a park. Temperatures have soared again the walking close to it is like being in an oven.

For the last day we stay with Nate and Nick, two comedysportz guys from Chicago, Nate is big on borad games and has a really impressive collection, and Nick is gearing up for the Edinburgh festival with Baby Wants Candy, his musical improv group.

The rest is a blur of taxi's and aeroplanes and awkward goodbyes as I wave bye to Lynn as she disappears up an escalator only to see her minutes later. The British airways flight to London is probably the worst flight I've ever had with it's broken in-flight entertainment, seats designed for people with one leg and and stale buns. I am however quite excited about getting home. Bron's mum takes us from the airport and everything I've seen on the route home that I've seen a million times before has a weird 'otherness' to it because I've been away so long.

Open Door. Stroke Cat. Kiss Wife. Well done. It's over. Oh yeah, I can now say I've been around the world in 44 days.

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