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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How does that work? After an introductory talk there's a big blank schedule of events board - waiting to be filled.

Those keen to give a talk complete a description card and stick it the board. As this event proved, very quickly there was a diverse and interesting amount of talks to attend across the day.

I've attended similar formatted events in the USA, at the annual ComedySportz improv championship. During a week of workshops and entertainment) there's an 'open space' which is very similar in format. The idea of a full day of this locally piqued my curiosity.

It was easy to understand the ethos of the event, and MeasureCamp Manchester was well organised. It's not only for those keen to get up and talk, but also to encourage those who've never given a talk. It's an opportunity to to seize the chance to give their first ever bit of public speaking, workshop or discussion.

As I found out, a group of data analytics techy folks set up MeasureCamp in 2012. They  wanted to run a local community event and it took off. MeasureCamps are now held in over a dozen cities, all over Europe plus Hong Kong and Australia.

I think the 'unconference' format is a brilliant concept too. A speaking event with no traditional hierarchy or barrier to entry, encouraging anyone who has an idea they are passionate about.  The presentations do not need to be polished, there's no guarantee of full audience. Attendees will vote with their feet. However as this event proved, with this well curated day, the fear of 'what if no one comes to my talk!' doesn't arise.

Improv for Creative Thinking

MeasureCamp is designed for the digital and analytics community though I thought it felt broader. There was much discussion here about modern work culture. I attended some great talks, including a discussion on freelancing and a talk on impostor syndrome. I also gave two talks on how improvisation skills is  used as a tool for creative thinking. A shortened version my Google Digital Garage in 2018 sessions, and they were well received.

Of course there's a strong element of improvisation to the MeasureCamp Unconference format. When I deliver an improv workshop, I explain how improvisation is about being present and creative within set of constraints of a game.  One of the organiser, Paul  suggested I pinned my session on the board at the beginning of the day, which I did. Improv is great for learning, and it's also a good motivator. By sticking my session at the beginning of the day it could provide a little confidence boost to anyone attending who had an idea for a but not yet committed to it.
It would have been an ideal place to promote my book,  but one of the stipulations is that there is no hard sell by speakers, and rightly so.

MeasureCamp Manchester was a fun learning experience and a great networking opportunity. I've even considered offering to volunteer for next year's event (if I have the time and commitment it requires) I''ll certainly be getting in early for a ticket!

Useful Links

• Event - MeasureCamp Manchester
• Book - Present Yourself!: An illustrated guide to speaking in public and building confidence by John Cooper
• Book - Humor That Works by Andrew Tarvin
• Book- Improv-ing Agile Teams by Paul Goddard
• Podcast - Bring a Brick - using improve in the workplace
• Venue - ETC Venues
• The Candidate
• PRWD
• Usabilla
• Observe Point
• Content Square

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Venue: The Kings Arms, Salford, M3 6AN
Ticket available on Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/confessions-of-a-wordpress-fanatic-tickets-50782649271

While publicising the show I was re-tweeted by Matt Mullenweg!

Make sure to capitalize the P! 😆

— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) July 4, 2018

Confessions of a WordPress Fanatic

In early 2017 I attended 'MWUG', or Manchester WordPress users group to give it it's full name. I met a bunch of lovely people including Mike Little, one of the core developers of WordPress. I was surprised. I thought anyone involved the creation  of WordPress must live in some kind of sun drenched villa on a mountain side in Silicon Valley. How wrong I was.

Mike was the really welcoming chair of the group, and they were on the lookout for people to give talks at their meet ups. Despite just arriving I offered. I'd been using WordPress since 2010. Despite a terrible memory I know that because WordPress helpfully releases a new theme design named after the year, every year, and I started with 'TwentyTen'. Also being a comedian I'll take any chance to get in front of a new audience.

I was prepping 15 minutes on how I'd used WordPress to publish a podcast when I realised what I had was quite funny but not very technically hardcore. Was my knowledge of WordPress enough for a tech savy audience? Was I glossing over the cracks in my knowledge with gags? Of course it didn't have to be funny, I was probably over analysing, and on the day it was fine.

I went back a few months later and a half hour talk on my experience of building WordPress websites commercially. Again is wasn't intend to be funny, but I couldn't help it. That's when I thought there might be a show in it. Sharing my feelings on the culture of constant updates, and making it funny. I've created bucket loads of websites using WordPress for all different manner of clients, but it never occurred to me to attempt to combine that with my comedy storytelling. So in a nutshell that's the new show - Confessions of a WordPress fanatic! at the Greater Manchester fringe. Not a duffel coat in sight.

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That might sound like an odd thing to say - but the more I thought about it the more the comparison holds up.

Google Analytics reports feedback what's happening on a website, what people are looking at and responding to. How long they stay engaged, and if they connect...becoming a customer or a fan. You can even see it in real time.

For that particular website, we added some recent case studies and removed technical jargon. By doing that we changed the language - the website's voice - and added relatable stories (short case study videos) to draw people in and acquire new customers.

I used this metaphor again this week quite fittingly, at my first workshop at the Google Digital Garage in Manchester. They were really supportive in providing me with a space to lead my all elbows 'Present Yourself!' comedy workshop, which mixes stand up comedy with presentation skills, team games, improv, public speaking tips and interpersonal skills all rolled together.

It covers the same ground as analytics, but with less artificial intelligence. It's for humans instead of websites. It's all about understanding your audience. How to stay engaged and avoid attention span 'bounce rate', and the language we use tell stories and connect with others. Again, all in real time. I guess you might call it the discussion points we have as  'human analytics'.

Human Analytics (in front of an audience) :

• Audience. Make eye contact with them, this will give you all the data you'll need.
• Behaviour. Be aware of your body language, relax and be comfortable.
• Engagement. If what you're saying isn't working experiment off script with a different approach  -this is where the scary fun learning happens.
• Acquisition. Don't try too hard to be funny. Just be yourself. Let your audience, or customers, come to you.

The feedback since I started running these sessions in 2015 has been great. Together with the help of the  Business Growth Hub  it's evident that business leaders across the North West are really keen to integrate this kind of skills workshop into their own team training programmes.
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I started my podcast in late 2016, interviewing people who use improvisation techniques in their work. Six months and fifteen episodes later and already it's paid off in more ways than I can think.

Fifteen isn't a massive number of episodes for a podcast, but the original intention was to 'box it off' as a project with a beginning and an end so it didn't turn into a spiralling not-for-profit time sink. Focus on quality, not quantity, find great guests willing to give up an hour of their time to be interviewed about their work.

It's been enlightening listening to different points of view, and stories of people in different parts of the world and how they teach the 'way' of improv in different environments. I'm getting a lot of great feedback and it's evolved into one of the most enjoyable things I do.

Check out the Bring a brick website and have a listen.

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One of the biggest highlights was playing Salford Lowry Theatre to a full capacity crowd. Nice.

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