Fabulous intro to using improvisation in Business from Second City.
I have listened to many of Kelly Leonard’s podcasts, so his intro, which has these gems, is familiar with me:
Improvisation is yoga for your social skills
Improvisation is noisy group mindfulness
Improvisation is practice in being un-practised
Kelly Leonard
because he reaches for these often to explain improv and its applications quickly.
Here are some more resources / references on improv:
An academic paper saying it promotes divergent thinking, uncertainty tolerance and affective well-being. To save you the bother, here’s the (edited) abstract:
linked to a variety of psychological benefits, such as reductions in anxiety and depression in adult psychiatric patients and in social anxiety among adolescent public-school students.
…previous research linking improvisation training to improvements in divergent thinking in the laboratory (
…can improve divergent thinking
…can boost positive affect and increase uncertainty tolerance relative to other social interactions
Conclusions: As a means to enhance psychological health, improvisational theater training offers benefits without the negative stigma and difficulties in access surrounding other therapeutic interventions. These results support its popular use beyond the theater to improve social and personal interactions in a variety of settings
