Improvise!: Use the Secrets of Improv to Achieve Extraordinary Results at Work

In this useful guide, Dickins (My Groupon Adventure), director of London improv school Hoopla, applies classic improv techniques to the white-collar workplace. Dickins believes improv skills employed in theater work just as well at the office because they help people think on their feet, build confidence, and master communication skills. Applying his techniques to job interviews, group meetings, and small talk, Dickins suggests improv systems meant to create spontaneous, innovative solutions. “Improvisation helps you get better results with the same ingredients. All by using small shifts of mindset and behaviour.” For instance, Dickins suggests team managers trying to facilitate problem solving try activities such as “turbocharged brainstorming,” listing 50 ideas in five minutes; posing “identity theft” hypotheticals, in which one imagines how a famous person (such as Steve Jobs or David Bowie) would approach a problem; and role-playing “living in a customer’s reality.” He writes that listening closely forms the core of successful improvision, and suggests tips for keeping conversations going (such as asking open questions, paraphrasing, and “mirroring” another’s conversation style). However, the advice can become redundant, as Dickins circles back again and again to his point that creativity and quick thinking can help in any business setting. Dickins’s many prompts and exercises will provide professionals with handy ways of thinking outside the box. (Feb.)