REBOOTR'S NEUROPLAY PROGRAM FOR LEGAL FIRMS
NeuropPlay builds the skills to win better, with our consequence-free, low-stakes and fun 'gym for people-skills'. Take your law practice to the next level. LET'S CHATUSING APPLIED IMPROVISATION STRATEGICALLY, YOU CAN
and have a greater chance of ultimately winning cases and/or attracting and retaining more clients. Where your focus is, is up to you.
YOU COULD QUICKLY DEVELOP TRUST WITH CLIENTS WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT THIS AFTER 3-4 SESSIONS OF IMPROVISATION
Instead of using “no, but” or “yes, but”, try turning it them into a “yes, and” – useful for either let’s do something, let’s do it later or let’s do something else
HOW IMPROV MAKES YOU A BETTER ALL-ROUND LAWYER
Improv is driven by its competencies² and these are learnt experientially on the spot. Similar to how fitness increases as you work out.
More active listening
For once, an active listening session that isn’t edious. The exercises that you do give you a chance to tune out of how you will react, and wait before the other person has finished, then respond.
Your effective information gathering rate will be much higher, than if you stick to what is happening in your mind.. And that means a better chance of building a full case, where all the senses are picked up.
Not jumping in helps substantially in court, however, more time is spent working with colleagues, so this helps improve inter-personal communication too. This helps , particularly with those in the office who take their stress out on others.
Think like your clients
brings entrepreneurial thinking when clients wants more than just legal advice, your work intersects with business, particularly if your clients are in the start-up space.
Feel happier at work and not near burnout
Improv competencies: accept and build
This is more than just recognition. When someone feels more supported, cared about and listened to, they tend to stay. Some will take less pay than a competitor, for a more supportive work environment.
People will contribute more of themselves, and the brains trust of the business expands. A competitive advantage over others who treat their staff within an ‘ordinary’ culture.
Overcome blocking
Improv competency: “yes, and”, accept everything as an offer.
Lawyers have high critical thinking skills. And often, it is tied up with being critical or negating others., of sorting out the bullsh1t, using logic to demolish .
Which keeps you in your mind, and not listening to the other person, other than to find out a way to respond or retort. It is often used to ignore or disregard.
Which is useful for times when it is needed. However, if it becomes an identification, then that is when it is controlling you, not the other way.
Most people don’t like it when their ideas aren’t accepted. Which is where “yes, and…” comes in handy. You still get your point across, and the other person keep engaged.
Build trust more effortlessly
Improv competencies: active listening; stay curious; everything is an offer; respond in the moment.
To build successful relationships with all parties, trust is essential. Good trust with others develops at the same time that self-interest decreases, and listening gets finer. Trust also comes when actively supporting colleagues.
(Stakeholders being colleagues in your team or other teams, peers, management, client/customers).
A more trusting work environment is where people accept and build on what each other offers. That leads to a more supportive work environment, which leads to better overall performance across teams who use improv.
The link between work relationships based on trust, and profitability is through the profit motive of ‘play’.[4] This motive, as well as improv concepts such as “yes, and…” drives sales performance.[3]
Higher trust, such as between buyers and sellers, have a higher chance of leading to a purchase.
Overall, there are clear links between high performance, productivity[1][2] and profitable[6] organisations.
[1] “The use of … competencies gained through the improvisation workshop resulted in high performance and productivity after 1 month and 3 months at the participants’ work environments” Prof. Dr. Satya Subrahmanyam (?), ‘Corporate leadership: A privation for improvisation of techniques’, International Journal of Commerce and Management Research’
[2] “In follow up interviews one month after the study, participants continued to enjoy higher levels of productivity and performance.” Dr. Farnaz Tabaee (20/6/2013), ‘Improv Boosts Leadership Skills – Effects of Improvisation Techniques in Leadership Development’, Applied Improvisation Thinking’
[3] “Findings show that higher levels of salesperson improvisation are associated with increased sales performance.” Abena Yeboah Banina, Nathaniel Bosoa, Magnus Hultman, Anne L.Souchon, Paul Hughes, Ekaterina Nemkova, ‘Salesperson improvisation: Antecedents, performance outcomes, and boundary conditions’, Industrial Marketing Management’
[4] “Improvisers become businessmen, the relationship becomes the deal, and play becomes the profit motive.”
[5] “Here too, research appears to positively correlate improv with team cohesion and trust“;”The increased positive energy, trust, and mutual regard that stems from these activities can help participants feel validated, cared for, and understood – hallmarks to positive relationships“;”I will attest that improv trains individuals in interpersonal mindfulness, perspective taking, and active constructive responding skills. … it is these elements that lead to the previously cited outcomes of increased interpersonal connection, collaboration, trust, and effective communication.” Jordana Cole (1/8/2020), ‘I’ve Got Your Back: Utilizing Improv as a Tool to Enhance Workplace Relationships’, Scholarly Commons, Master of Applied Positive Psychology Capstone Projects, Penn Libraries, University of Pennsylvania’
[6] “We’ve known for a long time that human performance and business performance are correlated. … Heskett, Sasser Jr.. and Schlesinger published their now-famous book ‘The Service Profit Chain’ and established the causal link between profitability and customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity”
Be more in the present
When you act more by what is there, you listen more to what you are getting. This is the goal behind good client relations. It also means you are more relaxed if things don’t go to plan..
People also sense when you are in the moment, and they respond in kind. Those not in the moment, will be in their head, possibly rehearsing what they have to say. A disconnected person will not have as much authenticity, and the relationship is not going to be as deep or fruitful.
When your job is to connect with the audience, this is really something that is important to harness.The more you are in your hea, the less you are in theirs. And when you are trying to convince them of something, the less effective you are when you aren’t in the moment.
It can also hel you overcome a fear of public speaking.
Mediate better
Great and effective mediation is based around listening. The opposite means both sides clam up and you get little headway. When parties get to not only tell their story, but be listening to well (and in the moment) by the mediator, then the mediator can help them move on towards an effective resolution.
Explore and use status
Improv competency: adapt to others, make your partner look good, stand your point-of-view, connect with people at the status level they are or perceive they are.
A low-status person who believes that is their identification is going to relate better to you if you show you are able to understand what it is like to think as a low-status person. That creates a form of camaraderie, and useful for building a case. The same thing applies with high-status. This is different to ‘rank’.
Improv allows lawyers to:
- recognise the ‘status gap’ between you and the client,
- explore and move around freely between status levels,
- adapt to and connect with others and
- make stating a case more immediate and direct.
Many of your clients are unlikely to deviate from their environmentally-dictated place in society, but you can, and that is to your advantage over peers who are as stuck/trapped in their level of ‘deigned status’, just as your client is. This gives you freedom to know your own status, but free to visit other status levels.
Even so, how much is your status shaped by those you perform for, or impress? Improv gives you the permission to open up to more choice in how you do this, and make status a conscious decision.
Fewer conflicts
Improv competencies: make your partner look good; find your solution
Improv helps you ride conflict and resolve it.
As work culture changes for 2022 onwards, and people are resetting their focus on a changed work world, more problem solvers who are OK with change, are needed more than ever.
Improv means each team member can see points of view from the other person’s, there is less detrimental position-holding on either side.
Conflicts can be closed easier, especially when the work environment is of supporting each other to find a solution within a “yes, and…” or “no” framework, when appropriate.
You don’t need 100% of the firm staff improv-ing. Just enough to direct the culture.
WHAT IMPROV HAS TO DO WITH BEING A LAWYER
As you can see from above, almost everything.
When your daily interactions don’t go as expected, you adapt, think on your feet, and improvise.
Yet, universities and firm don’t train improv skills, even while dealing with a major part of your job, uncertainty and incompletion.
And even if your firm’s culture is a hyper-stressful/14 hour day work-hard-play-hard, you’ll still deal with client’s unpredictability, while keeping yourself going and stay centred which can lead to burn-out.
Some see lawyering as storytelling using the courtroom as the stage and the trial as a play. Even so you need great good people-skills to deal with curveballs and shift towards a win.
A “yes, and…” mentality is very positive for your career, as it opens you up to possibilities and what other people can offer you (and vice versa).
HOW 'NEUROPLAY' WORKS
In collaboration with management, we explore listening, being heard, accepting and building. This opens up even the most reluctant participants, fostering a closer team.
Diagnose
Within 40 minutes initially, we reveal how poor connections affect the health of the teams and organisation
Confidentially we ask into the values of the organisation, the relationships and their obstables and hinderances to achieving main objectives.
Develop
We present a path for the teams to strengthen their relationships and reach their objectives through the more effective activities
Play
From one team to all, we play tailored activites that build trust, care and respect, reflecting on how to use them at work
Some people may rise to become Advocates for this new culture, helping teams reguarly practice to maintain ROI over the long-term
Measure
We regularly adapt the program to meet and exceed KPIs by observing changes in real-time and setting long-term goals beyond the program
Competencies²
When a team uses improv to work together, they incorporate at least one of the following:
- personal permission to access creativity and imagination.
- everything is an offer.
- listening, accepting, and building in the moment.
- overcoming approval/disapproval syndrome.
- good relationships with “yes, and…” and “no”, and avoiding “yes, but…”
- “bring a brick, not a cathedral”.
- be prepared for the unexpected, and adapt accordingly.
- supporting each other and making each other look good.
- leading and following.
- healthy relationship with mistakes and failure.
- building trust with each other.
- avoiding blocking each other.
- follow the fear.
- comfortably raising the stakes.
- focus on people, not objects.
- working in the ‘Flow State’.
FAQs
How do we have time to do this when we are flat-out busy every hour of the day?
If you find a way to gather more information from a client or convince more people to win your case, would you see that as a waste of time?
Of course not! Any system that helps you do that is a valuable use of your time.
Improv is a system that can help you do that. It is often associated with comedy and acting, but lawyers also need to be able to improvise. In fact, they are often improvising without even realizing it.
Improv can help you learn to adapt to change consciously and with a well-defined set of practices. This can give you a competitive advantage in your work.
Some people may still see improv as a waste of time. But if you are willing to invest in it, you will be ahead of your competition.
How does play help me at work?
Around age 9, we heard that imagination and creativity is for babies/girls, and is ignored by the school system in favour of thinking. That gets baked in and most shut that part of them down. It limits creativity. The use of play as a learning tool diminished
So in improv, we just adapt it in the form of ‘play with purpose’, giving room to explore imaginative concepts and situations like a kid, but with adult eyes.
And it’s the fun that does it (with high participation or engagement rates showing for it), covering for the deeper work done underneath the hood that is now possible.
What are the downsides of improv?
Improv is capable of being a conduit for changed behaviours, but it’s not a magic bullet for shifting some personalities.
Some team members may keep being unavailable, may keep being snarky about the process.
Many people are not used to freer thinking and are not comfortable with it.
Improv itself is solid, however, it doesn’t gel with everyone. Hopefully, your team has a majority of people who are open to improv. They will offset those uncomfortable.
Some workplaces are more challenging to bring in a different culture/improv.
- Those highly conservative and resistant to change.
- Those who do not prioritise employee wellbeing and mental health.
- Those who have bullies running the show.
- Those who don’t keep the practice going, and improv slips to the wayside.
Improv can work quite well in organisations like this. They just may not be the first to grab the opportunities.
What's different about your program from others?
First about others:
- most training is taught passively in a school-like manner (especially over one day), giving you informatio, hoping that input does the job, then leaves.
- there’s usually workbooks, powerpoint slides and things to fill out. Which all sounds like work.
- it’s genearlly not personalised to each individual’s needs
OK, about us:
- we care how individuals develop and how this helps them at work afterwards.
- improv is experiential, meaning you learn while doing. Activities bring you in immediately and you’re ‘practicising’.
- Whatever you are to ‘learn’ is done on the spot, and we go around and see what it was that you learnt. Then that helps us frame subsequent activites.
- improv teaches through the use of emotion and play, which activates parts of the brain which usually lie dormant, and stores that new knowledge for future reference.
- improv develops new communal habits, which helps shift team interactivity towards the positive.
- you constantly know ‘what’s in it for you’, and if not, you get to ask until you know.
What is seen as being a successsful improv activity?
Improv activites can also be called games or scenes, which allow improv concepts to come through clearly.
From that, each activity is helps develops one or two skills. And each activity is played out, not to win or get to the end quickly, but to journey through the skills and what it takes to finish that activity. And sometimes the exercise is a scene dealing with multiple exercises.
And each scene composes of small ‘victories’ which at any point in the scene, a skill helps increase your awareness of your own habits, reactions and behaviours, and that of others as well. This equips you for further activities, which are practice for dealing with the real world in a new way.
Will I be embarrassed?
Even if you are, it’s safe to be, as there is no reputational risk taking part in an activity.
Improv is about accepting creativity from each other without blocking. This is done within a psychologically safe framework.
What can we expect from a 'Relationship Map' of our firm?
Everyone, from managers, to staff, to clients/customers, are in a ‘system’ together, and each has its part and needs from the others. Each relationship helps make the system more or less efficient and effective. And each relationship is motivated by something (e.g. attention, status, money, intellectual challenge, helping others, opening up to new ideas etc.)
Where there is a weak relationship link, then those inter-personal connections will likely exhibit this through either disagreement, complaint, ego, competitiveness or conflict.
With confidentiality, we ask into these relationships to find those weak links and from what we get, we then choose:
- the most appropriate exercises at the best times.
- the best way to play and do those exercises.
- what results we expect to get from those exercises.
It does take time and is priced accordingly. Alternatively, we will play and do a series of exercises, and those relationships will show through the improv, in either the first or second session. We then spend time afterwards with the managers taking part and ask further into what we picked up. We then adjust our exercises accordingly.
What do you discover from staff that managers don't already know?
Managers hear a lot, and good managers know a lot about their people. It’s the factor that makes them great.
However, a manager is not neutral, and they won’t hear everything. A third party (such as rebootr) with the right questions, may be able to find more, and will use that to frame the exercises.
Improv brings a fresh perspective to issues and things that might be outside of your line of sight.
Is there a money back guarantee?
Yes. We will refund the cost of the program on the first session, if you feel you’re not getting what we both agreed you could reach out of the program for your people.
What is the ROI of improv?
Improv is not a passive program and is harder to specify than insertion of a piece of software or improvement to a mechanical process.
However, part of the discovery is in what you can measure. Here are some examples:
- decrease in workplace conflicts,
- decrease in time spent on a common issue,
- increase in physical touch (handshakes, pats on the back), or
- increase in positive internal communication.
All of these, and more, can be compared to standard work communication frequency. And this ROI will be similar to any other leadership or team building ROI you may be measuring currently.
They can also all be drawn to having a pronounced impact on finances, client retention, case wins etc.
Good to keep in mind:
- Improv works the best when the team or organisation commits to implementing the concepts of improv after improv is finished. Without being active, the ROI will be minimal.
- And what is the ROI of not doing improv? If you kep things as they are, or chose another leadership, sales training or even physical team building activities (e.g. canoeing, physical extreme team building), what is the ROI you expect to get from them? And how long do you believe that ROI from those activities will last?
With a benchmark such as these, we can then look at the type of program that would equal or improve on the ROI from those other programs.
What if my people are too busy?
I am sure some people have no time for any type of training. Maybe they are available for conventional training, and nothing too left-field.
The amount of time that improv takes to shift behaviour would be around 4.5-6 hours as a base, then more hours to sow the concepts in. Change does take time.
If you are in an environment that is too busy for anything, and you are making your way through, then why not keeping doing that? However, when that formula doesn’t work, is when you are forced to get away from busy to put a fire out.
A bit like racing to red lights. One day, a crash happens, all that time saved by racing is eliminated immediately and more.
Who else in the legal profession has done this?
- Marsha Magorsky, ‘Learning Leadership, One Improv Game at a Time’, Law School, University of Chicago
- “Now its proponents are studying its application in other fields, such as conflict resolution in legal circles, to see how to gain traction in the business world.” Christopher Mason (14/12/2009), ‘Have you heard the one about…’, Financial Times
- Sara Ramshaw and Paul Stapleton (?), ‘(UN)REMEMBERING: COUNTERING LAW’S ARCHIVE. IMPROVISATION AS SOCIAL PRACTICE‘, Law, Violence, Memory: Uncovering the Counter-Archive:2
- State Bar of Wisconsin (29/4/2017), ‘Improv for Lawyers: Building Work Skills Through Fun‘, Youtube
- As a performer and accomplished attorney, Tommy developed “Improv(ed) Legal Skills,” a 3-Credit NYS Continuing Legal Education Course that he has delivered to the NYC Law Department, the American Bar Association, Hofstra Law School, and hundreds of lawyers in both the private and public sector.
Who facilitates the programs?
At the moment, I (Eric Vigo) do the facilitation. In 2022, given foreseeable rapid growth (!), I will be training improv and improv-friendly professionals (within HR, P&C, L&D, Ops, management) to also be facilitators in the mindset and path of rebootr.