REBOOTR'S 'NEUROPLAY' COMMUNICATION PROGRAMS

Active listening exercises help you tune out your own thoughts and focus on what the other person is saying. This improves your information gathering and helps you build a better case. It also improves interpersonal communication, which is helpful when dealing with stressed-out colleagues.

“It’s very common when talking to someone to start tuning them out and planning what you’re going to say in response while they’re still speaking,” said John Windmueller, WIT@Work training manager. “The idea is that I can use that extra time to prepare… But that doesn’t always make for the best conversation.”

Maura Mazurowski (25/9/2019), ‘Lawyers find improv comedy skills help them think fast‘, Virginia Lawyers Weekly,

Improv is all about being present with others, listening deeply to understand their perspectives, and contributing the conversation in a way that benefits both of you. These principles are essential for true leadership, which involves dropping your own agenda and focusing on others, truly listening to understand them, not just waiting for your turn to respond.

Improv challenges you to communicate better, teaching you to be actively present, listen attentively, support and respect others, and be flexible and adaptable. These skills are essential for any type of communication, but especially for building strong relationships and connecting with others on a deeper level.

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”

When you’re present in the moment, you listen more attentively and respond more effectively to what’s happening. This is essential for good client relations and public speaking.

People can sense when you’re present, and they respond in kind. When you’re not present, you’re likely to be rehearsing what you’re going to say or worrying about what could go wrong. This makes you seem disconnected and inauthentic, and it damages your relationships.

If your job is to connect with an audience, being present is essential. The more you’re in your head, the less you’re in theirs. And if you’re trying to convince them of something, you’re less effective when you’re not present.

Being present is also important for entrepreneurial thinking. When buyers want more than just legal advice, your work intersects with business, especially if your clients are startups. Being present helps you to better understand their needs and develop creative solutions.

Finally, being present can help you overcome a fear of public speaking. When you’re present, you’re more grounded and confident. You’re also better able to connect with your audience and deliver a more engaging and persuasive speech

Being present in the moment is essential for good client relations and public speaking. When you’re present, you can listen more effectively and respond to what’s happening in real time. This makes you more relaxed and authentic, which builds trust and rapport.

Through practicing with colleagues, this then becomes more of a default way of working.

Applied improvisation emerged from the desire to cultivate these qualities  and to see what lies beneath an issue by improving active and authentic listening, accepting what has been offered, and building on it.

Improvisers demonstrate highly desirable behaviours, such as collaborating effectively, generating ideas spontaneously, remaining flexible, taking risks, accepting failure, motivating others, and solving problems. Even the originator of modern improvisation, Viola Spolin, her original work was a tool to foster communication and collaboration between immigrant children who did not necessarily share a common language.

This fostering allows emotion to be taken out and transparency and honesty to drive the way towards solutions.

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’.

The following summaries are based off:

Charles J Limb, Allen R Braun (27/2/2008), ‘Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: An fMRI study of jazz improvisation’, PLOS one, 3(2):1

“Limb and Braun discovered that during the improvised riffs, the jazz musicians medial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with language and creativity significantly increased in activity, whereas their dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, the conscious control part where you judge and correct your behavior became dormant. Fascinated by these results, limb has gone on to carry out similar studies with freestyle rappers, and most recently, with improvisational comedians with very similar results.”

Max Dickins, ‘Improvise!: Use the Secrets of Improv to Achieve Extraordinary Results at Work – Chapter 3: spontaneity’, Icon Books

“[Second City is] participating in a neurological study with [Dr. Charles Limb’ where he has improvisers underneath an fMRI machine.
And what he has discovered so far is, the brain is in a different state, when it’s improvising.
And in particular, the fear and shame parts of the brain go way down when you’re improvising …”

Francesca Gino (11/7/2018), ‘Why it Pays to Break the Rules’, Second City Works

When staff have a greater hand in the Values, Mission or Ethos of the organisation, they own it, and also may hold others to those values of mission. This is a process that can take from 2 to 4 sessions to get a full and frank catalogue of what matters to the staff and how they see the organisation they work in.

Through one-on-one interviews with key staff members from all levels of the business, we identify the root causes of unhealthy workplace relationships, including personal issues, external influences, and personality clashes. This audit allows us to tailor our the most effective activities to help improve these relationships.

Maps for intra-team, inter-team and management relations

We map out how each member of a team can collaborate and work the best with other team members.  This is based on their most cherished concepts and activities from the NeuroPlay. This map gives management a clearer view of the strengths of the relationships within each team (and also between teams).

Members can work together, and what day would be able to achieve when they get the opportunity. Then the next step would be motivating them to connect with those closest to them, and create a problem solve.

We help organisations set up a paper or digital based complement system where each staff member compliments any other staff member or team on a weekly or fortnightly basis.  This is one of the most powerful ways to bridge the gap between different staff members, give an insight into each staff members, view of others, and also show potential pathways to overcoming culture or relationship issues between staff members.