Every Wednesday evening for the last 8 weeks I’ve been, notably, cheering someone pulling imaginary items out of an imaginary box, lecturing on subjects I know nothing about, performing mimicry dances, three-line scenes, and, most importantly, accepting each of my co-performers’ offerings with the attitude of ‘YES, and…’
Welcome to Improv (-ised) Theatre, the little-known comedy analogue of Lean organisation.
Like most good things, both consist of three simple ingredients:
- POSITIVISM / TRUST
Being very different people from diverse backgrounds, we all arrived fairly quiet & shy. Gradually though, we were taught that ANY offering from any actor would be accepted as “Yes” and built upon. Unconditionally. As a result, we learned to trust each other. Each actor grew in confidence that their offering would be accepted and became empowered to contribute freely. Only then did we really start to progress as a group. Magic! We all made ‘mistakes’, but it didn’t matter: they were incorporated into the performance and were often funnier than the actual material, which was, after all, the purpose…
- PURPOSE
There’s one absolute purpose of Improv comedy: create humour.
There’s one absolute purpose of Lean organisation: create value.
So how do we get there? ...
- PARAMETERS
A game of three-line scenes won’t work if the participants throw in extra lines: they’ll dilute the humour. Likewise, a design agency won’t succeed if the staff start selling fruit & veg.
Parameters are needed to focus the Positivism, towards the Purpose, in an efficient way. Nothing more.
As organisations grow, the tendency is to centralise decisions, micro-manage staff and preserve established processes. In reality, these reactions only serve to demoralise staff and ossify the processes of the organisation in the same way that responding “No, but…” to improv offerings can really kill a scene.
The alternative is a truly agile, Lean organisation: one that trusts, empowers and incentivises its staff to create value, within the bounds of a particular niche. Only then will the magic happen.