Many of you will know that Mark Emdin who heads up our workplace learning is by day an organisation development and change consultant. He works with a diverse range of leaders and teams in helping them achieve key business and strategic outcomes. Great - but what is this to do with improv you ask. 🙋
Nearly all of the organisations that Mark has worked with want to be learning organisations. That is they want to create the conditions and opportunities for employees or staff to continually learn and transform themselves. This goes beyond formal training. 👩🎓
One of the important aspects of creating a learning culture is how the organisation or team handles mistakes or failure. A learning oriented culture values mistakes as opportunities for growth and encourages employees to take calculated risks, be open and honest and learn from theirs and other people's mistakes without the fear of ridicule. And that is what we do as improvisers, every time we step on stage or join a workshop. We relish mistakes and learn from them. We also don't try and be perfect. Learning organisations also don't aim for perfection. If I am focused on doing my best and being perfect, this means:
🧠 I am too focused on myself and what is in my head to the neglect of my team or colleagues.
⛔ I may self sabotage myself and not share what might be a great idea
🤚 I take away the opportunities for colleagues to build on my ideas that allows them to shine and we co-create something great
Improvisation workshops are a great way to help teams and organisations experience what it means to have a learning culture. Through our workshops we not only have fun and play improv games, we also go behind the games and explore how the learnings can be applied to your team or your organisation. To find our more about how improv can create a momentum for change in your team or workplace, drop Mark a line. mark@easylaughs.nl #improvisation #learning #psychologicalsafety #failuretosuccess