Nothing is truly improvised
Improv comedians are magic … or are they?
I’m not one to give away a magician’s secrets; however, as it relates to improv comedy (and public speaking, sales, leadership …) I’m going to do just that in this blog. Ruining the fun and magic of improv comedy is not the point. The point is to illustrate an underlying discipline that will help you in so many ways, whether to increase your life and communications skills, or your professional success.
When I’ve managed communications and sales teams in the past, one of the things I constantly preach about is “putting arrows in your quiver.” It’s nerdy, I know. I’m a nerd, deal with it. What does putting arrows in your quiver really mean though?
It’s good to know the process improv comedy troupes use to prepare for a performance to answer this question.
If you’ve never seen improv comedy before, either live or on tv (like Who’s Line Is It Anyway?), the process is simple: the troupe or an MC set up little scenes where the audience provides content prompts for. The audience may provide a plot point, or an object that must be used, or the type of characters that must show up in the scene. The troupe then responds by performing a scene using those audience prompts to “improvise” the lines, the movement, and the laughs.
I put the word “improvise” in quotations because as the audience, you truly feel that everything happening is spontaneous, even though it is absolutely rehearsed. I don’t mean that it is fully scripted, that would be impossible unless the suggestions are so narrow that it feels led on; and that would destroy the magic of the comedy. No, it’s not scripted exactly, it’s just very well rehearsed.
Comedy troupes will rehearse characters, bits and scenarios every time they get together. The prompts from the audience guide how they navigate through a given scene with these rehearsed characters and bits, but they are resting on material they’ve worked on and polished (at least in large part, if not in whole).
It’s important to recognize that this discipline of rehearsal is what makes the performance and the entertainment value so high and so enjoyable for the audience. They don’t need to know this about the show, but it shouldn’t detract from the art.
Jazz artists can improvise in many ways live, but they aren’t just picking up an instrument for the first time and going off. They rehearsed and learned the rules to such a finite degree that they can easily bend and break them in live performances or recordings.
“You have to learn the rules before you can break the rules. By learning the rules, you come to understand the system and how it’s built.” - Bruce Lee, the Tao of Jeet Kune Do
So how does this translate into all the other shit I mentioned at the start of this blog? Leadership, sales, speaking, life?!
For sales people, the lesson should be clear:
Role playing, while it might feel goofy, is all about rehearsal. Test material, get it down, remember what works.
Don’t be scripted, but definitely show up on the call well rehearsed. Know the material you can shift to with prompts provided by your prospect rather than an audience.
Find the most valuable messages to weave into your pitches and cold calls and bank them
When I say “arrows in the quiver”, this is what I mean. Each value message you have at the ready is another arrow you can fire if one misses or doesn’t move the conversation forward.
Let’s talk about communication, either internal or external. For leaders, the lesson is the same:
Don’t memorize or read from a script. It comes off wooden, it doesn’t convey emotion, and it doesn’t move people.
Know your shit. This is basic, but the more arrows in your quiver, the more your employees or audience will feel you understand your place as a leader and are well informed.
Act like you’re campaigning for political office, and then back off that a touch. This means stay on message, at all times, but don’t be evasive like politicians; find an authentic balance.
I’ve seen C-Suite leaders of publicly traded companies of hundreds of employees present material changes and information to the whole company on webinars or live where they literally read from a script, word for word. Y’all. Don’t do this! PREPARE!!!
Firstly, no one responded well to those presentations. They were at best emotionally ambiguous, at worst they completely disregarded the speaker as being inauthentic or downright lying. Secondly, if you’re in the C-Suite and are about to give the whole company a presentation, earn your inflated paycheck and rehearse the thing, at least.
The point I hope I’m making clear here is that professional communicators and entertainers all rehearse and practice, sometimes way more than you could possibly imagine given their forum. You can learn this superpower as well by following the same process improv comedians follow.
Like improv actors, your work will seem magical. We can keep the secret between us.