AIN 2011 is the year that many colleagues collectively said Enough!
The History. For many years improv has had a bad name in business. It has been a hard sell, has been limited or diminished to “soft skills”, was limited to ‘just for fun’ teambuilding, and has not accepted by the business world in general. Nevermind the fact that, for years, it has been a key tools that can transform business and organizations to propel them forward to being more innovative, productive, happier, and successful.
Well enough is enough.
The Changing of the Tide. At the AIN 2011 conference several different initiatives were all focused on one thing – making a solid business case with the research and data behind it. Finally we can stop making the case individually with each new client – and address it in the bigger picture as an industry.
What will it look like? It will take many forms from websites, research projects, peer-reviewed journals, academic papers, conference presentations, white papers, and many other ideas. The current holding place of all of the information are a few discussion groups on the AIN website – but this will surely evolve and mature.
Fortunately the tide is already starting to shift and I am seeing improv show up in business media more all the time. That’s just one more case that people are waking up to the benefits that improv brings to organizations.
Do you have research, articles, news, or book references that support the benefits of improv in business?
Let me know in comments below.
© 2011, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.com
Rich Cox, Business and Performance Coach, combines years of experience in business, finance and technology with his extensive work in leadership communication and improvisational theater. Rich teaches innovation and leadership communication with organizations worldwide including improvImpact, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Google, Microsoft, Visa, Cisco, the Bravo television network and the Oracle Foundation. Rich speaks on Applied Improv around the world and is the co-founder of ImprovNotebook.com and coaches and performs improv with BATS Improv, Fully Improvised and Over The Moon And Under The Bed. Prior to coaching, Rich was a CEO, VP of Marketing, Marketing Consultant and Engineer and walked from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2003. Rich lives with his two dogs in San Francisco.  Follow Rich on twitter!
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This news is like an inspiring suggestion to an improv actor on stage.
Several years ago I went looking for any business case for improv. I found (only) one article in the Harvard Business review that measured the success of improv training. However, it was for a very small company and the approach was definitely ‘theatrical’ …which tended to overshadow its effectiveness.
More stats = More improv!