Alex has a great post today on his Top 5 reasons to celebrate mistakes at work. I’ve been hearing lately from many clients about the need for us to loosen up and accept more failure in our work. The pressure that comes from perfection and maintaining a failsafe environment is a killer, and while we all demand high levels of accountability and performance, working in a climate where we can fail-safe provides more opportunity to find creative ways forward that are hitherto unknown. So to compliment Alex’s post, here are a few ways to create a safe-fail environment: 1. Be …
Improv again last night here on Bowen Island. It is such a rich learning space for me in many ways. Last night, one of our group kept bringing scenes back to the Olympics, and especially the luge. At times it was funny but it became tiresome in other cases, and in an extended game of freeze tag, when he stepped in, everyone knew where the scene was going. My learning from that is what it looks like when we come to a situation prepared, with a pre-conceived idea of what will work, being attached to an offering, but insensitive to …
Sunday afternoon a small group of my neighbours here on Bowen Island gathered to inaugurate an improv group. All I had was a bunch of exercises culled from the web, some eager players and a space. And that was all we needed. After a few warm ups, we got into some evxercises and then played a few scenes. At least half of the group of eight were experienced actors, several of whom were comfortable with the openness of the structure and others who struggled a little. It was cool to see us hit some real high points (especially during on …
Happy New Year! Some random pickin’s from the feed: Psychology and Security Resource Page . Learn about FEELING afraid and FEELING safe. The Conferences that Work blog. Cool, even though it seems like he has reinvented Open Space. jack/zen blogs the 7 principles of improv.
Just off the phone with a friend of mine, Jackie Minns. Jackis is a fabulous actor and yoga teacher and masseuse (I do live on a British columbia island you know!) and she and I have been scheming up some ideas to start an improvisational theatre group here on Bowen Island. Our first gathering will be on February 7 and so in doing some research I came across some great collections of improv games and exercises. Learnimprov.com has a great list and a random workshop generator. The Living Playbook is encyclopedic in nature and is the basis of the free …