On Monday I attended a Zoom HR class on how improv can improve your work and personal life. It was led by a former member of Second City who left comedy to go into corporate training.
The presentation was pretty standard, saying that for work starting with "yes, and" is a great way to approach new ideas. He did stress that eventually ideas have to be scrapped, yes and only works at the beginning.
He stressed how it can be modified for personal life. He said in dealing with dementia patients, "yes because" is a great treatment and in fact they have classes in Chicago just for this. But he said it also works in politics. He said his inlaws refuse to get vaccinate, he uses "yes, because you have concerns for your safety you do not want a vaccination. Let me explain why I think it is safer to be vaccinated" fosters much better communication.
Now I don't know how the following story ties into improv, but he spent a long time on it. A man, Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg, was a JR at Columbia when an undiagnosed eye condition started him to losing his sight. He had a procedure which left him totally blind. Sandy was ready to call it quits and not return to college.
His roommate though browbeat him into returning. His roommate took him to class. Sandy refused a cane or dog, so he fell often, the roommate cleaned his wounds. He would repair Sandy's tape recorder when it broke, and would read Sandy's books to him. The roommate had a sense of humor, and when reading to Sandy he would nickname himself "darkness" since Sandy couldn't see him. He would say something like, "Darkness is now reading The Illiad".
One day the roommate took Sandy across NYC to a meeting, but then told Sandy that he (the roommate) had to sketch a building for a class (he was an architect major) and could not take Sandy home. Sandy argued, to no avail. Finally, Sandy was left on his own in NY to make his way back to Columbia. As Sandy recalled, he fell often. He almost stepped in front of a subway, and walking with his arms outstretched to try and avoid walking into things, he unintentionally groped many women.
But people helped him, and he made it back to his dorm. There, the roommate "darkness" waited on him. It was clear the roommate did not go to sketch, he had left Sandy on his own to try and teach him he could do things. The roommate was very apologetic, and Sandy was very angry. But eventually Sandy came to realize his roommate had given him an exceedingly valuable gift.
The roommate never went on to become an architect. He chose a different career path. His name is Art Garfunkel. "Hello Darkness my old friend".
The presentation was pretty standard, saying that for work starting with "yes, and" is a great way to approach new ideas. He did stress that eventually ideas have to be scrapped, yes and only works at the beginning.
He stressed how it can be modified for personal life. He said in dealing with dementia patients, "yes because" is a great treatment and in fact they have classes in Chicago just for this. But he said it also works in politics. He said his inlaws refuse to get vaccinate, he uses "yes, because you have concerns for your safety you do not want a vaccination. Let me explain why I think it is safer to be vaccinated" fosters much better communication.
Now I don't know how the following story ties into improv, but he spent a long time on it. A man, Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg, was a JR at Columbia when an undiagnosed eye condition started him to losing his sight. He had a procedure which left him totally blind. Sandy was ready to call it quits and not return to college.
His roommate though browbeat him into returning. His roommate took him to class. Sandy refused a cane or dog, so he fell often, the roommate cleaned his wounds. He would repair Sandy's tape recorder when it broke, and would read Sandy's books to him. The roommate had a sense of humor, and when reading to Sandy he would nickname himself "darkness" since Sandy couldn't see him. He would say something like, "Darkness is now reading The Illiad".
One day the roommate took Sandy across NYC to a meeting, but then told Sandy that he (the roommate) had to sketch a building for a class (he was an architect major) and could not take Sandy home. Sandy argued, to no avail. Finally, Sandy was left on his own in NY to make his way back to Columbia. As Sandy recalled, he fell often. He almost stepped in front of a subway, and walking with his arms outstretched to try and avoid walking into things, he unintentionally groped many women.
But people helped him, and he made it back to his dorm. There, the roommate "darkness" waited on him. It was clear the roommate did not go to sketch, he had left Sandy on his own to try and teach him he could do things. The roommate was very apologetic, and Sandy was very angry. But eventually Sandy came to realize his roommate had given him an exceedingly valuable gift.
The roommate never went on to become an architect. He chose a different career path. His name is Art Garfunkel. "Hello Darkness my old friend".