Improvise – Audio

Hi, welcome to this month’s VIP lesson, our topic, Improvise.

How can you be more successful by adapting to change faster? We’ve had this theme in many

lessons, this theme of a rapidly changing world. We all can feel it. Technology is changing and

evolving faster and faster and faster and that has a ripple effect in our lives, in all aspects of our lives.

The global economy, the global economic system also changing very quickly, and this is very

disruptive and can feel very stressful. It’s hard, because we can’t quite get used to one way of doing

things because a few years later everything seems to change again. So, sort of the more traditional

relaxed way of going about things, which is to figure out how things work and then make solid plans

and follow those plans to success in whatever part of life you want to succeed in, that doesn’t work

quite as well anymore, because midway through your plans the whole situation changes again,

whether that’s career and job or technology or whatever. And then suddenly the plans really aren’t

useful anymore.

I’m not saying don’t plan. I’m not saying just throw caution to the wind. I’m just saying that we have

to develop some other skills to get us through these rapid changes so that we can move with them and

use them skillfully in our lives, and improvisation is the way to do that.

To improvise means to spontaneously adapt to change. To spontaneously act in a way that is useful,

that is appropriate to changing situations, to the changing environment, improvisation.

Now in theatre or in show businesses, there is a kind of performance called improv, improvisation

and that’s where the performers get on stage typically, and they may have a general situation and

then they just start doing a little skit, a little story together but there’s not a script. They’re not

following any exact script. Each of the people on that stage don’t really know what’s going to happen

next. None of them know what the other people are going to do or to say. It’s quite challenging and

it’s similar, it’s kind of a metaphor for the situation we have in general in the world, where you never

quite know what’s going to happen, what the world will throw at you next.
So how do these performers, these actors, how do they handle the unexpected in this way? How do

they do it skillfully? Because many people who do improv are quite skillful and they produce

extreme extremely entertaining and funny stories and situations on stage without a script. We can

learn a lot about how they go about doing this and we can apply some of those ideas to other areas of

life, using them as a metaphor.

Let’s first talk about what not to do, because there are a number of strategies that we instinctively try

when things change suddenly, especially when the change is unpleasant or difficult. These are natural

reactions, yet they usually make the situation worse. They usually make success less likely.

1. The first is resistance; resistance and denial.

That’s when a suddenly change happens. Let’s say you lose your job, your company cuts your job

and they tell you, I’m sorry we have to have some layoffs and you’re let go. The first reaction is no

this can’t be. This shouldn’t be and you’re resisting against the situation. You’re resisting against the

change. You’re basically just trying to deny it.

No, no, no, it didn’t happen, it’s not happening, it shouldn’t happen. It’s normal.

Psychologically this is a very natural reaction, but it’s not useful, because you’re trying to deny

reality and denying reality never helps.

So resistance and denial is the first mistake and you just have to get over that quickly. It’s going to

come up in your mind, you’re going to have these thoughts, but you must quickly push them to the

side and move on.

1. Another common reaction to sudden change, especially challenging changes, is complaining and blaming.

That’s where you just start complaining to yourself, this sucks, this is terrible, and you just wallow in

this misery. Wallowing means to roll around in the misery. Get the idea of a pig in mud rolling

around, wallowing in the mud, well, it’s that same idea you’re wallowing in your unhappiness. That’s
what complaining is. Oh, this can’t be. This sucks. This is terrible, that kind of thing. Or blaming,

pointing to other people, I lost my job because of them. Oh, the company is terrible and pointing the

blame at other people.

Again it’s natural, I’m not saying it’s bad, I’ve done this many times. You’ve done it. But it’s not

productive. It’s not helpful. It doesn’t help you adapt to the change skillfully, so again, these thoughts

will come up but as quickly as possible you need to sort of let them go, push them to the side and

move on.

1. Finally, another common strategy that we’ll try when sudden changes happen is we continue holding on to
our old goals and our old plans, even though the situation is now completely different.

Even though those plans or goals might not be useful or appropriate anymore, it’s still in our nature

to want to hold on still. No, no, maybe I can still do it. All of these things make us kind of rigid. We

stop and we’re resisting the change, talking to ourselves and blaming. We’re holding on to old ideas

and old plans and none of that helps.

Now I’m not a military guy I was never in the military, but I’ve watched some Army moves in the

past. There are a few nice ideas that come from the military about this idea. Simply because, as we

can all guess, in war and battles things change rapidly. I think it was Eisenhower, I don’t remember,

one of the World War II Generals, who talked about a plan is only good until the battle starts. So they

had this idea they would plan for the fight, but as soon as the real fighting started, forget the plan

because nothing is going to happen how you thought it would.

So they would certainly plan to try and be ready, but when the real situation came they knew they

had to be able to make rapid changes quickly to improvise. They couldn’t hold onto the plan, because

the other person, the enemy, the situation would change too fast, too quickly. They had to be able to

change with it.

The U.S. Army Rangers have a motto, which is, improvise, adapt and overcome. They shout it really

macho and it’s great. It’s a good kind of motto to have in life. Sometimes I’ll say this to myself when

changes are happening, when I’m feeling stressed, when I’m feeling overwhelmed I’ll sort of chant

this to myself… improvise, adapt, overcome… to change my mindset and get me thinking in a way

that’s more flexible.

To make me want to attack the problem, go with the change and stop fighting about it and again it,

complaining and denying it and all that stuff. So improvise, adapt, overcome, it’s a great little motto

for life in general not just for the military.

So let’s talk about this. How do you improv? What are some specific principles of improv that we

can get from performers in theatre or even from the military, two very different fields? What are the

rules of improv or the principles of improv? How exactly do you go about doing this? Here are some

ideas.

1. The first rule of improv from the theatre world is to always say yes.

This is the first thing that improv performers learn, always say yes. Never say no. What this means in

a general sense, metaphorically, is to say yes to reality. To say yes to the situation as it is. Don’t deny

reality. Don’t complain about reality. Don’t resist reality. The first step to be able to change quickly,

to take advantage of changes is that you say yes, so no matter how bad, uncomfortable or undesirable

the change, whether you like it or not you say yes. You immediately accept it, yes, yes, yes.

Now in the theatre that means that if one performer, one actor says something to the other. Let’s say

the one actor says to one of the performers, doctor I have a large tumor on my neck. That means the

other performer does not say no, no you don’t have a tumor on your neck. Right, because then that

message up the whole flow because then the other guy is like oh no, I do have a tumor. They get into

this whole argument; it doesn’t work. So, this other performer, the rule is to always say yes, must

agree with the statement that the first actor made.

This is the general rule of improv because then they can keep flowing with the situation they don’t

get into this resistant struggle where one’s trying to do one thing and the other is trying to do the

other. They’re always flowing with each other. One makes a statement or describes a situation or

whatever and the other one immediately accepts it and then modifies it, changes it, flows with it and

then the other one has to accept those changes, so they’re flowing with each other back and forth.

This can create some really great theatre and great performances. But, if they start disagreeing with

each other and saying no, resisting what the other person says or introduces, then they get in this

resistant battle that goes nowhere and it is usually quite boring and terrible. That’s why they have this

rule.

It’s the same idea if you’re more of a macho type of person and you’re in the military, if the enemy

does something, they do a surprise attack against you, they react in a way you’re not expecting. You

don’t deny it. Oh, no they’re not really doing that. Oh, I don’t like that. It doesn’t matter if you like it

or not they’re doing what they’re doing and you must respond. You have to immediately accept

what’s happening and then respond to it.

Yet, somehow in our lives, whether it’s our jobs or careers or something else, that’s often what we

do. No, no, this isn’t happening. No, no, I don’t like this. Well, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not

you have to accept it and flow with it it’s a much more skillful way to handle situations that are

unpleasant, difficult, challenging and unexpected.

1. Another rule or principle of improv from the performing world, the theatre world is to listen and observe
carefully.

This is another thing that improv teachers teach actors or performers. Don’t focus so much thinking

about what you’re going to say next, because you’re focusing on thinking about what you’re going to

do you’re not listening to the other person, so you aren’t really reacting to what they’re saying, so the

overall performance isn’t very good.

So the performers are taught to really focus on the other person when they’re speaking, the other

actor. Listen to what they’re saying. Observe, and then take what they’re giving you and react to that.

Again, it’s a nice metaphor for life in general, that when things are changing, things are happening,

instead of starting to get all worried about what you’re going to do, as a first step observe more

carefully. What exactly is happening? What is changing? How are other people reacting? Become

aware of the situation in more detail. Really understand it fully and then, a next step, let your actions

sort of spontaneously arise.

You have to trust yourself. This is really an element of trusting yourself. You have to trust yourself

that the answers will just come up.

Again from the theatre world this is often the hardest part for performers, is to just trust that when

they listen and observe carefully, when they say yes always to the situation, that something is going

to pop into their head, an action, a line, something to say, something to do. It’s going to just pop into

their head and they have to just trust it and do it, because in improv there’s no time to be thinking

about what you’re going to do next you have to trust your instincts.

It’s the same in life. It’s the same for anything. It’s the same in the military. Rangers or Army

soldiers or whatever, they’re all trained and they have to get into a situation or a battle where they

just trust themselves. They trust their instincts. They trust their training to do what’s necessary in a

fast moving situation. You need to trust yourself too.

1. Finally, in the theatre world again, people who improv are taught not to strive to be clever.

In other words, don’t try too hard to come up with some great amazing response.

Oftentimes, the best response is actually quite simple, nothing special from the outside but it works.

All you need to worry about is what comes up naturally and what works.
You just have to keep flowing with the situation. Sometimes you’ll come up with an amazing idea

and have a huge success, and it’s incredible. But many times you don’t need that you just need

something that works fairly well. You just need to keep adapting and moving forward.

When you try to think too much about always needing the great idea you tend to freeze up, because

the great idea isn’t coming and you only have an okay idea. If you have the okay idea, act on it and

keep going forward.

Let me end with a story from my own life, that was potentially stressful, where I used these ideas of

improv to recover from the situation.

I was in Hanoi, Vietnam last year doing this huge seminar, about 3000 people. I was told by the

organizers that this audience could understand English quite well and that they already knew my

basic material, so I was supposed to do an advanced seminar for them. I prepared this whole long

seminar, this was like a six hour seminar. I had six hours of material for teaching advanced English

learners.

I got onto the stage, rah, 3000 people rock n’ roll I’m ready. We start going and I start giving my

talk. I have little jokes and stories in my talk, and fairly quickly I started noticing they weren’t

laughing when they usually laugh. I’d tell a little joke and nothing would happen, only a few people

laughed and I thought something was wrong, what’s going on? I didn’t know but I kept going and

started telling more stories, but again I wasn’t getting their reactions.

After about 30 minutes I finally realized they don’t understand me. Most of these people don’t

understand me, this is not an advanced group of English learners.

They’re not advanced. They don’t know what I’m saying. Then, first is this little panic feeling like,

oh my God my whole six hour presentation isn’t going to work, oh crap.

What do I do? The lights are on me and they’re all looking at me and my first instinct was to run

away. Run to the back, hide in the back stage, curl in a little ball and they can all go home.
Of course, I had to go with this improv idea. I had to say yes. Immediately as I’m talking still in my

mind saying, say yes. This is happening. There’s no resisting it.

There’s no fighting it. So I said yes and the next thing I did was to trust myself and ideas started

popping into my head and I said okay, you can do this.

On the fly, as we say, meaning as it was happening, I just changed my speaking, slowed everything

down and used simpler words. I changed the topics. Luckily I know my topics well, so I changed

what I was doing and when we had a break I immediately went to the organizers and said get a

translator now. We found a translator to come up with and work with me and it ended up being a

great success.

If I had resisted and fought against this or tried to run away it would have been a disaster. You can do

this too. We’ll talk about this more in the commentaries about how you can specifically use improv

in your own life to have more success and adapt to change faster.

See you there.