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Improvise – Main Lesson

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

The first is resistance; resistance and denial.

That’s when a sudden 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 kind of 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 that 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 those 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 movies in the past. There are a few kind of 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, basically 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, and to 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 theater 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 theater 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 theater 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 messes 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 theater and some 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 teach 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 is not very good.

So the performers are taught to just 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—

1. the 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 theater 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 theater 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.

So 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 little 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. And 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 just 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. I 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.