![]() You’ve heard the question before and you already know the answer. You are an authority figure and you want to start formulating an intelligent response. There are many reasons why we don’t actively listen. We call this “Active Listening.” This may be obvious but it is harder than you think. It’s all about listening…reaaally listening, so that you can absorb, understand, react and build. This can’t happen if you are in your head trying to think of funny things to say. The more perceptive you are the more you’ll pick up your scene partners intentions and the more quickly you’ll connect to “find the game” or get to meaning or advance the action to create something interesting and perhaps even memorable. You listen by staying in the moment and not planning ahead. You listen with your whole body – with your ears, with eye contact with your body language. Each action provides information and its your job to keep the ball in the air. All we have on stage is each other and the information we are giving off needs to be picked up as you build your adventure together. We need to react to all information presented, both verbal and physical. It’s crucial to creating successful material on stage, in the moment, in collaboration with others. Improvisers, like therapists and bartenders, tend to be great listeners. We’re going to introduce and unpack some of these and translate their applicability to the GRC professional. ![]() Some lessons are philosophical and some are tactical. These are muscles that can be developed…by anyone. There are many exercises that improvisers practice (yes practice) that help them build these skills. They are comfortable being uncomfortable so their natural personality and wit can come out. They are fearless and creative and engaging. They also tend to be great listeners, great supporters, great collaborators, great storytellers, and they are experts at being non-judgmental of themselves and others. Funny people who are good improvisers often get famous – Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell to name a few. On stage, funny is often the byproduct of good improv, because of the unexpected connections and spontaneity. It is not, however, the art of being funny. It is thinking on your feet, creating on the spot, off the top of your head. What is Improv? It is the art of making something out of nothing. The fine folks at SCCE asked if I would expound upon these concepts in blog form, which we will be doing here over the next several months. There are actually quite a few skills and philosophies that professional improvisers use to be successful on stage that can help the GRC professional (and leaders in general) communicate more effectively to build a culture of collaboration, transparency and trust. We had lots of laughs – because improv is fun – but we also started making connections between the wonderful world of theater and improvisation and the compliance community. I had pleasure of leading an improv workshop at this past years SCCE Compliance & Ethics Institute, where we had 350 GRC professionals participate in some improv exercises focusing on communication, collaboration and leadership. Hi, I’m Ronnie Feldman, President of Learnings & Entertainments, a creative services and content provider that focuses on improving corporate communication through the use of improvisation and purposeful humor. Okay, great! We will now talk about Improvisation and Risk Mitigation, Culture & Leadership. “Risk Mitigation!” “Culture!” “Leadership!” Just yell out the first thing that comes to mind. By Ronnie start today’s blog post, I’d like to get a suggestion from the audience.
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