Spreading the Transforming Power of Improvisation

Success Stories...

I thought it might be fun for folks to share their recent success stories. Share a recent story in which you applied improv principles, games or exercises in your work with others and in which the outcome was 'successful' (however you'd define success!)

Tags: appliedimprov, examples, stories, success

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Permalink Reply by Leif Hansen on March 2, 2008 at 2:59pm: Congratulations to Patricia Madson and On Your Feet (someone nudge Gary or anther OYF'er to get their profile on site here) for an excellent NY Times article in the business section today bringing attention to their work as well as to the power of applied-improv in general. I highly recommend reading it. You can check it out here.

Also, for those that missed our Today Show piece, you can see it online here.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by gary hirsch on March 12, 2008 at 9:44pm: I got the nudge...thanks for the post Leif....we are giddy about all of this...patricia is my hero!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shana Merlin on March 2, 2008 at 4:57pm: This is AWESOME. Congrats!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leif Hansen on February 4, 2008 at 11:28am: Watch my partner and I on the Today Show on February 13th, facilitating a 'Soul Tech' workshop. Let's hope they get the story right...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Leif Hansen on January 22, 2008 at 4:01pm: Well, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but our upcoming 'Soul Tech' workshop in Seattle (which will be using a number of improv games and exercises), just had some great press in the Seattle PI. In addition, the Today Show is coming to film us for an upcoming show. All this started, thanks to the LA TImes article, that I think I mentioned elsewhere. I'm both excited that this topic seems to be hitting a national nerve, and is now getting more awareness, and that this could be some great press for our workshops and services. May it also, if they film the processes, be good press for the power of improv in general!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robin McCulloch on November 30, 2007 at 8:41pm: I was doing a engagement for about 250 librarians a few months ago and because of the size I did it in a theatre setting. I could get everyone involved in about a third of the stuff I wanted to do so to make the rest more powerful I got 16 volunteers to do some exercises on stage.

I was doing "Tug of War" with them and trying to get them to understand give and take and finding a communication rythme that made both people comfortable to give up as well as take. Well as one of the participants finally spoke up and said, "Are we not supposed to want to win?"

And it was a great moment because everyone laughed but it also gave me a chance to talk about how we define winning. That if in tug of war we try to be the "winner" even though there is no real rope are we really winning. Isn't winning in this case being able to create the illusion that the rope really exisist. To do that you have to act as a team and give and take. So to be a winner in this situation is to see the team succeed. So it isn't about whether you want to win or not as much as how you define a win.

So out of this poor guy feeling kind of goofy asking a question I think a lot of them were thinking came this great moment that made the point so much more powerfully for everyone. Simple truth but very impactful in that case.; ▶ Reply to This