how are you dealing with the recession?

[Bobbi Block]

hi everyone! i've never started a discussion here before so I'm not sure I'm even posting this correctly! but here goes:

i'd love anyone from the AIN community to share how the recession has hit your business, what you're doing currently to stay afloat, what your hopes and fears are about the future of our work in this economy, and anything else on the topic.

my work has decreased significantly, perhaps because i was dealing with large corporations.... it seems like the smaller companies, some non-profits, and certain industries are faring better and not slashing their training and development budgets, but I haven't found those leads yet -- my leads/clients are FROZEN!

any advice or sharing of ideas/concerns would be comforting, if nothing else! :-)

THANK YOU!! :-) bobbi

[Drew Tarvin]

To Paul's point, now is a great time to build up your own brand and look at how you can be ready for when companies are open to more training again. A blog or website could be a good starting point, as well as writing some articles on your own to help establish a bit of authority on the interwebs. At least that's what I'm trying to do, so hopefully it's smart = ).

[Bobbi Block]

thank you!

[Paul Z Jackson]

Hi Bobbi
Neat ideas from Paul L.
I'm systematically sending out a couple of topical articles to anyone on my list who might be interested. Have had some positive replies - including potential work in Holland with someone I hadn't heard from for a couple of years.
And I use the quieter times to catch up with office work and writing!
Cheers, Paul Z

[Bobbi Block]

thanks, paul! good advice. what articles? anything I (or we all) could use? :-) bobbi

[Paul Z Jackson]

Hi Bobbi
I've been sending out stuff I wrote mainly. You are welcome to use my articles about impro and organisations if you like - though I bet you've got great material of your own. Let me know if you'd like something from me. Cheers, Paul.

[Bobbi Block]

PS -- my approach lately is pure networking, referrals, cold-calling, etc, without any written material. I've always been interested in AIN creating an online file of great articles that support our work so that we all don't have to re-invent the wheel as we go out and sell. i wonder if that can happen....? or is it already here and i'm just lame when it comes to navigating the site! ;-)

[Bobbi Block]

I actually don't have support material -- I work (ed) mainly as a subcontractor, so other companies do the marketing work for me! my own work has mainly been word of mouth and it comes in sporadically. i'm trying to build up that income stream, but have not put much effort into it in the past. so i don't have an arsenal of materials. it seems you may be concerned about Intellectual Property, which I totally understand, so please, no worries! :-) I thought maybe you were talking about some published articles in business journals and such. thanks again, paul! :-) bobbi

[Paul Z Jackson]

Hi Bobbi
There are resources on this site you can use - for example, the article that is attached to the page http://appliedimprov.ning.com/group/bookofcasestudies/forum/topics/...
is now OK to use (I was waiting permission from the client for a while). That's about using improv in presentation skills training.
My concern is not intellectual property, rather that you'd probably want your own material as being most directly relevant to what you are marketing.
You could probably create articles from much on this site - eg Paul L's blog post below looks like the makings of a very good short article. Or from the references in the books and case studies section.
It would be good to have a specific chunk of the site that said 'Download these articles if you want something to support your marketing', but no one has yet created or populated such a group. The case study group is moving towards it, and you are most welcome to make this happen - write/edit/collect whatever would go in there, then ask Leif or Frederique (searchable through the box on top right of the site) to add the category to the Resources page. I'd certainly contribute a couple of articles that any member could send out as part of their marketing.

[Bobbi Block]

thank you!!!

[Paul Levy]

Just to add:

5 recession-themed areas for exploring in impro-based events

1. Radical change and innovation - responding to the crisis
APPLIED IMPROV RESPONSE: activities which allow playful responses under pressure/fast-paced impro, developing "flow" under time pressure, how teams can sometimes get cross-wires unless they coordinate together, developing collaborative responses under unplanned conditions
2. Cost cutting and doing more with less resources
APPLIED IMPROV RESPONSE: games where resources are reduced - reducing: the number of people in an activity, or the amount of time, or props, or physical space; reducing the number of worlds; exploring the threshold where reducing is NOT the right way to improve performance
3. Dealing with uncertainty
APPLIED IMPROV RESPONSE: games and activities where uncertainty can be handled in particular positive ways; group idea generation; also adding new elements into an activity requiring immediate "re-action"
4. Dealing with aftermath, recovering from bad news
APPLIED IMPROV RESPONSE: an activity where scenarios are played out based around dealing with bad news, crises etc
5. Exploring pressure and stress
APPLIED IMPROV RESPONSE: energising activities, relaxation exercises, activities about "letting go"

Hope these are helpful

Paul

[Bobbi Block]

Paul -- enormously helpful -- thank you! The problem is in getting the clients to call upon your services in the first place (or respond to your call)! I don't know about all of you, but no one is spending money on this right now, no matter how appropriate the 'sell.' Still, these are great approaches and I will integrate them -- thank you!!

[Paul Levy]

My experience of colleagues who are being hit by the recession is that their business were built on the wave of an extended boom. In fact many have never experienced a recession before.

A lot of their "fun", "motivational" and "energising" improv sessions simply haven't survived into this recession and have been among the first to be dropped or discontinued. I have friends who do drumming workshops wondering where the clients have disappeared to, friends offering "impro for presentation skills" sessions wondering why their work isn't being called on to help the more challenging tasks of "how to break bad news".

Riding the wave of a boom has been both positive, optimistic but also short-sighted. In my own business, I have experienced continuity of work with clients, partly because I believe the "product" they buy has a depth that transcends boom and bust. Also we were already showing sensitivity towards the downturn over a year ago, including some "recession-proofing" sessions. Creating what I call "recession affinity" has stood us in good stead so far. The "Credit Crunch Lunch" is my favourite example from a local cafe, that was already aligning itself with the "pain" of its customers months ago.

Applied Improvisation has a real opportunity here - we need to redesign our web site "Pitches" and take up the creative challenge to design services that show an authentic response to what people and organisations are going through. Responding "in the moment", helping people to improvise radical change responses to the downturn, are just two examples.