Jerry Kail's Blog (6)

In my previous post, I described the theories of the late traffic engineer Hans Monderman, “the guy who hated traffic signs.” Monderman believed that signs and other traffic-control devices serve to shield drivers from their own sense of their surroundings and make them less alert to sudden unfolding situations. Based on these ideas, Monderman created the concept of “shared spaces” in which drivers and pedestrians can coexist with a minimum of external controls. You may be wondering what it wou… Continue

(The following is a recent post from my blog THE DAILY IMPROVISER, http://the-daily-improviser.blogspot.com/ ) "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign / Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind" "Signs," by The Five Man Electrical Band Today I’d like to introduce you to Jake Straw, a man who, when confronted with the very idea of improv theater, is guaranteed to say: What? Throw away the script? Have the actors interact with the audience and let them drive the scene? Give up control… Continue

(The following is an entry from my blog THE DAILY IMPROVISER - http://the-daily-improviser.blogspot.com/ ) I admit it: There are times when I wonder if my quest to build bridges between the worlds of improv and Organizational/Human Development isn’t just a bit quixotic. And then the world drops a connection into my lap that encourages me to keep tilting. I had such an experience as I completed reading The Three Laws of Performance, by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. In the n… Continue

(The following is the latest entry in my blog THE DAILY IMPROVISER: Improvising in Business and Life. http://the-daily-improviser.blogspot.com/ ) Improvisational theory is deeply ingrained (even if not always so acknowledged) in the current thinking about the best ways to maximize organizational performance. A recent book titled The Three Laws of Performance, by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan, continues spinning this implicit thread of connections between the improv stage and the wo… Continue

(Some thoughts upon reading an article about one of my comic heroes, Jack Benny.) Jack Benny may not have been the funniest man in the world, but he was definitely in the top two (along with Groucho Marx). A classic Benny routine illustrates an important point about being an… Continue

After a year off from attending the AIN conference, I came away from Banff experiencing a varied canvas of impressionistic thoughts and feelings – reconnection, engagement, involvement, excitement, enervation, second winds, expansiveness tempered by occasional insularity, a continual sense of being present at the creation (is improv anything less?). After three days of basking in the energy and spirit of the AIN community, I returned to Ohio inspired, reju

… Continue