There’s a word that, when I use it in front of an unsuspecting room of workshop participants, never fails to produce a specific reaction: veiled horror combined with “oh I think I have an important client call/a gastrointestinal emergency.” 

That word? Improv.

Almost everyone has a strong association with this word, particularly when it comes to the idea of them actually participating. Maybe we remember amateur improv troupes in college, or the time a friend took us to an improv show that had too much audience participation for our taste. We think: “Improv has to be clever,” or “I’m not funny,” “I don’t think that fast,” or simply, “I am going to be so uncomfortable.”

Here is what I want you to remember: we improvise all the time! Someone speaks to us, and we come up with what to say back. Almost always, we haven’t thought about it ahead of time. That’s improvisation! And the point of a workshop like the one we do is to offer a way to practice the fundamentals of communication, to understand the dynamics at play, and to practice.

It can seem redundant to practice something we do every day, but the things we do most often are the things we’ve created the most pernicious bad habits around. Really looking at how we listen, whether we are reacting or responding, and what our nonverbals are saying is powerful stuff.

Plus, I’ve never met anyone who could honestly say, “I am never involved in miscommunication or misunderstanding.”

Improv-based communication skill-building is one of the most effective ways to quickly see where your strengths and weaknesses as a communicator lie. (Hint: almost everyone is a worse listener than they think they are.)

Learn more about Ignite CSP’s Conversational Agility workshop here!