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Let's Improv
11 Plays1 year ago
Amy Ruppert Donovan, MCC comes back for a fun and spontaneous account of her experience doing improv and the surprising parallels with coaching. What can we learn from a practice that most would think is so different from the coaching framework?
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Transcript
Introduction to Prime Space Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Prime Space, a Prime Coaching Academy podcast with your host, Elias Scultore.
00:00:14
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So hello, my friends.
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I have a big surprise for you today here because we have our favorite person at Prime Coaching Academy here with me
Amy's New Adventure in Improv
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today.
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Hello, Amy.
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Hi, Elisa.
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I'm the favorite person?
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Of course you are.
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Oh, boy.
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Okay, I'll take that all day long.
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So we are going to have fun here today.
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And because Amy, you started a new adventure.
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I did, Ilias.
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I decided to go out on the skinny branches with my own, pushing my own growing edge.
Improv Skills for Coaching
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And I've been taking improv classes and actually had my first stage debut about a week and a half ago.
00:01:02
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How fun.
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Improvisation.
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So a whole activity on improvisation.
00:01:08
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That's fantastic.
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And now I'm pretty sure that our listeners are thinking here.
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I thought that this was a coaching podcast.
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Why are we going to talk about improv?
00:01:19
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Well, one of the things, one of the reasons I wanted to do improv is because I felt there were a lot of possible ways to learn how to stretch myself as a coach.
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with some of the techniques they use in improv.
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And I was right.
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It's honed several skills that I have as a coach and helped me sharpen some things.
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Yeah, and it's interesting because you're not the only one.
00:01:47
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I have heard of many coaches using improvisation and going through improvisational courses and some workshops on improvisation and coaching.
Audience Suggestions in Improv and Coaching
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There is a correlation between what happens and
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in an improvisational setting and coaching.
00:02:06
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So I thought that it would be wonderful for us to take the next 10 minutes or so for us to discuss these points.
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And maybe we can, I'm eager to learn from you on what you have noticed as far as the relationship between improvisation and coaching.
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Where are we going to start?
00:02:26
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Well, let's start with how we begin usually on stage is we will ask the audience, give us a word or give us a situation.
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And, you know, people just start shouting things out.
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And usually there's one that, you know, either shouts first or whatever that you choose that.
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Um,
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And that essentially is the agreement.
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Here's what we're working on here.
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You know, bananas.
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Shout out.
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And now you've got actors standing there going, OK, bananas, bananas, bananas.
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This is our agreement.
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All right.
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So usually, you know, in a coaching relationship, people, it doesn't go that fast.
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First of all, that, you know, people dance around.
00:03:14
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But what happens is you, you center your acting around that word.
Spontaneity and Agreement in Both Fields
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And just like a client will give you something to anchor on initially, right?
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We realize we have to go into more discovery with that, with the client to really get a good session agreement.
00:03:31
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Same thing in improv, right?
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You start with bananas, but it's like, oh, okay, how do we do bananas here?
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And so you don't have any time to think about it.
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You have to start to respond immediately.
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Again,
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just like coaching.
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The client presents something and we're going at it.
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And so the actors will start, usually one will just start going and do something that includes the word banana or something about bananas.
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And then the other actor has to start responding to that immediately.
00:04:06
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So just in itself, you know, the agreement is very spontaneous, but also it isn't where you're going to end up either.
00:04:19
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So this is beautiful here, because I always say that the principles of the ICF core competencies and the principles of the coaching framework can really be applicable in so many, perhaps every aspect of our lives.
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I'm a firm believer of that.
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Everything in life has beginning, middle and end.
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Right.
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Life itself has beginning, middle and end.
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And here comes, you know, for you to have a successful improv act, you need to have something that you're going to agree upon and that you're going to start working.
00:04:58
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Yes, perhaps it is not as fleshed out as in the coaching conversation.
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The coaching conversation is an intentional process.
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But you do agree between the two, the whatever actors are involved and the audience that we are going to talk about this specific point.
00:05:15
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So that's a beautiful way to look at the correlation here.
00:05:21
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Well, and I'm going to go back to what you just said about an intentional process.
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Improv is an intentional process.
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There's a process to it.
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And also similar, you have no idea what's going to happen within that process.
Embracing Uncertainty in Improv and Coaching
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Not knowing.
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Right.
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There's where I'm going next.
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Because that is mainly what improv is about, is you don't know.
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You have no idea what's going to happen moment to moment.
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But you have to respond to it, right?
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You have to respond to it and keep it moving forward.
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So a lot of similarities there.
00:05:58
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So I would say that right now, you know, in this, not only embracing that not knowing, I don't know where we're going.
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We don't have a script.
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And in order for you to embrace that not knowing, there has to be tremendous amount of presence and listening.
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You have to be here in this moment.
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You can't be thinking about two seconds ago because then you're going to pass over and you're not going to know what to say.
00:06:25
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Yeah, you'll just be left in the dust.
00:06:27
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And you'll be relieved by one of your fellow actors because you're just standing there with a stupid look on your face.
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Yeah.
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That's my greatest fear on improvisation.
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All of ours.
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It really is all of ours.
00:06:39
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So, yeah, there's a lot of this.
00:06:42
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You're in a constant state of not knowing moment to moment to moment through every moment you're on stage and off stage watching what's happening because you have to jump in, too, at times.
00:06:53
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There's also this bit of dancing in the moment, right?
Connection and Presence Techniques
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That you don't know, but you got to dance.
00:07:01
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The rhythm can change at any time.
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The tone, everything can change in a split second.
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And you have to respond to that.
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And it, you know, it gets all your adrenaline going.
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Right.
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Even when we're just practicing, let alone when there's an audience, it's completely different, but it gets all your adrenaline going because you're right in the moment.
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You're so present and you don't know what's coming, but then it comes and then you respond.
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And then it just, you know, it's a beautiful thing.
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This dancing with your fellow actor, it requires a tremendous amount of connection.
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When you walk on stage with another actor, you're all about eye contact.
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You're all about connection.
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If that connection is not there, if somebody, if the, if another actor gets up and decides they're going to, you know, be the spotlight on the stage.
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Right.
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and they don't take consideration for their other fellow actor, there's no improv happening there.
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There's just one person standing there.
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So that connection is everything between actors going on.
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And it creates a tremendous amount of camaraderie with your classmates and fellow actors, which is a beautiful thing.
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But that connection is so vital.
00:08:21
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And I think that this is based on my conversations with other coaches that were doing improv and seeing the correlation.
00:08:28
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I think that this is at
Improving Coaching through Improv
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the core.
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This aspect of the not knowing that you have to be present all the time.
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You have to connect.
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You have to have that connection.
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You have to be listening.
00:08:38
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It's such a crucial parallel.
00:08:41
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between what's happening in improv and what's happening in the coaching conversation.
00:08:46
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And a lot of coaches are doing this to exactly improve that presence, improve that listening, improve that spontaneity, improving the dancing in the moment, improve that trust in the not knowing.
00:08:59
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I don't know what's going to happen.
00:09:00
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I don't need to have the next question ready or create the next question in my mind.
00:09:05
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Because if I'm thinking of what I'm going to say next in improvisation, I miss the point.
00:09:11
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And all those things you just said, Ilias, and like on steroids and improv, you know, you're standing there and the audience is like waiting for you to give them something.
00:09:24
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Right.
00:09:25
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But it's all of those things are so important and there's so many parallels to it.
00:09:31
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I wish I could say, you know, in almost 30 years of coaching, I'm great at improv.
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But I'm not.
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Just a novice, you know, and it's like I'm relearning all over again.
00:09:44
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But at least I have some experience in it and I understand it, you know, because of what we do in coaching.
00:09:51
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But it is there.
00:09:53
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You know, language is another piece of this, too, in that we have to match the other actors.
00:09:59
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So they're going to come out and they're going to present an emotion.
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They're going to present language because of their character that's specific to the character or the situation or whatever.
00:10:07
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And we have to match that.
00:10:09
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And I would I would I would expect also that you need to whatever you're going to say, you need to say concisely because you don't want to take the whole time.
00:10:17
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This is about bouncing back and forth between you and the other actor.
00:10:21
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If you are convoluted with your language, if you are speaking too much, then it loses the whole interaction between the two actors.
00:10:30
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Yeah, and that's exactly what I'm talking about.
00:10:33
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The one that's on the stage all about themselves is going to lose everybody, right?
00:10:39
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So there's another piece too that's very, I think, very applicable to coaching and that one of the things we are cautioned about early on in our learning in improv is do not bring transactional scenes to the stage.
Avoiding Transactional Scenes in Improv and Coaching
00:10:56
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Transaction does not work in improv.
00:10:59
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Wow.
00:11:00
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Why is that?
00:11:01
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Well, you won't be surprised when I tell you, because once the transaction happens or is even presented, it's over.
00:11:13
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Right.
00:11:14
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You do this.
00:11:15
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I do this.
00:11:17
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We're done.
00:11:19
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We're not building, we're not creating it.
00:11:22
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There's no development.
00:11:23
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There's no development of the relationship.
00:11:25
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There's no development of the characters.
00:11:27
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And in that development is what the audience engages in, right?
00:11:34
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And it's the only thing that makes improv work.
00:11:36
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So when it's transactional, you'll find yourself, and we've all done it.
00:11:42
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This is the thing, right?
00:11:44
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You bring this transactional situation to the stage and you, you know, one says something, the other says something, the other says something.
00:11:52
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And then you're standing there.
00:11:53
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You have no idea where to go.
00:11:55
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And it isn't that true to coaching.
00:11:57
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I so appreciate that.
00:11:58
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This is this is really beautiful.
00:12:00
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If we are transactional in coaching.
00:12:02
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So here, OK, this is the problem.
00:12:05
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Let's find a solution.
00:12:06
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It's over.
00:12:07
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Right.
00:12:09
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There is no time or space for development, for growth, for the amplitude of the client.
00:12:18
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So beautiful to notice this.
00:12:20
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And here comes improvisation and showing to us like if it's transactional, there is no interest.
00:12:26
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Exactly.
00:12:27
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Exactly.
00:12:28
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It's not interesting.
00:12:29
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Yep.
00:12:29
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Yep.
00:12:31
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Love that.
00:12:31
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Love that aspect.
00:12:32
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Something for us all to keep in mind here.
00:12:34
Speaker
Amy, so to wrap up here.
00:12:36
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So how does an improvisational act ends?
Natural Endings in Improv and Coaching
00:12:43
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So hopefully the actors are aware enough that they know it's hit some sort of crescendo, right?
00:12:54
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Or some sort of natural...
00:12:58
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conclusion and you might only be on stage 30 seconds and that conclusion hits.
00:13:05
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Sometimes it's that you've dropped a line, you get the big laugh and going beyond that is just going to start to dilute everything.
00:13:13
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So it's that, if I can recap what we've talked about, right?
00:13:18
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We have the theme come, we start to build off the theme, the characters start to develop with one another.
00:13:24
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And then there's usually something where the characters develop to what's most important to them.
00:13:35
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Because there are also stakes are something that we talk about in improv, you know, what's at stake for the characters.
00:13:41
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And once we address what's at stake or understand that, the character can then go on about their lives or whatever.
00:13:52
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But it's kind of the same process in that we discover what's meaningful with our clients and we get to a certain state with that meaning that
00:14:03
Speaker
An awareness that climax.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, that comes to a natural conclusion and you're done, right?
00:14:08
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There's other ways to end it where your fellow actors will help you end it.
00:14:12
Speaker
One of the things, I call it a mercy kill, where they just come on stage.
00:14:15
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate this idea that there is a natural evolution of that conversation that reveals itself.
00:14:27
Speaker
It comes to a place where...
00:14:29
Speaker
oh here is what we what are we going to what is the result of this interaction that we had here and which is exactly evokes awareness in a coaching conversation of course in a coaching conversation we want because it it's a more intentional process there is uh the whole aspect of what you're going to do with that particular awareness and that's what we say in facilitating client growth
00:14:54
Speaker
Perhaps in improv, that's when analogies sometimes go, you know, astray.
00:14:59
Speaker
But, you know, like in improv, you know, there is no need for, you know, what is the follow up.
00:15:06
Speaker
In coaching, there is.
00:15:07
Speaker
We need to support the client into what are you going to do with this reveal that just happened.
00:15:13
Speaker
Exactly.
00:15:15
Speaker
Well, Amy, thank you so much for this.
00:15:17
Speaker
This is fascinating.
00:15:19
Speaker
And I am really curious to hear what else you learned from this experience.
00:15:24
Speaker
And it excites me.
00:15:26
Speaker
And perhaps, you know, who knows?
00:15:28
Speaker
Maybe I'm going to join an improv class here in St.
00:15:30
Speaker
Petersburg.
00:15:31
Speaker
I'm going to get you there.
00:15:34
Speaker
Thank you, everyone.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:15:35
Speaker
Thank you, Amy.
00:15:35
Speaker
Thank you, everyone, for listening to this podcast.
00:15:38
Speaker
Don't forget to subscribe.
00:15:39
Speaker
Don't forget to share this with others about the podcast.
00:15:45
Speaker
Don't forget our YouTube channel.
00:15:47
Speaker
And I will see you next time.
00:15:49
Speaker
Take care.