If the thought of giving a presentation or leading a meeting at work keeps you up at night, Jay Reid says taking an improv class might help. Reid, along with Second City alum Hayley Kellett, leads corporate improv workshops through The Making-Box, a comedy hub he established in downtown Guelph. The workshops are designed to foster teamwork, boost morale, and develop skills such as customer service and leadership.<\/p>\n
Reid, BAS \u201915, says people do more improvising at work than one might think, and learning to harness the power of improvisation on the job can help business professionals overcome anxiety and improve their communication skills.<\/p>\n
Jay Reid: We use improv skills as a training tool for professional development by harnessing all the skills of improv theatre that we use on stage and applying them off stage. We like to think of improv as a framework that encourages trust, flexibility and productive collaboration. Research shows that a one-per-cent increase in corporate climate \u2014 that\u2019s a company in a good mood \u2014 leads to a two-per-cent increase in revenue.<\/p>\n
Hayley Kellett: It creates happy people. We thrive on creating a positive atmosphere. If we can
\nhelp increase positivity in the workplace, then those happy people are more likely to work harder because they\u2019re enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n
HK: Improv creates a non-judgemental area where you can try things and everybody\u2019s there for the same reason. We stress accepting other people\u2019s ideas and supporting each other and working as a team, so there\u2019s no pressure. We actually celebrate failure. When people make a mistake in improv, the worst-case scenario is that everyone ends up laughing.<\/p>\n
JR: Improv doesn\u2019t operate on funny, even though we see improv through a comedic lens most of the time. It operates on a framework of listening, connecting and responding. That first word, listening, is kind of strange to people when they think of improv because they think the silliest extroverted people are the best improvisers. We can take a group of relative strangers and within two hours have them smiling and laughing together, and building communities through the skills of improvisation. It has an incredible payoff.<\/p>\n
JR: Quite often students say the experience helps alleviate their anxieties. It\u2019s almost like exposure therapy. You have to step into the realm of the unexpected, and every time you step on the stage it\u2019s the realm of the unexpected. Because life is improvised, the skills of improv can be applied anywhere. <\/p>\n
– SUSAN BUBAK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the thought of giving a presentation or leading a meeting at work keeps you up at night, Jay Reid says taking an improv class might help. Reid, along with Second City alum Hayley Kellett, leads corporate improv workshops through The Making-Box, a comedy hub he established in downtown Guelph. The workshops are designed to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Photo by Amanda Scott","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null},"categories":[25],"tags":[33,114,112,113,52,111],"yoast_head":"\n