Improvise This!: How to Think on Your Feet so You Don't Fall on Your Face

by Mark Bergren, Molly Cox

Overview

Businesses are sending their top managers to improvisational classes to learn how to give presentations, how to talk to clients, and how to finesse difficult situations. But those same skills can be mastered with the help of the simple and fun exercises found in this book. The authors explain how improvisation comes into play in our daily lives, and the rewards of taking risks in those situations. Improvise This! is filled with true-to-life business scenarios and offers methods for not only surviving but triumphing in those situations, making this a valuable and entertaining resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401397012
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	06/01/2002
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	463 KB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Mark Bergren, Molly Cox, and Jim Detmar are partners in Out of the Blue, an enormously successful corporate-workshop, sketch-comedy, and improv company. They teach and perform nationally for companies and associations such as 3M, Kaiser Permanente, Rainforest Café, State Farm Insurance, and the Paris Las Vegas Resort. They are based in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Curtain Up!	1
1	So, What Is Improv Anyway?	5
2	Breaking Barriers: Take a Flying Leap Over the Wall of Fear	23
	An Inside Tip from Outside the Box
3	Spontaneous Combustion: Igniting Your Creative Spark	43
4	In the Moment and Out of Your Mind	54
	Famous People Who Should Have Improvised ... And What They Could Have Said
	An Inside Tip from Outside the Box
5	Active Listening: You Can't Hear the Sea When You're Inside the Shell	76
6	"Yes...And!" What You Don't "No" Won't Hurt You	91
	An Inside Tip from Outside the Box
7	Pro Choices: The Right to Laugh	115
	Foolproof Ways to Improvise Your Way Out of Any Situation
	An Inside Tip from Outside the Box
8	Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Brainstorms: Creative Meeting of the Minds	140
9	Speaking of Speakers: Are You a Woofer or a Tweeter?	154
	An Inside Tip from Outside the Box
10	Throw Away the Script! How to Improv(e) Your Customer Service	176
	An Inside Tip from Ouside the Box
11	Blackout! The End of the Beginning	194
	Epilogue: Group Games People Play for Fun and Profit	206

Editorial Reviews

Most of us have had the experience of leaving a meeting feeling frustrated, going back to our desks, starting our work, and then suddenly finding the words we were looking for half an hour ago. Let's face it, the glory in meetings doesn't necessarily go to those who do the best work; it is inevitably claimed by the person who is best at thinking on their feet. If you want to learn to improvise better, this book will help. The authors provide a number of suggestions that will be of value to anyone who wants to loosen up, become a better listener, and be able to provide quick responses in work or social situations.

bn.com

"Look into your own private personality mirror and see a grin instead of a grimace." "Eat a completely different lunch at a brand-new restaurant. Just because." "Discover the name(s) of your own personal theme song(s)." Trite suggestions like these abound in this book written by partners of a sketch comedy/improvisation company that offers workshops to help business people loosen up. True to form, the authors don't call the sessions in their book "workshops"; rather, they prefer to call them "playshops." Their approach results in a volume that is lively, yet fails to make a real connection between improvisation and work. The authors contend that "businesses are sending their top managers and frontline staff alike to improv classes in droves," yet they fail to offer any concrete business cases that explain why. Other than mentioning that Southwest Airlines flight attendants use humor to get passengers to listen to flight instructions (an example now tragically outdated in the post-September 11 environment), there are few examples of how improvisation has led to product development, employee retention or increased profitability. What the authors do contend, however, is that loosening up in the workplace could have an indirect affect on these components, in that fun equals happy employees equals more success. A better choice for those interested in "out of the box" thinking in the workplace is Guy Kawasaki's Rules for Revolutionaries or The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from Ideo, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley et al. Agent, Laurie Liss. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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