Listening is the willingness to change

Entertaining 10:50 video from Dave Morris, a Canadian improviser. He describes the "way of improvisation" in 7 "rules":

• play
• let yourself fail (which is different to failing... giving yourself permission is half the issue)
• listen (listening is the willingness to change)
• say yes
• say and (we love "yes men", but we love "and men" even more)
• play the game (whatever the constraints are, stay within them)
• relax and have fun.

Teaching improvisation in business we know that listening is one of the key skills people need to stay afloat. Listening to client briefs, hearing what your boss really wants, listening to your colleagues so your work dovetails together.

Sounds like fun!

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Ludic Creative teaches listening in business in a fun and interactive way. Your team will feel stronger, more relaxed and creative, and most importantly, they will listen better! Regular improvising and listening workshops (as a lunch time or after work alternative to yoga, for example) will change your business today.

There are no mistakes in improvisation

Mistakes are only mistakes because we don't listen and adjust to incorporate them, says Stefon Harris in There are no mistakes on the bandstand

Music goes till about 9:58 or so in, so if you're in a hurry, fast forward!

Or download enounce, which allows you to adjust the speed of online video - it has doubled my online browsing effectiveness!

'via Blog this'

Improvising - building on others' ideas

Millward Brown took improvising as a nice metaphor for social media.

I particularly like the line "The core to improv is to take someone else’s idea and to make something new and compelling out of it"

'via Blog this'

Creative methods in organisations

Just putting the finishing touches on a presentation/workshop for the Creative Methods Conference in Melbourne this week (October 5 - 7, 2011).
Here is a handout I'm preparing for my session on working with creative arts in corporates: Solving the Insoluble.
The session is a sample session I have run for corporates before, which is both an "experience" of that session, and a meta-commentary on how I work when I work with corporates.

All the TAFE MGSM links

Original artwork by
Cindy Tonkin 2009

I played for 3 hours with inspiring High Potential individuals from TAFE last night at MGSM.
Here are links to the references I made:

• Time to Think - about giving people time to think and speak, and how you can solve your own problems if someone just listens
• The Upside of Irrationality - marvellous research into people's need for acknowledgement at work (and a lot more). A 10 minute video by the author Dan Ariely, 

Also try these links to other information about improvising and listening, neurology, insight, change and memory.

Conan O'Brien says improv is like surfing

Conan O'Brien says Improvising is like surfing in this Fast Company article on the top 100 creative people in America.
"I heard once years ago, they did a study and they found that really successful CEOs are good at knowing what's in their control and what's not in their control".  This is what improvising gives you - a sense of what and how to let go when you need to (and when to keep on!).

Confererence on using Creative Methods in organisations: I'm speaking!

If you're interested in using more creative methods in your organisations, or with your clients, or if you're curious to see how creative and artistic endeavour can be relevant to improving organisational productivity and quality of life, pay attention now!

The talented Andrew Rixon has run two years' of Story Conferences  in Melbourne, Australia. He's just announced the next part in his trilogy.

Scheduled for October 5-7, in Melbourne, "Creative Methods: Widening the World of Work" seeks to open and hold the space for conversations and explorations around the many rich and powerful ways that creative methods are used to effect change in the world of organisations, communities and individuals today... And how you may get to do the work and follow your passion in the first place!

New to the conference this year are the addition of pre-conference workshops where you can spend the day with four amazing people - they are:

-Bob Dick with a masterclass on "Exploring below the surface: eliciting stories for cultural diagnosis"

-David Denborough with his masterclass on the "Power of Song: working with individuals, groups and communities"

-Tom Verghese and Cindy Tonkin (that's me!) host "Consulting Unplugged: the secrets of flourishing in consulting"

-Viv McWaters and Johnnie Moore will mix it up with "Friction and Fiction: Creating space for deeper conversations"

Follow this link to a pdf with a lot more info on this brilliant and inspiring conference.

  

And if you register before June 30th you will take advantage of a super duper early-bird rate too!