• Illustrates the art of creative leadership.
• Practices giving and taking control.
• Practices awareness and focus.
• Practices collaboration.
Overview:.
Participants walk around in the space. In the first round everyone stops and starts walking when the facilitator claps their hands. In the last round everyone stops and starts at the same time without the facilitator clapping their hands.
Time: 15 min
Number of participants: 6 – 50
Game flow:
Have the participants walk around the space spreading them evenly across the floor. Tell them to stop when you clap your hands and to start walking when you clap again. Do this for a while varying the intervals. Then tell the participants that they have to do exactly the same thing, walking and stopping at the same time without you clapping your hands.
Tips:
It is important that the participants do not talk during the exercise.
Debrief questions:
• What was interesting about the exercise?
• What was different between the first and second round?
• Who was in control in the first and second round?
• Which round did they enjoy the most?
• What does this game reveal about leadership?
• Illustrates the art of creative leadership.
• Practices giving and taking control.
• Practices awareness and focus.
• Practices collaboration.
Overview:
In pairs participants mirror each other’s movement. First only one player leads while the other follows. In the last round they give and take control.
Time: 15 min
Number of participants: 2 – thousands (You’ll just need a stage and a sound system so that everyone can hear and see you)
Game flow:
Ask everyone to pair up with another person and stand facing each other. Each pair should decide who will be A and who will be B. Tell them that A is a person looking into a mirror and B is the mirror. B should therefore copy A’s exact movement. After a few minutes tell them to switch. A is therefore now the mirror and B the person looking into the mirror. After B has had a chance to lead for a few minutes, tell them that they have to now both lead and follow at the same time. They are therefore both looking into the mirror and being the mirror simultaneously. Now it gets really interesting. For it to work both need to take the lead and give up the lead, give and taking control the whole time. If the participants trust each other and are completely present in the moment they will go into a state of flow in which control will dissolve.
Tips:
The idea is not that the participants should try and outwit each other by making sudden movements. The idea is that they work together and move like they are one so that an observer wouldn’t be able to see who is leading and who is following.
It works best if the participants make smooth movements, not quick jerky movements.
Request that participants do the exercise in complete silence.
Debrief questions:
• What was interesting about the exercise?
• What was easier, leading, following or doing both?
• Which one did you enjoy most?
• Which one was the most creative?
• How does this apply to leadership?
• Encourages risk taking and creating a safe climate.
• Develops creative thinking.
Overview:
Participants make a circle around an arbitrary object like an empty water bottle. Each participant gets a chance to step forward and demonstrate what else the object could be.
Time: 10 – 20 minutes
Number of participants: 4 – 12 (if there are more than 12 divide them in smaller circles)
Game flow:
Have the participants stand in a circle. Place an arbitrary object in the middle of the circle. Anything like an empty bottle or a kitchen appliance will do the trick. Tell them that everyone will get a chance to step forward pick up the object and say “This is not a …. (Bottle for example) this is a …( instead of talking, the participant shows with action what the object might be). For example if it is a telescope the participant can hold it in front of his/her eye and look around the room. other participants call out what they think the object is until they get it right or they give up. The participant with the object then confirms what it was and returns the object to the middle of the circle.
Tips:
Tell the participants that everyone must come up with at least 3 different ideas. This stretches them to really think creatively and challenges their belief of what is actually possible and plausible. Most participants will think it will be impossible for everyone to come up with 3 different ideas. Where in fact there are endless possibilities.
Treat each suggestion as equally creative and encourage the participants to support each other by applauding after every demonstration.
Debrief questions:
• What was interesting about the exercise?
• How did it feel to participate?
• What made it difficult?
• What helped to make it easier?
• Illustrates the improv practise of accepting mistakes.
• Building trust
• Encourages risk taking and creating a safe climate.
Overview:
In a circle participants each get a chance to step forward, say “I failed” and bow. After each bow the rest of the participants give a warm round of applause.
Time: 10 min
Number of participants: Any (for larger groups, or where participants seem cautious and tense , divide them in smaller circles or in pairs)
Game flow:
Have the participants stand in a circle. Tell them that everyone will get the chance to step forward into the circle, then say anything in the line of “I made a mistake” or “I failed” and then give a big bow. The rest of the group then give a round of applause.
Tips:
If the group is very comfortable with each other let them share a real mistake or failure. When sharing is personal and authentic it paves the way to vulnerability and this enhances experiences immensely.
This exercise is called circus bow, because whenever a trapeze artist makes a mistake and falls down into the net, he will make a summersault out of the net and bow towards the audience as if that was exactly what was supposed to happen.
This exercise may seem silly in writing, but try it and see what surprising results you get. Remember in order to be brilliant you have to risk being foolish.
Debrief questions:
• How did it make you feel being applauded for stating that you made a mistake?
• How did it feel to applaud the others?
• What can we learn from this exercise?
• How can we help each other to feel safe to take risks?
Basic human contact – the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words – is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you’re feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can.
Martha Beck – oh Mrs Beck, how wise you are. For it is in human interaction where life happens.
This blog is the first in a series of 8 to follow after each workshop in the Level One Improvisation Course. It will serve as a space and platform to say things you may have thought of on the way home from class, to share thoughts relating to our course ,that occur when you are at work and also for you to cement the concepts we practised in your mind.
Last week we were a large, brave group embarking on a “Survival of the authentic and the vulnerable” journey. A journey that fosters courage to be yourself in a safe space. I think it’s important to just commend you right here for taking that bold step into the unknown and engaging with themes and activities that may fall well outside of your daily path.
The workshop’s theme was “Play”, but as we progressed I realised it was more about vulnerability. We don’t always see the force hidden inside this gentle word.
First up was “What I need to say”
This is a simple exercise where participants pair up and each person is afforded an opportunity to state what they need to say to be fully present. In other words… thoughts keep us from being present. Either thoughts of the past or thoughts of the future. This exercise helps bring us into the light and into the present moment. The packing power of the exercise lies in the fact that our partner repeats our exact words back to us and vice versa… So not only can you say what you need to say, but you are ensured that someone is listening.
Then we paired up again and played “ Super Hero Stories” . In this game we ask our partners to tell us 2 things. 1. The story of their name…it’s origin and meaning and 2. Why they joined the class. We as the partners have to listen carefully to what the other person says as we will need to not only repeat the information, but we’ll introduce our partner to the rest of the class…and in addition to this we will add a superhero characteristic to our partner… We make them look good. This is FUNDAMENTAL in becoming a good improviser and a happy human. Focus not on yourself, but on your partner, and make them look good.
Next up was “Name Circle”. In this exercise participants stand in a circle. One player makes eye contact with another player and walks toward them. That person must then make eye contact with another player and walk towards them. This is a great game to learn everyone’s names and react in the moment.
After this we played a set of games all relating to each other… “ 123” , “I failed” and “123 sentences”.
In 1 2 3 participants pair up again and one after the other count to 3. Person A starts by saying 1, Person B then follows with 2 and person A ends with 3… sounds easy, but not so simple… some of us tried to establish the pattern, some of us were rushed and forgot the sequence.. and then to add to the challenge, the nr 1 was replaced with a sound and a move. So now person A make a sound and a move and person B responds with 2, person A ends with 3 and then person B starts with the sound and move. Then more layers were added. We ended up with no numbers, only sounds and moves. This games teaches us to stay put in the moment, to challenge old habits and to focus on our partners.
Inevitably , everyone made a mistake. This brought us to the next FUNDAMENTAL in improvisation… there are no mistakes. Mistakes are embraced and celebrated by accepting them and then building on them. Here Burgert taught us the “circus bow”. In this game participants each get a chance to step forward, say “I failed” and bow. After each bow the rest of the participants give a warm round of applause.
Lastly we played “ 123 sentences” , a wonderful game for teaching us to listen and respond in the moment without planning.
And this is only the beginning. Improvisation is a new language that will help you to connect with yourself, others and your own unique creativity.
Looking forward to seeing you at the next class.
• Helping participants to become more present
• Practice listening and awareness skills
• Introducing improvisation fundamentals
Overview:
In pairs participants count to 3 alternating between each other who says the next number.
Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Number of participants: In pairs
Game flow:
Ask the group to divide in pairs and face each other. Let them count to 3 each person contributing the next number. Demonstrate using a volunteer. It should look and sound something like this:
A: 1
B: 2
A: 3
B: 1
A:2
B: 3 ect.
Have the participants do this for a while. Stop them and tell them to replace 1 with a sound. So instead of saying one they have to make a sound. This same sound is repeated every time.
It might sound something like this:
A: boink
B: 2
A: 3
B: boink
A: 2
B: 3
Again, allow participants a brief time to go through the new action. Then, stop the participants and have them replace the number 2 with a physical move like a wave, clap or a jig. Let them do it for a while and then for the last round let them replace 3 with a random word. The last round would then look and sound something like this:
• What was interesting about the exercise?
• What did it feel like counting like this?
• What made it difficult?
• If you would have to do it again what would you do differently to make less mistakes?
• What influence did this exercise have on your relationship with your partner?
Notes:
This is a very easy exercise and yet people struggle with it a lot at first. Often people try to do it better by planning ahead and anticipating what their next number will be. This results in them not listening to their partner totally losing the flow. In actual fact the easiest way to play the game is to just be present in the moment and listen to your partner and just respond. All you need to know is what comes after 1 and 2 and 3. How easy is that? These are the fundamentals of improvisation and collaboration. Be present, listen and contribute by building on your partner’s contribution.
• Helping participants to become more present
• Practice listening and awareness skills
Overview:
In pairs participants share with each other what they need to say to be fully present. The sharing participant’s exact words are then mirrored back to them by his/her partner.
Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Number of participants: In pares or triads
Game flow:
Ask the group to divide in pairs or triads. Tell them that each person will get a turn to tell their partner/s what they need to say to be fully present. They should start their sentence with “what I need to say to be fully present is….” Their partner must then mirror their exact words back to them by starting their sentence with “I hear that what you have to say to be fully present is…” The person mirroring then may ask whether he/she heard correctly. The Sharing person may then add detail that the mirroring person missed or mirrored incorrectly. The mirroring person then without apologising mirrors the bits that they missed. When the sharing person is happy that the mirroring person got everything they thank their partner by saying “Thank you for listening” and the mirroring partner replies with “Thank you for sharing”.
Tips:
Ask them to share any thought or feeling that is pulling them either into the past or the future that is preventing them from being present. They only have to share what they are comfortable sharing with the other person.
It is important that the person mirroring does not give an interpretation of what they heard, but try to use the exact same words as far as possible. The other person in the group can then add if any detail was not mirrored back to the speaker. The exercise is not so much about saying what you need to say to be present, but being listened to fully without judgement.
Demonstrate using a personal example. Not only will this help the participants to understand the exercise better but it will help you to feel more present and build trust between you and the participants.
Debrief questions:
• How did you experience the exercise?
• How was your listening different than usual?
• What did it feel like being listened to like this?
• Did this exercise help you to become more present?
• Why or why not?
Notes:
When we listen to people like this we help them to become fully present. In essence, what we are doing is accepting them and showing them that they are welcome and worth being listened to. And as you focus and listen to the other person you also become more present. So it is being listened to as well as listening that helps one to become more present. This exercise was adopted from Imago relationship therapy, a style of dialogue aimed at restoring connection between partners ,by guiding them to the present moment. It was developed by American psychologist, Harville Hendrix.
The transformational power of any learning experience relies on two main angles: structure and participation.
Structure: If a learning experience is structured so that a participant is provoked, acknowledged, trained, challenged, allowed to reflect and rewarded, s/he is more likely to accept and internalise the learning than when s/he is simply expected to accept information poured over him/her. This is true even if the information itself is of excellent quality and the speaker is exceptionally persuasive.
Participation: Most teachers/trainers know the Confucius saying: “Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand”. Participation and experience is more powerful than show and tell. However, participation can only occur when an atmosphere is created where participants can immerse themselves in the experience, feel safe to make mistakes, share control over their learning, see their contributions are incorporated, share the vision and are having fun at the same time.
A Show is when an experience is designed for change, but non participative – people may marvel at the incredible material and it’s potential, but are unable to apply it in their individual contexts.
A Game is not designed for transformation, yet very participative – everyone may have a lot of fun, but be left with a ‘so what’ feeling unable to grasp the significance of the experience.
A Lecture is when an experience is neither structured for transformation, nor participatory – it may leave the participants cold and the trainer feeling disillusioned and ineffective.
A Change Experience is both designed for change and participative – there is maximum potential for understanding the material as well as the ability to apply it in their own contexts.
At Playing Mantis we now have 7 elements of structure and 5 ingredients for participation that we look for in processes designed for sustainable impact. As we refine our work these numbers may change since we discover new depths to both these elements of structure and participation every day in our work.
What follows is a list of the elements of structure and participation along with questions to help you assess the transformational power of your own work. Alternatively, you can contact us and invite us to your next presentation. We will swap training for an assessment depending on the scale of your workshop/intervention.
Structured for transformation
These criteria come from the world of theatre and story. Through the ages, stories and their enactment for people have followed certain patterns and conventions. All the great theatre makers and story tellers across time have known what elements to weave into their stories to impact the lives of their listeners. Surely if you weave these same elements into the design of your process you can achieve the same result? Note that there is a certain chronology to these elements, but the order is not set in stone. Yet, if you want to break the sequence make sure you know why you are doing it. Also, depending on the specific function and length of your process, all elements may not be present. We maintain though, that even the shortest of presentations can make room for all these elements in one way or another.
The Call to Adventure – Provoke and inspire dreams. Do you understand the context of your participants well enough so that you know what they desire? Do you provoke and inspire their interest and invite them to dream?
Debate – Acknowledging doubts. Do you allow participants to express their doubts and reservations about your content? Do you acknowledge possible resistance or anxiety? Do you have structures that defuse these without oppressing them?
Meeting the mentor – Training knowledge and skill. Do you give them good information and skills to master that which you are teaching? Do you realise that this part of the cycle is just one among 7, or do you content dump for 90% of the time you have with your audience?
Tests and trials – Challenging knowledge and skill. Do you give well prepared challenges that help sharpen their ability to understand and use what you are teaching? Do you challenge them in teams and individually to ensure holistic integration of knowledge and skill?
Pause and intimacy – Reflecting on the bigger picture. Do you allow moments of quiet reflection to help participants internalise the learning? Do you use both individual reflection and small group reflection strategies for maximum internalisation?
Reward – Rewarding commitment. Do you reward people for stretching themselves? Do you appreciate their efforts?
The return – Supporting implementation. Do you provide follow-up support for participants trying to apply their learning in their ordinary lives?
Designed for participation
Improvisation actors do not wait for someone to give them a script before they act. They do not look to each other to take the first step. Improvisation actors act and make up the words as they go along. They participate as soon as they understand what is needed. They respect each other’s contributions, use all the offers they can, make each other look good and cause the audience to like what they see. Clearly these guys know how to inspire each others’ participation and they know how to participate so that the product is of good value. What are their secrets?
Presence and awareness: Are you present and aware of your own thoughts and feelings as you facilitate? Are you also listening and paying attention to those of your participants, or are you mainly thinking of the content you are presenting? Do you structure activities so that participants need to listen to each other?
Safety and acceptance: Are you able to create the feeling of safety so that participants feel able to take part? Do you accept their mistakes as well as your own? How do you create trust so that participants feel they can take creative risks?
Giving and taking control: Do you allow interaction? Do you give some of the responsibilities of facilitation away to others? Are you able to check your ego at the door and accept your audience as equals even when they are younger than you or from a different class/race or gender? Do your activities help them to connect with each other as equals?
Accepting contributions: Do you structure your facilitation so that people can contribute their ideas? Do you then use and incorporate these ideas? How do you ensure that all voices are heard and acknowledged? Do you appreciate the gifts of contribution in whatever form they appear?
Intent and simplicity: Are you clear about your intentions for every part of the workshop? Are you able to maintain that focus in spite of all the contributions and idea sharing? Are you good at reincorporating ideas to follow the shared vision?
Our offer stands: invite us to attend your presentation or workshop for free and we will give you an assessment as to the transformational power of your work using the criteria discussed here. Contact Petro at petro@playingmantis.net or Burgert at burgert@playingmantis.net .
The focus of last nights class was story.
As the participants trickled in and we moved our chairs into the habitual circle De Wet shed a little natural light on his story by telling us about his drumming days with a band called Jesse Jordan. I googled “Jesse Jordan Band” this morning…they are on Wikipedia. I am impressed. On their album “Flipside” ( were you still with them when they released this one De Wet?) there is a song titled “ There goes my mind”. This track title has inspired this morning’s blog.
As mentioned, the theme for last night was “ Story” . Normally when people think of stories or re telling stories they make an effort to alert their mind that mental files will need to be pulled up ASAP and that no dawdling or “ absentmindedness will be tolerated. The internal judges stand at the gates like rodeo cowboys ready to bring in that wild idea before it sees the light of day…
This process is not conducive to the spirit of Improvisation. As you step onto the stage with someone… say these words…” There goes my mind”, and then, you play…
Herewith a short list with descriptions of games we played:
• Todododo – a word association game with a rhythm.
• Word association – simple word associations around the circle
• Random sentences – One player thinks of 4 random sentences that another must relate together in a story.
• Automatic story – one player has to ask yes/no questions about the storyline of an unknown story that the other player has in mind. What the questioning player doesn’t know is that the person answering the questions is only saying yes to questions starting with a vowel and no to questions starting with a consonant.
• What happens next? – In this game one player stands in the middle of the circle and acts out a story that the rest of the group make up one sentence at a time. After each sentence the player asks “What happens next?”
• Voices from the grave – 3 Players tell a story of how they all died at the same place at the same time.
Voices from the grave may sound somber and at times the subject matter does twirl on the dark side but it is a wonderful tool for “co creating” a new reality.
Cindy gave an Oscar worthy performance as the disgruntled blind nurse, whilst Manuela provided a critically praise worthy portrayal of a depressed psycho therapist at the end of her tether. Charl gave, excuse the pun, “life” , to the chirpy car salesman and together these three caused for immense entertainment with the rest of the group…thanks for sharing what’s left when your mind goes…
Key concepts:
• Free association: Free associated ideas create the material from which a story can be constructed.
• Reincorporation: Reincorporation is the recycling or re-using of ideas or situations from earlier in the story. By reincorporating ideas and situations you make sense of the random ideas generated by free association.
• Platform: The who, what and where of a scene. Success of a scene often depends on a solid and clear platform.
• Breaking routine: A good story that will engage an audience is a series of routines that are broken creating new routines.
More thoughts on story:
Stories are how we make sense of the world. We link random events together to form stories. This is a great skill, but it also has a dark side. The dark side is that we make up stories about ourselves and others that are not the truth. Then we tell ourselves these stories over and over until we believe them to be true. Here is an example of how this happened on a flight from Dubai to Amsterdam. Last year Luci and I went to Amsterdam to present our Improv cooking for couples workshop at the Applied Improvisation Network conference. During our flight from Dubai there were a few men of Middle Eastern appearance standing around in the open space by the bathroom. They were talking and the one young guy looked somewhat nervous. Luci saw them and started making up a story in her head about the men being terrorists and that they were going to hijack the aeroplane. She became very nervous and couldn’t focus on the movie that we were watching. I saw this and asked her what was going on. She showed me the men and told me what she thought they were up to. I told her that what she just told me was mostly a story and that the likely hood of the men being terrorists was very small. So I asked her what other story she could construct about the men that could also be the truth and that was not so scary. So she made up a story about the nervous looking young man that was on his way to get married and that the other men were there to support him. This story calmed her down and made her smile, and we could enjoy the rest of the movie. Who knows what the real story was. The fact is most of our experiences are only stories that our brains construct by linking random facts together. It is important to be aware of this function of the brain. The brain does this as it does not like uncertainty so it would rather create a story to create some form of certainty. However as soon as we start believing the stories our brains make up we become less present and unable to notice facts that do not support our stories. Being aware of this function of the brain is very useful. Firstly, next time your brain starts to make up a story you can be aware of it and just notice that it is your brain making up a story and stay present to notice the truth of the moment. Secondly, you can use your brain’s ability to make up stories to create very entertaining improvised performances.
Class 4 was about characters – how they walk talk and feel. We started with gibberish games (Emotion gibberish, Gibberish switch and Gibberish Insults). Gibberish helps one to focus more on how a character talks than what they say. How a character talks is just as important if not more important than what the character says. Gibberish also helps you to get out of your head. Next we did Character Walks. These game shows you how your body can think for you to make up a character by just changing something about the way you move. You can change any part of your body, the speed of your movement or how you fill the space around you. It is amazing how the way you carry your body influence your feelings. We ended the class with a gibberish performance game called Cluedo. In the end it is not about getting it right but about making a strong choice and sticking to it.
Key concepts
Gibberish – A made up language of witch the meaning is conveyed by action, expressions, or tone of voice.
Let your body think for you – By just changing something in your body you can come up with a whole character with feelings, wants and passions.
Make a strong choice and stick to it.- It is not always important what you choose but how you choose
