Efficiency sales professionals are resourceful, personable, and able to maintain a positive attitude regardless of the situation with which they’re faced. They’re also quick on their feet and can adapt to accommodate the needs of their prospects and clients. So how do you learn the aforementioned skills? Study the techniques used in improv comedy.
Improvisational theater is, by nature, unpredictable. The actors have no idea what’s coming next, and they have to work as a team to keep the scene alive (or the show is over!). In Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton’s book, Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration, Leonard and Yorton apply their experience with improvisation to the business setting. Their “Seven Elements of Improv” include “Ensemble,” “Co-Creation,” “Authenticity,” “Listening,” and… as the title suggests, “Yes, And.” (“Yes” is the response to an idea presented by someone else, and “And” is a way of adding on to their thought, rather than rejecting or changing it with a “but.”)
If you’re interested in learning more about how improv can benefit you and your business, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book.
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“Executives from The Second City – the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation – reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses.
“For more than fifty years, The Second City comedy theater in Chicago has been a training ground for some of the best comic minds in the industry – including John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. But it also provides one-of-a-kind leadership training to cutting-edge companies, nonprofits, and public sector organizations – all aimed at increasing creativity, collaboration, and teamwork.
“The rules for leadership and teamwork have changed, and the skills that got professionals ahead a generation ago don’t work anymore. Now The Second City provides a new toolkit individuals and organizations can use to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by speed, social communication, and decentralization. Based on eight principles of improvisation, Yes, And helps to develop these skills and foster them in high-potential leaders and their teams, including:
- Mastering the ability to co-create in an ensemble
- Fostering a “yes, and” approach to work
- Embracing failure to accelerate high performance
- Leading by listening and by learning to follow
- Innovating by making something out of nothing
“Yes, And is a must-read for professionals and organizations, helping to develop the invaluable leadership skills needed to succeed today.”
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