Rewriting Your Story

An interesting trend I noticed at the Applied Improv Network conference in Amsterdam last month was the abundance of workshops that used Kenn Adam’s Story Spine as an applied learning activity. The Story Spine popped up in branding workshops, in fundraising workshops, in romantic relationship workshops, in prejudice workshops and, less surprisingly, in writing workshops. I personally have used The Story Spine for everything from writing an elevator pitch to grant applications to envisioning career change.

In Amsterdam, it struck me – how much of our life to spend telling stories, both to others and to ourselves? Do we know what stories we’re telling, and are we sure it’s the one we want to be telling? The strong undercurrent of narrative at the Applied Improv Network conference reinforced for me the power of stories to explain our situation and guide our decision-making. I invite all of you to think of an area in your life, either personal or professional, where you’d like to make a change and rewrite your story :

The Story Spine by Kenn Adams

Once upon a time . . . (finish the sentence)
Every day . . .
But one day . . . (this is where your desired change happens)
Because of that . . .
Because of that . . .
Because of that . . .
Until finally . . .
Ever since that day . . .

And now, debrief: How was this exercise for you? How do you feel about your chance now that you’ve rewritten your story?

Bananas Come in Bunches

In a recent edition of the New Yorker, an article entitled First Banana profiled comedic actor Steve Carrell, shining a light on the key role of improvisation in the making of today’s comedic hits. And though the title of the article gives credit to one man, the article itself highlights the group nature of the improvisational creative process:

Nowadays in the comedy industry, a Bucket Brigade of actors, writers, and directors pitches in to punch up one another’s films; the nearly all-male group includes Jay Roach, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, John Hamburg, Garry Shandling, Sacha Baron Cohen, Robert Smigel, Adam McKay, and Will Ferrell. Many of the group’s members trained at Second City, or with newer improv groups.

As the employees at Pixar Animation highlighted, the product of a group creative process, rather than one person’s creative process, is often stronger, funnier and more complete.

Think about ways in which you create things or ideas. Do you ever attempt this as a group? How does the input of multiple people affect the final product?

Improv in our DNA

How can a company whose success has engendered sky-high expectations for every release embrace the risk of failure inherent in improv?

“Failure is just the first step toward success”

At Pixar, there are no good ideas, just bad ideas they make better.  The process of constructive revision, rather than straight criticism, is built into the DNA of movie development at the animation company.  Not surprisingly, this concept was borne out of improv.

One of the early executives at Pixar had studied improvisation, and made sure that improv was one of the first offerings at Pixar University.  The first rule of improv, “Say ‘yes! and . . .’ “, is the foundation of Pixar’s constructive revision process.  When a person says ‘yes,’ they accept another’s idea as valid.  When they say, ‘yes! and’, they not only accept another’s idea, they build upon it by adding another component.  Now the idea is better than it was before.

Imagine that you were charged with writing the story for the next Pixar movie.  You could write it out, perfect as can be, all in one sitting, right?

Didn’t think so.

The truth is that creation is always a process.  We have an idea, we revise it (often in our head), and eventually it feels complete.  In organizations, many teams try to create a product as a group without laying the proper groundwork for co-creation.  A team enters the brainstorming process, and team members throw out a few ideas.  Often, coworkers offer their feedback on these initial ideas in the form of criticism — “well, that won’t work because Marketing will never go for it . . .”.  Those who have had the courage to share unrefined ideas feel judged and shut down.  Eventually, the brainstorming process shuts down, and the group is left with a list of bad ideas, and nothing to take to the rest of the organization.

Now, imagine that instead of offering criticism, team members said “yes! and . . .”.  Rather than listing the ways in which the idea wouldn’t work, team members offered ways to make the first idea better.  Imagine that they keep building on each other’s ideas, making it better and more complete each time they share a thought.  At the end of this brainstorming session, instead of a list of bad ideas, you’d have one solidly developed idea — something wonderful to share with the rest of the organization.

Try this in your own organization.  Next time a colleague shares an idea, start your response with “Yes! And . . .” and watch their response.  Do they share more ideas with you?  Does the initial idea get better and better?  Share your experience with us here.