CMA Feature: What a Little “Yes, and” Can Do
by Lucas Jeffries
WiCM members converged for a different sort of experience this week. Improv coach Holly Mandel gave us an introduction to her craft with an improv workshop. Holly runs the improv school Improvolution and lends her skills in consulting form via Imergence, a corporate improv coaching service (…and a very effective cold-busting drink powder–haha, just kidding Holly. I was just IMPROVISING!!).
Did you know that it’s called “Improv” because the original wall didn’t have enough space for all the letters? Yeup.
I was nervous about attending this event. You see, I have what the medical community calls “stage fright.” I don’t like to give speeches, and I don’t really like to perform. And while I don’t think I’m alone in this respect, I definitely had a moment when I thought tonight would be a good night to accidentally forget how to find an address in Manhattan’s geometrically laid, numbered grid. But thankfully, my competitive instincts kicked in when I realized that I still had the lead for most WiCM events attended in 2011.
I want.
My title.
It turns out that this battle of personal will was an ideal primer for tonight’s workshop. Holly explained that there is a very simple decision that we all repeatedly face. When presented with uncertainty, we choose Yes or we choose No. Yes loves new possibilities and seeks joy in the process. Yes cares more about creating something than about how we look doing it. And thankfully, Yes can be trained, practiced, and nourished.
No is concerned with propriety, with what we should be thinking or doing. No is ridden by a desire to be correct and a fear of making a mistake. No impedes our creative potential.
Holly explained that improv helps us to choose Yes. Improv is more than just fun and more than performance; it has the potential to help us express a more productive, positive self.
And the benefits range further than individual liberation. Improv builds communication skills, teamwork, and confidence in others. From the studio to the boardroom, improv enables group work to be a more collaborative process.
With this explanation, Holly relayed that the goal of the evening was to choose Yes after feeling the pull of No. It took a few warmup exercises, but people began to shed those inhibitory Nos. As we soon learned, part of choosing Yes was confronting a familiar character in all of us, the perfectionist. While this figure has served us well at many points in our lives, he (my perfectionist is a male; you can tell by his awful, awful mustache) can been a real jackass too. Tonight, our perfectionists did not want to release the reigns. But the more we could dismiss their influence, the more we were able to work together. It was pretty cool to see people drop their guards in visible stages and really start to communicate.
One short evening with Holly and a dozen intrepid WiCM members has altered my understanding of the choices we all make. While decisions takes countless forms, the basic choice between Yes and No is present in all of our lives. I’m not going to pretend that my life was forever changed by a 90 minute introduction to improv, but I won’t diminish the power I saw in these exercises either. The ideas were really solid, and their practice, with time, did offer life-changing potential. A simple introduction showed me how important Yes training could be. So no, you probably don’t have to be an improv student to be successful in this way. I’m guessing that improv is a gateway activity to standup comedy and the dangers of more advanced zaniness. But I do think taking a moment, at the very least, to recognize this frequent decision we make is a moment well spent. And if you’re hearing what I’m screaming, why not go for it and sign up for an improv class? Here’s a hint: say YES.