Creativity and Innovation Take Trust

You can have a team of talented, creative minds but if there isn’t a foundation of trust (and psychological safety) then those really original, game-changing nuggets won’t emerge and your company will continue to churn out “known, safe” ideas.

Improv teams need to create spontaneously over and over in the unknown and one of the key features that enables this is the trust that has been built between them. When people are truly free to throw out ideas — the good, the bad and the ugly — without judgment, or fear of shaming and ridicule (even if it’s disguised as “good natured”) this is the territory where originality and genius lie.

When anyone is slightly fearful of “wrong” or “bad” ideas, even if there is lip service around it, they will not be able to let go completely of editing themselves. Their brains won’t be functioning in a state where originality and novelty live.

Saying “throw out anything!” is different than giving the experience of it and creating a culture that really embodies it. If your company is suffering from safe, known, and “less-than-exiting” ideas and pitches, you may need to reset your teams and get them back in the zone where trust and support are the currency that everyone is using, not fear, competition and judgment.

Improv sessions do just that — create a supportive, positive and trusting dynamic and language to build on and start generating incredible ideas again.