Bring continuity and support to your team by bringing out each other's best.
Beginning improvisers, which are really what the people in a new work group or team are, should be taught to make their scene partners look good. Working without a script, the players on the team must offer ideas to each other (and accept those offers) to get a scene or project going. The easiest way to make your improvised scene partner look good is to say yes to their offers with enthusiasm and add something new to them to advance the scene. This is similar to the way musicians improvise music together.
Each musician plays different lines of notes that compliment each other to make the music sound good. If one player goes in a new direction with their playing, the other musicians must be actively listening to hear it and then agree to go with it, adjusting their playing to support the new direction. It’s important to go together.
Practicing the idea of making your scene partners or colleagues look good nurtures relationships and continues to bond and build trust within a team.
It’s really about listening to and having gratitude and respect for each other, and if everyone is making everyone else look (or sound) good, pretty soon the metaphorical band is cooking and everyone on the team is looking and feeling great. This is true onstage or in the workplace.
Musicians must still practice and rehearse on their own to be their best. Likewise, improvisers use short form games and exercises to practice and hone skills that make them better collaborators and more successful as improvisers: sharpening their active listening skills, being inclusive of others, bringing out each other's best.
Practicing the idea of making your scene partners or colleagues look good nurtures relationships and continues to bond and build trust within a team.
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