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Improv Skills for the Business World
DESCRIPTION
WORKSHOP: Improvisation is a skill set used in business that needs to be fine tuned for people to be able to function at the peak of their intelligence. It is not about comedy or being funny. It IS about soft skills, heightened communication and a focus on how to react in the moments that truly matter. Improv and comedy are not synonymous. Improv skills can be used in life and work to create smarter ways to communicate. For start-up folks, improv is the perfect tool for learning how to think on your feet, roll with the punches, bounce back quickly and keep moving forward.
In this Improv for the Business World session, we will focus on these skills:
• Actively listening to clients and internal team members so you can give them what they really want
• Handling conflict and moving forward
• Thinking on your feet
• Embracing strengths and accepting ideas that harness the contributions of all team members
• Fun fact: Well known institutions like MIT, Duke, Stanford and Harvard have integrated improv into their business curriculum. Companies like Twitter, Google, Accenture, Ask.com and Cigna have all endorsed improv as an innovative way to train and run their companies.
“Humor and play are in the corporate mission statements of Southwest Airlines, Google and Ben & Jerry’s. At most places, you won’t read it in the manual, but companies should be thinking about it. Only 15% of people are fired for incompetence—the other 85% are fired for not getting along with others. Used effectively, humor helps people get along, decreases turnover and increases productivity. And that’s no joke.” -Forbes
PRESENTER BIO
Kristy West has over 15 years experience in Improvisational performance and training. She has worked with some of Atlanta’s top Instructors and Theatres learning the art of Improvisation. While earning her stage chops, Kristy was also climbing the corporate ladder in B2B sales working in Technology Recruiting and Staffing, where she spent over a decade. Her training in business and improv began to intermingle and she noticed how beneficial her improv skills were to her professional life. She saw first hand how communication problems in the workplace affected the success of the company and its people. In 2010, Kristy decided to put her improv passion to work to help companies overcome communication problems and workplace dysfunction. Kristy is Co-Founder of The Brink Improv, and runs the Business Services Division where they offer training, team building content marketing and live entertainment.
