Individuals, Interactions and Improvisation
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NDC London 201616 / 133
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Software developerFuzzy logicWave packetStandard deviationGradientType theoryPersonal digital assistantConstraint (mathematics)Image resolutionProcess (computing)Block (periodic table)Multiplication signInheritance (object-oriented programming)System callComputer animationMeeting/Interview
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Data conversionArithmetic meanPoint (geometry)Sound effectRight angleSocial classVideo gameComputer animation
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Software developerSocial classMatching (graph theory)Online helpSpacetimeStudent's t-testSoftware developerGoogolWordKanban <Informatik>Client (computing)Basis <Mathematik>Integrated development environmentMereologyFlash memoryConnected spaceHash functionLevel (video gaming)Boss CorporationComputer animation
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Software developerDemosceneOutlierQuicksortMoment (mathematics)Vulnerability (computing)Game theoryRight angleComputer animation
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Software developerBitSimilarity (geometry)Chromosomal crossoverReal-time operating systemMomentumLogical constantProjective planeIntegrated development environmentFeedbackBuildingDependent and independent variablesMoment (mathematics)Machine visionPlanningBit rateTelecommunicationRight angleNumberComputer animation
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Software developerEwe languageFeedbackSimilarity (geometry)Right angleTheorySemiconductor memoryWell-formed formulaIntegrated development environmentForcing (mathematics)Moment (mathematics)HoaxScripting languageShared memoryPrisoner's dilemma3 (number)CASE <Informatik>Multiplication signComputer animationEngineering drawing
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Software developerMultiplication signPerspective (visual)Rule of inferenceMereologyRight angleProjective planeMathematicsMessage passingChaos (cosmogony)FreezingGame theoryMemory managementVideo gamePressure2 (number)Real numberFigurate numberHidden Markov modelComputer animationEngineering drawing
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Software developerSocial classEuler anglesMomentumMoment (mathematics)DemoscenePiDependent and independent variablesComputer animation
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Position operator2 (number)ThumbnailSpacetimeShared memorySet (mathematics)Integrated development environmentRight anglePerspective (visual)Computer animationEngineering drawing
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MathematicsPerspective (visual)Integrated development environmentPerspective (visual)Multiplication signFeedbackComputer animation
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Software developerProcess (computing)Point (geometry)Group actionProduct (business)Real numberElectronic mailing listTable (information)PrototypeRight angleProjective planeDivisorState of matterMultiplication signMeeting/Interview
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Software developerRight angleEqualiser (mathematics)Category of beingSound effectComputer programmingMultiplication signPoint (geometry)Arithmetic progressionSet (mathematics)Different (Kate Ryan album)WikiSoftware frameworkLine (geometry)Uniform resource locatorSocial classScripting languageTouch typingCausalityComputer animation
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Software developerProcess (computing)TelecommunicationQuicksortPlanningComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:05
How is everybody doing this morning? Good? Good morning. Did everybody get a piece of paper and a pen? All right. Perfect. So I am Jessie Sterenshus, and my talk today is called Individuals, Interactions, and Improvisation.
00:25
So I thought I'd start by telling you a little bit about myself and how I wound up sort of in the tech and agile community with an improv background. So first of all, I, like I said, I'm Jessie with a really weird last name, and I started my company called the Improv Effect about eight years ago.
00:46
And we work with individuals and companies worldwide, helping them communicate and collaborate and creatively solve problems. So I don't think I could have gone this far if it weren't for my inspiration. I have two daughters, and this is my husband as well.
01:04
And my husband helps me kind of do everything behind the scenes that it takes to run a business. And my kids really inspire me to, like, look at the world in a really creative and childlike way, which is important when you want to do creative problem solving.
01:20
So let me tell you a little bit about what led up to starting my company and how I landed in sort of the software and development world. So it's kind of a strange path, so I'll explain it so you guys know. So I'm going to go in, like, backwards order because why not? So right before I started my company, I was a teacher. I taught first grade. I really love teaching a lot.
01:44
And I still feel like being a facilitator is a lot, and training is a lot like teaching. The thing that frustrated me in the schools in Florida, where I'm from, is it was very conventional type of learning. So they expected every kid to learn in the same way, and I just feel so against that.
02:01
I feel like everybody learns in a different way, and there's no reason to tell a kid just because they don't follow a standard that they're not good at anything. So I quit. So before that, I worked for these people, the fuzzy fellows at Sesame Street. And I was a writer's assistant on a show called Sesame Street English.
02:22
And the show was to teach kids English in China and Japan. And I think the real takeaway from this that has helped me in my job is the problem solving. So it's actually really difficult to write and appeal to a preschooler at the same time you're appealing to their parents. And you have to write in a really simplistic way, and it's about a 30-minute block.
02:43
So this taught me how can I work within constraints. And then before that, I was in college. I was a theater major, so I worked for this talent agency. And one day I got a call, and they said, Jesse, we really need you. And I felt so good that I was needed.
03:01
And they said, we need you to be an orange. And I'm like, okay, I'm your girl. I'll do it. So they said, I'd like you to go down to the Walmart. And Minute Maid has hired us to dress up like an orange. And you are to stand in front of the aisle of orange juice and be an orange.
03:22
So I just headed down to the Walmart and got in the back, put on my costume. It was like this blow-up doll thing, and my hands barely stuck outside. And right before I went out to make my orange debut, they said, you know, you can talk like an orange. I was like, I don't really know what that means, but okay.
03:42
So anyway, so I went and took my stance and had some nice conversations. And I remember there was this little boy. He was probably like eight or nine. And he kept talking to me, and I was like, hello. I thought maybe orange has a squeaky voice. I'm not really sure. So anyway, we talked back and forth, and then he ran to go get his mom.
04:02
And he's like, mommy, mommy, come talk to the orange. And then I just didn't say anything because I'm mean. I don't know. I was just like so bored inside of the costume. And he got really mad, so I'm pretty sure we broke up at that point. And then he starts like chasing me around the Walmart with the shopping cart. So anyway, long story short, you know, it's good really to know what you don't want to do in life.
04:24
So this is not something I ever wanted to repeat. So then this takes me to, all right, so I decided I wanted to start at the company, the Improv Effect. And how did I do that? I actually did it in a really lean, kind of lean startup-y way. So I put out a free ad, and I hoped that some people would show up.
04:43
And they did, so that was good. And as the classes went on month by month, they grew. And what was really exciting is that they kept saying we need this at work. We need these skills at work. We don't want to be on stage. That's not our thing. But these things are where the breakdowns happen in our teams.
05:03
And this was exciting to me because I actually knew that. I mean, I had been doing improv pretty much since I was like 10 years old. And I realized that it was really helpful in all these scenarios way beyond the stage. But I don't want to force those opinions on my students. I wanted them to come to it on their own so that they could go back to their companies
05:23
and speak that language and make the connection to their bosses or whatever. So one of my very first clients that came out of this class was from a Ruby development shop in Jacksonville, Florida, where I am from.
05:42
And it's called Hash Rocket. I don't know if any of you have heard of that. So I ended up being there for about two years on a pretty regular basis. And as I was there, I started being a part of their culture. And I just really enjoyed the marriage of what I did in the technical space. I felt like it was a really good match.
06:01
And since I was there and really enjoying it, I couldn't help but to hear things like, you know, we're going to be doing some storyboarding. And this, you know, Kanban and agile methodology. And I'm like, what is this stuff? I have no idea what you're talking about. So I went home and Googled it, like what anybody does to figure out something.
06:21
And as I start reading the agile manifesto, I realized this is like almost identical to improv. If there was an improv manifesto, it could have been word for word. There were so many connections. And so it made sense to me, okay, this is why I feel really comfortable in this environment. So flash forward to today.
06:42
And I go to many companies all over the world. And I start by asking them, what do you think of when you hear the word agile? You know, how does it make you feel? And some of these people, you know, they feel like it's like the hands of God. And then there's other people who, you know, they like their waterfall ways.
07:04
And they don't really feel like changing, you know. So, okay, fine. So the things that stick out to me about agile that I like is that it's people focused, right? And that teams are supposed to be adaptable. And it's rapid, right?
07:21
And you're constantly iterating on stuff to continuously make it better. So those are the things that really stuck out to me. So with those same people, I then go, so what do you think of when you hear of improv? And many of them become asthmatics in that moment. They're looking like for the nearest exit.
07:43
They're hyperventilating. So that's most of the people at first, you know. And then there are some that are like, oh, that's nice, you know. Like they're typically the outliers in my sessions. But there are a few that are ready to jump in and they're really excited to do it. So here are the things that sort of stand out to me about improv.
08:06
So improv is all about the ability to react and create something new in the moment. What does that moment need from you and how can I fill in the blank? And they do that as a team and it creates new ways of thinking. And creative ideas come out of that.
08:23
But it's kind of like playing football or soccer, whichever you call it. Which it means when you go and you play a sport, right, you know your team really, really well. You have no idea how game night is going to go. Absolutely no clue.
08:41
But you know each other so well, you know their strengths and weaknesses so well that you're able to keep your eye on the vision and improvise to get there. This is exactly like improv. So here are the actual similarities between the two. And what I'm going to do is break them down a little bit so you can kind of hear
09:02
why there's a lot of crossover in a very unexpected place. So the first one is keep moving forward. So Agile tells us that we should constantly move the momentum forward. And same with improv. We have this thing that we call yes and, and it's all about agreement
09:24
and building off each other to take the ideas forward rather than negating them. The second is respond to change. So this is about making sure that you understand that things don't go as planned, right? So they're going to change and how you deal with that is up to you.
09:43
In improv we say be present and understand what the moment needs of you and then react to it. And this is a really big one about honoring the vision over the plan. So there's really no blueprint, so you don't know exactly how everything's going to go, but you should definitely be aligned with your team when it comes to that plan,
10:05
that vision for how it's going to go. And in improv we operate unscripted. Again, we know where we want the show to end up at the end, but we don't necessarily know what's going to happen in the in-betweens. So another concept that we focus on is failing fast, right?
10:25
So we want to create environments where people are allowed to try new things. And if you get on them for making mistakes, then you're probably only getting status quo out of your team. So it's really important to create an environment where there's that flexibility,
10:43
but you don't want to fail for an entire three years. You want to find where those mistakes are really quick and then come up with something that could be better. And in improv we take it even a step further and we say that use mistakes as opportunities. So sometimes the funniest, most memorable moments happen in the mistakes,
11:06
and so we definitely embrace that. And then there's how do we collaborate with our customers, right? So it's all about having that constant back and forth communication. How do we know how they feel? Do we know what they want?
11:20
What features do they want us to build? Same with improv, right? We're doing a show and without the audience we actually wouldn't even have a show. There's constant feedback in real time that we take into consideration and we then push those ideas forward or we get rid of them if they're not liking it. And lastly, the retrospective, right?
11:41
So after a sprint or a project you're going to look at it and say, what worked, what didn't, and how can it be better? Same with improv. So after a show we talk about what went well, we talked about what didn't, and we talked about how we want to make the next show even better.
12:00
So you can see there's actually a lot of similarities that I found out just by researching on Google that day. So, individuals. First of all, I want you to realize that we are all improvisers. So like I said before, I walk into these environments and people are like, you know, like I have asthma and I'm going to have a panic attack.
12:21
But what they don't realize is that you're practicing improv every single moment of the day. You know, there's no script or formula to tell us where we're going to go because every moment is a new moment. You're not walking around and you've written all your words out and then you're speaking that to other people, right?
12:40
You're practicing improvising and reacting to the moment. So what I'd like to do is I'd like to show you some of the things that we do when we work with companies so you can see and have some tools you can take away. So first of all, we're going to talk about yes and. So how many of you have heard of that before? The theory of yes and? Yeah.
13:02
So like I said before, the yes is important but the and is just as important. So the yes is about I am validating what other people are saying. I'm creating an environment where everybody feels the freedom to come up with different ideas. The and is maybe even more important because it's saying
13:20
not only do I hear what your idea is but I'm so inspired by it that I want to build on top of it and move the idea forward. So I would like for you guys to try a little exercise that I call good times, all right? So I would like it if you could sit next to somebody
13:41
and it could be in twos or threes, I don't care. And what you're going to do is you're going to create a fake memory with somebody right next to you, okay? And you're just going to do it one idea at a time, okay? So here's how it goes. I'll play two people. So the first person goes, hey, you remember when we,
14:01
and then you're going to, I don't know, make something up. So you remember when we went on that cruise and the other person was like, yeah, and you left your suitcase on land. Yeah, and so you had to wear towels. Yeah, and it was super awkward at dinner. Yeah, so you're just going to go back and forth and you're just going to add one little idea and try and catch yourself.
14:23
So if you feel like, oh, I really have a great idea and I want to like force my agenda into it, try and let that go and be surprised at what happens. So I'm going to give you about a minute to sit with somebody next to you, make a new best friend, and you even are going to share a memory together. So go ahead and try that, please.
14:42
So how many of you went somewhere illegal or did some criminal activity?
16:16
Great. Anybody go somewhere crazy? Yeah? Yeah?
16:23
How was that to try and just build off, just to accept the craziness that got passed to you and just explore that idea? It's interesting how in just that moment of creating that kind of environment, how all of a sudden there's laughter and there's this fun,
16:41
this sense of joy that's happening, and it's so simple. That's such an easy thing that you can do when you work with a team. Teach them that tenet and see what happens when everybody feels validated, when everybody gets to do and have a say in where you're headed next. You know, a lot of times it can really flip perspective on what it is you're doing
17:04
and just be open to seeing where that can go. All right. So now that you have a new best friend and you had a fabulous time, I don't know, committing crimes or whatever happened, I want to do another exercise. And you guys got paper and pens, right?
17:22
So this is called Superhero and Sidekick. All right? And this is going to be about how do you respond to change when you're working on a project and you have to hand over parts of it to other team members or cross-functionally, how do you respond to that change or do you try to hold on to everything
17:40
and make it your own? Okay? So here is what you're going to do. Right now, with your pen, at the top of that paper, I would like you to write the name of a made-up superhero that is a complete reject, like the worst superhero. So this is not a real superhero. This is made up, okay?
18:01
So, like, captain trips all over the place or captain shampoo head. I have no idea. Just anything ridiculous. There are rejects, so whatever you write is correct, right? The worse the better. Get it? So write it at the top. I'll give you a second to think of something. Don't put too much pressure on yourself.
18:21
Like I said, they never made it to comic books, so it doesn't really matter, right? So write that at the top. The only rule is it can't be a real superhero.
18:56
So now what you're going to do is we're going to pass the papers
19:01
until I say stop, all right? So just pass them around. Pass them backwards, forwards, next to you. Just keep passing them so that you don't have your own. And you don't even know who you're holding in your hand. Just keep passing them, keep passing them. Yep, pass them again, pass them again. Complete chaos is perfect. Just keep passing them. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Great, great, fantastic.
19:22
All right, great. All right, so take the one that's in your hand now. Does anybody have two? Who doesn't have one? Or who has two? Oh, how did you wind up with nothing? There's one. All right, there you go.
19:41
There's another one. Awesome, thanks, Rich. All right, so now what you're going to do, so check out the reject, all right? And on the back at the top, I would like you to write who's their sidekick? Like, who do they go around fighting horrible crimes with, okay? So go ahead and write the name of the person like Batman and Robin,
20:00
but not that because that's real. Well, it's not real, you know what I mean. I'm so confusing sometimes. All right, so at the top, sidekick. Who goes around with trips on his face? Maybe, like, his sidekick banana peel or something. I have no idea, all right? Don't worry about it being perfect
20:21
because it doesn't have to be. All right, a couple more seconds. All right, now pass them. Keep passing them. Pass, pass, pass.
20:40
Keep passing. Yeah, pass it again, pass it again. Create some chaos. Yes, keep passing. Fantastic.
21:02
Okay, freeze. All right, so take a look at who landed in your hand. Who does not, who has extras? There you go. Is there somebody with none? I don't know what happened. Hmm. Rich, you want to make up? Two in hand. All right, so here's what you're going to do.
21:23
You are going to now draw to the best of your ability, and that could be stick figure. I don't care, but let's draw how you think these people look. Okay, so bring them to life, and you draw both this time. So do the front and the back, yes, and since they're rejects, you know,
21:40
your drawing can look like you're five. I'm pretty finished.
22:42
You can add, like, a wand or a cape or something.
23:32
All right, so what you're going to do in a second is you're just going to hand it to somebody close by, just one little switch,
23:43
so that Rich doesn't need to draw another one, like, 20 times. You can switch it again if you want, just with somebody. Yeah, switch it back and forth. Right there, right behind you. Yeah.
24:00
Okay, so look at what landed in your lap. And anybody want to share what they got? Who got something they could share? We know it's not yours, so yeah, go for it. What is it?
24:24
Impra man, nice, and then what's the other side? Process boy, right. Fantastic. What else? Somebody else have one they want to read? Yeah? Uh-huh.
24:47
Camp man, of course. Nice. Very good. Who's got another one? Anybody back there have something interesting that they got?
25:02
Captain Wanker? Oh, it's like, God, all right, fantastic. And then what's the other side? Mistress Bump? Lovely, lovely. I'm sure she's beautiful. Let's do one from over here.
25:21
Somebody back there, or up here, I don't care. Who's got one? Yeah. ADHD boy. Yes, and who does he go around with? Yeah, that means he bounces off walls. Oh.
25:40
Are they, like, googly? Oh, no. And then who does he go around with? Captain Control Freak. Fantastic. Okay, so if you feel like it, you can tweet them out. I'm at the Improv Effect. If you want to take a picture of those, those are pretty funny.
26:00
Especially the ADHD and Control Freak. I kind of want to see the pictures. So in all seriousness, it's a fun game, but it's talking about how we respond to change. Most of the time when you're working on a project in a delivery team, you're working with all different people, and you can't have complete control over every single part of the process.
26:21
And so what you can do is you can go with it and play off of it, or you can get really frustrated, right? And so this is just a fun way to show what it's like to have to have some project land in your lap and have to build off of it rather than just give up. So let's go on to interactions.
26:44
The Agile Improv Troop. So how do we put teams together? In Improv and in Agile, I think it's pretty similar. So in Improv, we are not just worried about what are the, you know, that they've been doing improv their whole life. That's great.
27:01
However, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to mesh well with the team. Same in technical teams, right? So I see a lot of times that companies that I work with, they're rapidly growing, and they're really missing pieces of the team. So they're hiring without remembering that they don't just need those technical skills. They need a lot of different things
27:21
in order to keep the chemistry of the team in place, right? So they need to think about the values of this person, the habits, the skills, their learning style, their interests, and even their hobbies. And that's what we do in Improv. Same thing. We want to have this well-rounded person,
27:40
and we want it to fit the gap in all of those ways, not just in one or the other. We want to see how, with the same set of things, how do they fill out the dots? How do they connect the dots, right? So I would connect them like that. So who are the right individuals, right?
28:01
So in Improv, once we've found those people, once we've found the right people to have a really successful team, then we work together. So these are some people, they're in my Improv troop, and we meet together every Monday night. And we're not practicing and scripting out the games
28:20
we're going to play on Friday night. What we're doing is we're getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We're practicing in an environment where it's okay to make mistakes. We're thinking about what do we have as the vision for our show, and how can we play within that to get what we want. So many people think that Improv is winging it, but it's not.
28:43
It takes a lot of practice to really know the people on your team so that you can have a good show. It's so interesting to watch really good Improv troops, they just don't miss a beat. And that's not because they knew what was coming next, but it's because they're so hyper-focused, they understand where things are going to go
29:02
depending on what gets thrown at them. That takes a lot of practice. And I think that the best Agile teams, just like Improv, they have a vision, but they can improvise to get there. So let's talk about the tenant, honor the vision over the plan. So like I said, we do shows on Friday nights,
29:21
and we do short-form shows kind of like Whose Line Is It Anyway? Are you guys familiar with Whose Line? Yeah, so they're really quick, like three to five minute short sketches, and then at the end we do a longer piece called World's Worst Date. And so I'm going to tell you a story about this particular night.
29:43
We asked the audience, we said, has anybody here had a horrific date that they don't mind sharing? And so this woman, Sarah, raised her hand, and we bring her up to the stage, and then we start interviewing her. So this night I was the one that had to do the interviewing. And it's a lot like customer interviewing.
30:00
So what you want to do is you want to ask really open-ended questions. So you don't want to ask these questions that just sort of back her into a wall. So you ask her things like, when did this happen? Tell us about it. So we get her to tell a story, just like you would want your customer to tell you a story about how they used their product or where they have a pain point.
30:23
So we asked her, and I said, okay, Sarah, so tell me about when this was. And she said, well, it was when I was in college. So I said, oh, that's cool, did you live on the dorms? And she's like, what? And I said, no, no, no, I didn't mean on the dorms. I meant in the dorms. And she said, yes.
30:40
And she told us that this guy, like every time they would go out and the bill would come, he'd just disappear. He sounds like a real winner. And so as I'm interviewing her, the rest of my troop is standing around, and they're really actively listening. They're picking up on not only what she's saying in words,
31:01
but her body language, little nuances and things, because what they're going to have to do is immediately reenact it. So, again, they practice being hyper-focused and really listen. So I would like to show you a game that we do to practice listening.
31:20
And you can play this with somebody just sitting right next to you. And I'm happy if it's a group of three, too. So it's called Last Letter Conversation, all right? And what you do is you are going to talk and have a dialogue back and forth with the person next to you. However, the twist or the constraint is that the very last letter
31:42
of what the person says needs to be the first letter of your response. So, again, I'll show you what I mean. And I'm going to set the bar super low so you feel great about yourself. So, all right, so I woke up this morning and I had breakfast. It's with the tea.
32:02
Too bad for you because you've been eating like five breakfasts every morning. Gee. God, really, you know, do you have to rub it in? I can't help it. I'm super hungry. And the food is just amazing. Good. However, maybe you should leave some room for lunch.
32:22
All right, so you're just going to go back and forth. Take that last letter, see if you can make the conversation and push it forward despite the constraint. And if your partner can't really spell, that's not this game, okay? So, just ignore it and move on, all right? So, go ahead and take some time to try this game,
32:41
Last Letter Conversation. It's pretty fun.
34:15
So, say goodbye to your new best friends. So, how many of you felt like that was super easy to do?
34:24
Good. How many of you felt like your partner gave you the same letter, like E, like over and over again? Yeah? So, I was playing this game at a company in Estonia and the two guys, like two of the people playing
34:40
both had Russian as their native language, so they played in Russian. And I just see them staring at me and they had only played for like, I mean, less than a minute. And I was like, are you guys okay? Are you just like rejecting the game? Or what's going on? They go, we can't play this in Russian. I'm like, why? Because there's words that end with letters that no like word
35:04
in the entire Russian alphabet start with. And I'm like, okay, well, good to know for next time. So, anyway, this game is about active listening, right? So, it's important that your team not only has technical skills, but if they can't listen to one another, you're really just wasting your time, you know?
35:22
And so, anytime I work with a team and we're trying to think of what their next product or process is going to be, I really like to set the tone first, because I feel like if you jump into solving things and you jump into strategy without everybody being able to even communicate or even hear each other, then why did you even meet in the first place, right?
35:41
So, all right, moving on. So, back to this lovely scene. So, okay, we've heard about Sarah. She has a reject boyfriend. He never pays for anything. The troop has listened to the interview, all right? And now they're immediately getting up on the stage and they're going to pretend that they're acting out this scenario. So, you got the guy in the front.
36:02
He's playing the reject boyfriend. And then you've got Amy. She's playing the girl, Sarah, okay? So, the scene opens up and I see Justin going like this. He's like climbing a ladder. And I'm thinking to myself, I do not remember anything about climbing a ladder. What is happening? And he says, he says,
36:21
hey, hey, Sarah, how come you live on the dorms? And I'm like, oh, thanks, guys, thanks. I see what you're doing there. So, and then the audience is like, blah-ha, you know, they're making fun of me, great. And so, she then responds with a very yes-and attitude. She goes, oh, I live up here because college is really expensive.
36:41
So, it was either the classes or where I live. And so, the scene goes forward that way. And it's really clever. So, instead of saying no, I never said that, right? She could have blocked the momentum. She kept it moving forward. And she embraced it. And it was actually a fantastic moment. One of the best moments that night of our entire show.
37:02
So, that goes back to that using mistakes as opportunities, right? So, if you don't mind, and this is the last thing I promise that I will make you do, and it's very short, I would like you to tell somebody sitting next to you some mistake you've made today, this week, this year.
37:22
I don't know if you're a complete perfectionist and just never make any mistakes, then make it up. They probably don't know if it's true. Anyway, so, go ahead and tell somebody around you what it is you've made a mistake. And then you can like celebrate it instead of crying and sitting in the fetal position in a corner somewhere.
37:41
So, you tell each other, right? So, it won't be like Troy tells somebody else and then only Troy tells the mistake and the other one just laughs in his face. So, you're going to, he doesn't make mistakes. That's why I'm picking him up. So, you're going to tell each other a mistake and then you're going to like hug it out. I mean, I don't know, like in America, we're super cheesy.
38:01
So, you can high five and go, yay, thumbs up. I don't know, like just bump, whatever you want to do. All right, so, take a second. Just admit your mistake, however big or small. Remember, this isn't a therapy session, and then hug it out. All right, so, go ahead. One second. What's it going to be?
39:29
So, did everybody share? Yeah? Everybody feel better about how they're not perfect? Even like when you see each other in the hallway, you'll be like, I know, I know about your mistakes. So, great.
39:42
Anyway, what does this do? It changes perspective, right? So, instead of thinking, again, that we have to be status quo, we can only do this little thing because it's really not a great idea to make mistakes in this environment. Instead, we look at it and we embrace it and we say sometimes those mistakes create a completely new perspective.
40:04
Sometimes it's the mistake that leads to your company's next best idea. So, try and create an environment where people are open to that. Okay? All right. So, now that we've gone through therapy, we're going to talk about collaborating with our customers, all right,
40:23
or the audience feedback. So, I'm going to tell you another story. So, at UX week, I did a workshop called Think Like Them. And the idea behind it is trying to get into the shoes or have empathy for your customers
40:40
and try not to do things that are based on assumptions, but really hear what your customer or user or persona or whatever has to say. Okay? So, this day, each table had about eight people and I gave them each a process that they needed to tear down. Okay? So, there was like, you know, getting coffee,
41:04
checking in at the airport, going to a hotel, there was all these different scenarios. And this one group was about, excuse me, is about going through a drive-through, okay, in the States. So, they talked about all these things,
41:21
like why it's horrible and the shame factor, like being out of McDonald's, I don't know. And so, they came through and I said, okay, do you feel like you've come up with every possible reason why this process is completely terrible? And they said, yep, I think we've covered it all. Okay, great. So, now what I want you to do is,
41:40
I'm going to switch somebody out of your group and I'm going to put them into yours. So, I found a person from each group that had something, a story to tell about being, going through that process. And so, here comes this woman, she's probably about my height, maybe even a little shorter, and they interview her and they say,
42:00
okay, tell us about what happened when you went through a drive-through. And she explained that not only is she a small woman, but she also drove a sports car. So, when she got to the drive-through, she actually had to get out of the car to even reach the thing, because she was under it,
42:20
so nobody could hear the burger she wanted to buy. So, she would have to like get out and she's like, it's embarrassing, whatever. So, what happened there is that this was not something that that group had thought about, right? So, there was nothing on their list of all the terrible reasons for going through a drive-through. There was nothing about driving a sports car and being so short that you need to get out of the car
42:43
and just talk to the thing, like why don't you just go inside, really. But anyway, so we talked through it and the whole point behind it is, you know, it would be really terrible if when you're working on a project, you don't collaborate with your customers at all. What if they had gone on and built this thing,
43:02
they'd sunk millions of dollars into this product to make this pain point that they assumed everybody had without having done any interviews. And many teams do this, right? So, they didn't. So, in a very quick, very rapid amount of time,
43:21
they were able to find out what a real pain point was. Not something they thought, but something their customers actually thought. And then they could go ahead and come up with a prototype and then pitch it to everybody. So, this just goes back to why it is so important to actively listen and really hear what your customers have to say.
43:42
And then, of course, at the end of a show or at the end of a project, you should look at it and say, get everybody on the same page. What is it about this that really went well? Why was it successful? Why wasn't it? And what can we do next time to make it even better? We do this in improv, too. We want to constantly improve and make our show better.
44:03
So, what happens when shift hits the fan, right? What do you do, you know? Because it will. At some point, shift will hit the fan. You could run off screaming and cry and go get a new job. Or you could reframe the problem.
44:23
So, you can look at it and say, there isn't just one way to solve this problem, there are multiple ways. And maybe if we solved it some other way, it isn't as bad and my hair is not on fire and I don't need to run out of the building. So, I think it would be very hypocritical
44:40
if I sat here and told you how great Agile and Improv are, but I didn't do it myself for my own business. So, I really do practice what I preach. And every day at the Improv Effect, we get calls, people calling from mostly engineering departments, technical teams, or innovation, whatever. And they say, you know, we need your help.
45:02
I say, okay, well, what's the problem? And they said, well, you know, our team, our team just can't seem to get along. Our team just can't communicate with one another. We're really good technically, but we got a lot of problems on the softer side, right? And that's because most breakdowns happen
45:21
for non-technical reasons, right? So, most of the time, if you were to think right now, where are we struggling in our jobs, in our teams, usually it would point back to some crazy dynamic that's going on between either people on your immediate team or cross-functionally. And our friend Jerry Weinberg says that
45:42
no matter what a problem is, it's always a people problem, right? It always goes back to us human beings. So, one of the things we do at the Improv Effect is we help companies build their onboarding programs. We help them create a program for their new hires
46:02
that really show off what the culture and the values are of their company. And we do this in a very agile way. So, we work together, and there's a constant back and forth where we're asking questions. So, first we assess what it is that's going on at their, how is this onboarding going on right now?
46:22
Usually it's like a Wiki page, and there's not much to tell about it. So, we'll do an assessment, and then we'll talk about what are those values, the culture, what are the things, what are the kinds of tools that people need to know from the very beginning? And we work back and forth, and we start building an experiential program. So, that first touch point that somebody has
46:42
when they walk into the company is good, right? If the first time they walk into a company is terrible, why are they going to stay there, you know? So, we make it experience-based, and then we test pieces of it so we don't build the whole thing and think it's just going to be the best thing ever.
47:01
We test it. So, we take pieces of it. We see how it goes with the next new set of hires. We get feedback from the person that led the class. We get feedback from the new hires, and then we take that data, and we start to continue and make the onboarding progress. We build it, and we build it in an unscripted way.
47:22
So, it's a framework so that as the company grows, it becomes something that can sort of move within different cultures of the company depending on location and whatnot. So, I hope today that you have some takeaways, that you realize that there are many things
47:43
that you can learn and take from very unexpected places, from industries and ideas, philosophies that might not seem like they align, but they really do. And if you liked some of the exercises that we did, I wrote a book,
48:00
and the book is called Control Shift, 50 Games for 50 Days Like Today, and each chapter is a different type of day you might be having, and then there's an exercise to go with it. So, there's 50 different exercises in there, and they're framed out, so you can kind of like bend them to different things
48:20
so they don't have to be exactly what the chapter or the day says. All right? And most of all, I want you to remember that we are all improvisers. Thank you very much.
48:42
Any questions? Are we good? Yeah? Sure. Yeah, so I would say that not necessarily
49:01
that it didn't work out, but I do get people that call that want like a really short, they're like, we're having problems with communication, and we have about a half day for you to come in and solve that. Right? So, when I first started my company, I didn't know any better than to just say yes right?
49:21
And I think that once I started practicing this thing, it's so obvious now that you can't fix a communication problem that's been going on forever in three hours. Right? So, I feel like I've gotten a lot better at saying no to certain setups, right? So, where I know it's not going to work, where they need some sort of practice
49:41
to get to the goal. And so, it doesn't happen so much anymore as it did in the beginning. So, anybody else? Any other questions? Alright, you guys were really fun. Thanks for playing. It was awesome. I hope you had a great time. Good job.
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