“How to be effective in the theatre of work” – by Tom Critchlow

A very good read, and the book “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre from Keith Johnstone” seams very much worth reading. Tom did a great summary, and It matches lots of our experiences in the job and in companies and especially in corporate.

Yes! and… … :

I recently read the book Impro – Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone I loved the book and as Venkatesh said ‘it is a textbook that teaches you how to see the world differently.’ so consider it recommended.. It’s a delightful book all about improvisational theatre and importantly how to teach improvisational theatre. The book inspired me to draw many analogies between the improv actor and the consultant and I’ve created a four-part series covering the following topics:

Chapter 1 – The Office is a Theatre for Work. This post looks at the central problem of “performing” work and how important it is for modern knowledge work – especially for the consultant. We end with some ideas around how to think on your feet without bullshitting.

Chapter 2 – Optimism as an Operating System. This post highlights the tendency for consultants to be critical and to see everything as a problem. We’ll reframe this by showing the power of being positive – especially for long-term retainers.

Chapter 3 – Generative Strategy. Here we think of clients as blocked actors and we take inspiration from the “Yes! and…” exercise to see how we can unblock clients to generate new strategies and creative thinking with clients.

Chapter 4 – Status Switching. Finally we explore the concept of high status and low status and show how the consultant has to become adept at a new skill of “status switching” in order to be successful inside client organizations.