Improv techniques help creative people communicate their ideas better

Creative people are notoriously not-so-good at presenting their ideas. Pitches, conference calls, presentations, talking to clients – these are not their favorite things to do. But without successful communication their ideas have a hard time getting off the drawing board.

April Jaffe and Michael Pollock have discovered that the techniques and exercises used by improv actors can be enormously helpful to our creative clients. We are specially selecting and adapting exercises to incorporate into our own brand of workshops that we will be giving to teams at film companies, design firms and other creative businesses.

Last night we held a trial run with the help of improv star Rebekka Johnson. The session was attended by film editors, a videoblogger, a photographer, a documentary producer, an executive producer and ad agency creatives. It was a huge success, converting even those who were not sure that this was their thing. The group was particularly impressed by the value of techniques relating to listening, working towards goals, and managing difficult clients. Here is what one participant wrote to us this morning:

"I wanted to thank you for inviting us to what proved to be both a terrifying and incredibly enjoyable evening. Standing in front of a group of people or privately attempting to be creative is always a daunting task and the night's exercises provided a number of helpful tools and exercises from an unlikely source, improv."