Loe raamatut: «Innovando la educación en la tecnología»

Improvisation for Technically-Oriented Peoples

Russell McMahon

mcmahor@ucmail.uc.edu / University of Cincinnati, USA

Recepción: 17-7-2019 / Aceptación: 7-8-2019

ABSTRACT. Teaching “soft” skills to technical people is just as important as learning “hard” skills. Improvisation techniques can also be used in teaching technical concepts such as cyber-security, agile development, database design, programming concepts, and most importantly how to better one’s communication skills. In an age where rapid changes have become the norm, improvisation techniques can be used to help navigate the new challenges of the next generation careers, global interaction, and technologies. These techniques can easily be incorporated in other methodologies such as creative problem-solving and design thinking. There are clearly defined and flexible rules for improvising, which make it easier for technical persons to learn and use in their daily life and career.

KEYWORDS: improvisation, innovation, creative problem-solving, technical education

Improvisación para personas con orientación técnica

RESUMEN. Enseñar las habilidades “blandas” a las personas técnicas es tan importante como aprender las habilidades “duras”. Las técnicas de improvisación también se pueden usar en la enseñanza de conceptos técnicos como la ciberseguridad, el desarrollo ágil, el diseño de bases de datos, los conceptos de programación y, lo más importante, cómo mejorar las habilidades de comunicación. En una era en la que los cambios rápidos se han convertido en la norma, las técnicas de improvisación pueden usarse para ayudar a navegar los nuevos desafíos de las carreras de la próxima generación, la interacción global y las tecnologías. Estas técnicas pueden incorporarse fácilmente en otras metodologías, como la resolución creativa de problemas y el pensamiento de diseño. Existen reglas claramente definidas y flexibles para la improvisación que facilitan que las personas técnicas aprendan y usen en su vida diaria y carrera.

PALABRAS CLAVE: improvisación, innovación, resolución creativa de problemas, educación técnica

1. INTRODUCTION

The first known use of improvisation goes back to the Atellan farce (fabula Atellana) dating back as far as 391 BCE, but it seems to have faded by 55 BCE according to Cicero [12] and no written records appear to exist past the first century CE [7]. In the 1500s, the improvisation art form was revived through the commedia dell’arte. Although it was performed in an unscripted format, the characters, plot, and locale were pre-set. It lasted until about 1800 and died out, in part, due to the political nature of the shows themselves, which led to suppression and eventual outright banning.

Improvisation was resurrected as a theater art form in the 20th century through the independent work of Viola Spolin and Keith Johnston. Spolin defined what improvisation theater in the US would look like through her book “Improvisation for the Theater”, which was first published in 1963. Johnston wrote “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre” and created Theatresports. It is through the work of these two that improvisation was codified and advanced in such a way that it could be applied in many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)-related fields.

I started taking formal improvisation classes in January 2017 from a local improv company and have continued to do so even today. In September 2017, I began to give improv talks/workshops at mostly academic-related conferences. Over the next year, I spoke at a total of seven national/international conferences. In October 2017, I attended the Midwest UX (User Experience) conference where I took a workshop on improvisation from Mike Gorgone, a computer scientist, who learn improvisation from both The Second City and iO improv companies. His focus has been applying improvisation techniques to help UX designers produce digital products. Interestingly, Dick Costolo, the former CEO of Twitter, was a computer scientist and an accomplished improviser who studied improv while living in Chicago as well.

In February-March, 2019, I worked at Miras University in Kazakhstan on a project entitled “Multilingual Education via Interactive & Cognitive Teaching”, which was out of their Computer Science and Information Technology department. I conducted improv workshops for both their technical faculty, English faculty, and also elementary and high school English teachers from the region.

2. BASIC RULES OF IMPROVISATION

The seven rules used here come from The Second City and are as follows: listen, use “Yes, and”, create an ensemble, co-create the story, be willing to change, use failure to improve, and follow the follower. Improvisation is fluid, which makes it a good tool for creative problem-solving. Improvisation can be thought of as a method where the group begins in chaos, which gives rise to order (and, eventually, return to chaos).

Active listening is a “muscle” that needs to be exercised and requires the following focus areas: the words themselves, the emotion behind the words, the perceived intent of the words, and that the listener is in the moment and not thinking of what s/he may be planning to say. Listen and only respond to what is heard. When someone speaks to you, treat it as a special gift and acknowledge it as being so.

By saying “yes”, one affirms the speaker and by saying “and” (as opposed to “but”), one indicates the intention to build on the speaker’s words. In this way, a story is built brick by brick. Such a method can take the performers (or problem solvers) to unexpected places and it may make one feel a bit at ease; however, it is a way of keeping a clear line of communication open. Affirm, build, and be non-judgmental are keys to this phase of improvisation. In the early days of IBM, the company’s motto was “THINK”, but in improvisation it is best to “don’t bother to think” as some of the best lines and ideas often come when performers say what is on their minds at that moment.

The word “ensemble” is purposefully chosen as opposed to the word “team”. An ensemble of musicians, for instance, is brought together with the idea that it will create a beautiful musical piece: it is the whole that is important, not the individual. The word team is often used to mean this as well; however, in terms of athletics, teams imply that some level of competition was needed in order to be a member of such teams, and that one can easily be replaced if injured. An ensemble preserves the talent and the collaborations are highly synergistic. In order to successful, ensembles must be in the moment, give and take, and surrender the right to be right (the last one is hard even in brainstorming sessions).

The focus here needs to be on finding “the idea”, not one’s own idea. This means that one must be willing to cede control, which can be difficult. During this time, one needs to avoid asking questions as this can be seen as: blocking the idea from being developed, an attempt to force justification, avoidance, or just not wanting to participate. During this time of co-creation, a few basic rules of civility and behavior are needed. Basically, share the stage and treat every member with respect. Finally, it is important to remember that while some words or sayings may be funny to one person, they can be interpreted by another as having a negative connotation.

Changing oneself is very difficult and changing others or an organization is nearly impossible without first focusing on oneself. It also involves risk taking on one’s part. Improv can help in developing this as one is constantly faced with new ideas that s/he must adopt in order to keep a story moving forward. Taking risks has become a normal part of Silicon Valley and the startup mentality as a whole for quite some time. While failure is possible, the potential of a big monetary payoff seems to make it worthwhile. In the improv world, risk-taking and failure are how actors improve their future performances. Improv also helps one learn how to fail in public, which can be very embarrassing and even emotionally upsetting if one is not trained for the possibility.

It is not about being the best or perfect at that moment, as much as it is about being in the moment and embracing the concept of life-long learning. In the classes attended by the author, we used the word “Ahougá” when we made a mistake or faux pas of some sort. There are some improvisation exercises which have the purpose to force mistakes on the team members. This teaches one how to move forward when a mistake is made without getting caught up in judgmental back-thinking.

Spolin stated “Don’t initiate! Follow the initiator! Follow the follower.” All of us have the ability to lead, and there are times when it is better for executives to step back and allow others to take over. Let things grow organically and see where they take the ensemble. Too much direction from the top tends to negate ideas from the bottom and can stifle innovation.