What’s Tiger Woods’ win at the 2008 US Open got to with high performance under stress? Allow me to share a quick story first … Recently I facilitated a workshop when in the onset phase of ‘Gastro’. As participants arrived I suffered from weakness, nausea and waves of stomach cramps. If I was at home, I would have curled into bed, shut the door and placed a bucket by my side. I disclosed my discomfort to my client and we decided to press on … 50 people had given up their evening to contribute critical thinking. The stakes were high. …

Wow! Improv has become such a source of inspiration for me of late. If you ask yourself “Improv … what is he on about?” … then read this great summary from Viv McWaters (who I must thank for all of her advise and wisdom over the past 8 years!). Viv has designed these great Improv Gift cards and I was lucky enough to receive her very first set. Recently I spoke over Skype with Viv and Robert Poynton where we discussed our work and how Improv was a core part of what we do. Viv went a step further and …

Last year I wrote this blog post about other people … who I observed to be ‘Too Busy to be Creative’ and I drew this little graphic … Well, I’ve fallen victim to the same disease of late. Even though I haven’t been busy facilitating, my time for creative stuff feels like it has compressed … it’s a stretch to fire up the tablet and draw something and I’m giving no time to reading my favorite blogs and great books on my shelf?! What to do? What to do?! Here’s where I’m going to start today … Plan-less … in …

I am reading Robert Poynton‘s book Everything’s An Offer (How to do more with less) and some things happened on the weekend that I have to write about. By the way, even though this post refers to Improvisational Theatre … people working in the traditional domains of leadership, teamwork, strategy and business can learn a lot from Rob’s book (and this post). Part 2 of Rob’s book is titled ‘Let go, Notice More, Use Everything’ – which is also the heart of Improvisational Practice. I have some video of myself and 2 other musicians literally ‘improvising’ at the Aireys Inlet …

In my year of ‘letting-go’ in 2009 … here’s a quick anecdote from a workshop I facilitated this week. I was confronted by a workshop participant who challenged the ‘core’ reason we had come together as a group.  My plan, not surprisingly, didn’t prepare me for this … responding in the moment was all I could do. I called on an Improv principle of ‘accepting offers’. The offering was ‘the challenge’ and I found it a struggle to ‘let-go’ of a strong urge to respond with an equally strong challenge of my own – that would have been easy for …