Core77

A Culture Of Yes

By Steve Portigal - March 2, 2008

in Design Business

Good story today about the (business) power of improvisation highlighting Portland's On Your Feet.

The openness and playfulness that characterize improvisational acting can create a sense of cooperation and affirmation that is foreign to highly competitive workplaces. When one worker actively shoots down another's ideas to help his or her own ideas win, nascent notions that could develop into something brilliant die on the vine. ... "Saying yes sounds implicit, but it's profound," she says. Barriers go up in front of fresh ideas within moments of their creation, leading to an atmosphere of "we can't do that," she says. "The improv idea of saying yes from the start," she adds, "allows business folks to entertain things that would ordinarily get axed out."

For more improv goodies, check out our Core77 Broadcast with Steve Portigal and Chris Miller and come to next week's Southern District IDSA Regional Conference where this author will be speaking about improv and design research (check out a preview on Slideshare).

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zippyflounder

16 years ago

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Yes we can do that...the question is SHOULD WE? In Sundays "opus" comic strip, the hero is attending a meeting of junkies anon for over consumers. He is quite proud of his recovery until he gets a few bucks then buys 188 digit turnip twaddlers...so how many of our "yes" products ARE in reality just some version of "digital turnip twaddlers"?
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