How to Stay Flexible in Life and Business
By: Mary Elisabeth
Tags: Improv, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Life

In improv there is no script. When starting and building a company and in life there is no script.

Don’t write the script ahead of time in an improv show, in building new products or a new company, or in life. If you write the script ahead of time going into an improv performance, well, it’s not going to work. Because in improv there are other people involved. You have your scene partners, who have their own ideas and ways of seeing the improv scenes. You have the audience, who will react to your show based on what they think is funny, horrifying, entertaining, and worthy of applause and laughter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have ideas and characters and premises in mind, but ultimately, be willing to let them go and be present, because once you’re in the scene, if you’re not taking in information happening outside of your head, well, your scene is going to suck.

In business, if you make the plan ahead of time, i.e. write the script ahead of time, and are too inflexible with that plan, well, you’re going to struggle. All companies are created from nothing and there’s so much we learn along the way that we can’t always predict and plan for when we’re putting together an initial plan.

Take it from me — I started a gelato business when I was 14 years old. Before getting started my dad asked me to write a business plan, so I did. If I stuck to that initial plan the business would still look like this…

Photo Credit: Thanks, Mom!

Despite still having a youthful glow (thank you, thank you) I’ve learned and grown a lot since age 14. I no longer use Proactiv or wear Limited Too. Except for one pair of shorts that still fit and are reversible. Don’t judge me. I also learned a lot about business, from doing business, getting more experience, and from business school. It’d be quite a shame to not use customer feedback, lessons learned, and new ideas to improve my business.

All to say — it’s important to let go of the plan. Let go of the script. If you have ideas in place and put together a plan, great. Just be prepared to be nimble and flexible as you learn more.

In improv, we practice divergent thinking, a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. There an infinite number of directions a scene can go. We practice using “yes, and” to generate and build ideas together, and at any time our scene partner can add something to a scene that we didn’t see coming and couldn’t plan for. At that point we choose to say “yes” to this new idea “and” build on that idea. We’re generating lots of ideas, and nimble to move to each new idea like a smooth sailing bird flying between clouds.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in plans and goals. If you saw my calendar and my journals you’d see lots of plans and goal setting. It is important to have a vision and a plan to get there. The point is not to throw away having a vision and plan in mind. The point is to have flexibility in thinking about how to achieve that vision. There are many ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes (note: I don’t condone skinning cats. It’s an expression.) First, know what your goal is. Know that you want to skin a cat (again, expression). Then, generate ideas for the many ways to accomplish that goal. Come up with 100 ideas to find 1 that you want to pursue. Then, start to do that idea and pay attention to whether it’s working or not. Is it getting you closer to accomplishing your goal? If it is, great, keep doing it. If it’s not, let it go and go back to your many generated ideas, or generate new ideas, to come up with a new idea you can try for accomplishing your goal.

As a leader, practice divergent thinking, coming up with lots of ideas, and not getting too attached to any single idea, in case you get new information that inspires adjusting your initial idea. Don’t get too attached or committed to any single idea and drive that idea forward as if there are no other ideas at all. Stubbornness with the ability to let go is a great combination of skills to have as an entrepreneur. The ability to make a strong choice, make a plan, and work towards that plan, and then being able to let go of the specifics for achieving that plan. Those may change. Like Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of this little website you may have heard of called “Amazon”, once said “We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. We don’t give up on things easily.” Don’t give up on the vision. Be willing to give up your exact plans for accomplishing that vision.

As a business leader, here’s how you can practice this,

Define your goal. Write down your vision. What does success look like? Then, work backwards. Generate ideas for how to achieve that goal. Rinse and repeat. Do this for every goal and vision you have. Practice generating and pursuing ideas. Have lots and lots of ideas every day! Like shooting free throws, generating ideas is a practice. Each day, brainstorm a list of 10 ideas. Don’t worry about if they’re good or bad or related to your business in any way. The purpose of this is to get the idea generating muscle flowing. Not to come up with the single best idea ever.

Like the great Kendrick Lamar once said, “Be nimble.” Wait. Shoot. He said, “Be humble.” You know. Both are important. Be both.

❤

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Improv4 uses improv comedy techniques to train leadership, team effectiveness, and communication skills to individuals, teams, companies. Learn more at www.improv4.com