Improvisation as an Antidote to The Social Dilemma
Even if you haven’t seen The Social Dilemma, you’ve heard about the studies or seen the effects first hand. The financial success of social media companies is predicated on the engagement of its users and those users are human. And what drives the engagement of human beings? Outrage and fear.
It’s not that human beings want to see the car crash, it’s that they can’t help themselves from seeing the car crash. We are wired that way.
Human beings have been searching for scapegoats since we first appeared on the same continent together. Fear of the other, the safety of our own tribe, the astonishing ability to bend facts in the direction that we need them to bend - all of these things have been a part of the human condition for eons. But they’ve never been simultaneously fueled by a device that is carried around in the pockets of 5.13 billion people. It’s a simple and dangerous proposition, these tech companies make massive profits through catering to the worst behaviors of human beings.
It would be both foolish and naive to suggest that we or anyone can create the kinds of systemic changes that are needed to quell this dilemma, but it was in conversation with Communications professor Dan Waisanen for our Second City Works “Getting to Yes, And” podcast that I realized our job was more simple than that. We are built to give teams at work this antidote - and that’s a very actionable thing we can do.
Dan’s new book is called “Improvisation for Democracy: How to Bridge Differences and Develop Communication and Leadership Skills Our World Needs.” This passage from the book does a pretty great job at summing up the problem and the improv fix.
“At the core of leadership and civic excellence lie communication skills, which is why this book has prioritized communication as the primary competency for societal improvement. Yet communication is more than a skill, it’s also a perspective to apply to any situation and event. Arthur Jennings argues that we must find ‘our way in the 21st century by taking forms of communication as seriously as we do health and happiness; by giving certainty and embracing curiosity, living in the tension between being scared and being awed; rediscovering that conversation is about expanding horizons rather than being right or convincing.’ Applied improvisation positions participants in these spaces, where they learn to inhabit ambiguities while stepping out courageously to connect and create with others.”
In an improvisation workshop the rules of engagement are clear and practices: we listen to understand, we affirm and support each other, we celebrate difference and we collaboratively build something out of nothing - something that shows that all of us are truly better than one of us. Improvisation turns our default settings to be prosocial rather than antisocial, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, to operate with a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset.
It’s overwhelming and, ultimately, self-defeating to look at the massive problem that we face in a world where social media puts a collective blast on the elements of human behavior that have always led us to our darkest collective places. So let’s not look at the world and instead focus on our teams.
If we help enough teams become standard bearers of our best instincts and best qualities, we can make a difference.
#improvisation #socialmedia