Innovation Loves Structure

What Improv teaches us about building successful companies and teams

Innovative Products are built by Innovative Teams.

Hiring talent with the right skillset is necessary but not sufficient. You also need to create the right culture and structure for the team to work not just efficiently, but creatively as well.

If you’ve ever watched amazing Improvisational Theater, you may have marveled at how a well-oiled troop can magically create not just fun scenes, but whole plays on the spot. Talented as these actors are, they do not rely on sheer creative genius, but on a well-honed set of rules. That’s right, the best Improv actors, wacky and crazy as they may seem, are following rules, not breaking them. That is the secret to innovation.

Scripted Shows vs. Improv

A well scripted show can take months to write and weeks to rehearse. The results can be well worth the effort, producing masterpieces like Hamilton or Wicked. In the business world, it pays off to spend weeks preparing for pivotal pitches, like asking for funding or winning a big customer (see 4storyteller.com for a structure to do so).

But on a day to day basis, things (should) move too fast at a startup to carefully script out every move. A nimble product team must move fast and independently without a director overseeing every decision. It must act like an Improv troupe.

Rules to Work By

In improv there are general cultural rules, and there are game-specific rules. The cultural rules apply well to corporate meetings:

1. “Yes, and”This just means that scenes need to move forward. Don’t negate the last statement. Accept it and add on.In a corporate setting, people can disagree, but we still want to move the discussion forward, not just say “No” without offering a pathway to continue the discussion.
2. “Pay Attention”This means that you can’t contribute to the scene if you are not focused on what is happening.In the office setting, we often use the related “One conversation at a time” rule.
3. “Don’t Try to be Funny”In Improv, “trying to be funny” can lead an actor to think about her own agenda rather than being present in the scene. The rules of the game will naturally create funny situations without individuals needing to invent funny lines.In the corporate environment, trying to “be smart” can derail the flow of the conversation and stop creativity. Pay attention and stay present to the discussion.

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How Improv Games Use Specific Rules

Let’s look at the game called "Late to Work."

Setup:

- One player is designated as the Boss, one as the Employee, and the others are Co-workers.

- The Boss sits or stands at one end of the space, facing away from the playing area.

- The Employee is "late for work" and will be outside the room or area at the start.

- The Co-workers are in the playing area with the Boss.

Rules:

- The Employee enters and the Boss demands an explanation for their tardiness.

- The Co-workers will have previously agreed upon a ridiculous and elaborate reason for the Employee's lateness.

- The Employee, who has not heard this reason, must guess the excuse based on the Co-workers' pantomime and hints during the scene.

- The Co-workers silently act out the excuse, while the Employee tries to justify their lateness to the Boss using these clues.

- The game continues until the Employee successfully guesses the excuse or the Boss decides to end the round.

Result:

The joy of this game comes from the creativity of the Co-workers in communicating the excuse without words and the Employee's often humorous attempts to justify the absurd situations they interpret from the mime. The Employee’s explanations are humorous because they are based on miming, not because the actor is being inherently funny.

How You can Run Meetings This Way

In the same way an improv troupe can prepare before a scene, a great product team can prepare before any meeting. Every meeting should have the following determined BEFORE the meeting:

1. TOPIC: What Game are we playing?Make sure there is an agreed upon goal for the meeting. Is this meeting a decision making meeting, a fact gathering meeting, an update, a brainstorm, etc.?
2. ATTENDEES: Who are the players and their roles?Everyone at the meeting should be an active participant and have a specific role. No one needs to come to this meeting to check their email.Everyone who is needed must be present: decision maker(s), experts, facilitators, etc.
3. AGENDA: What are the rules that will make this work?An agenda is more than a list of things to discuss. It should be a roadmap for how the meeting will reach its goal. For example:Decision Making Meeting Agenda1. Welcome and Introduction (5 minutes)- Briefly state the meeting's purpose and objectives.- Introduce participants if necessary, especially if there are new members.2. Review of Agenda (2 minutes)- Outline the main points and structure of the meeting.- Confirm the agenda with all participants.3. Background or Context Setting (5-10 minutes)- Provide a brief overview of the issue at hand, including relevant history or context.- Highlight why the decision is important and its potential impact.4. Presentation of Options (10-20 minutes)- Present the different options or solutions available for the decision.- Depending on the complexity, this could involve presentations from different team members or departments.5. Discussion and Clarification (20-30 minutes)- Open the floor for discussion on each option.- Encourage input from all participants, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons.- Address any questions and clarify any uncertainties.6. Evaluation of Options (10-15 minutes)- Evaluate each option against predefined criteria such as cost, feasibility, impact, etc.- Use a scoring system or a pros and cons list for a more structured evaluation.7. Decision Making (15-20 minutes)- Reach a consensus or vote on the preferred option.- Ensure the decision aligns with the meeting’s objective and the organization's goals.8. Action Plan and Assigning Responsibilities (10 minutes)- Outline the next steps following the decision.- Assign responsibilities and deadlines for implementation.9. Review and Summary (5 minutes)- Summarize the decision made and any action items agreed upon.- Confirm that everyone understands their tasks and responsibilities.

How about 1:1 Meetings?

1 on 1 meetings are often more informal and used to build relationships rather than to achieve tactical goals, but there still ARE goals. To reach those, a short agenda (or rules) are still helpful to insure there is space for important topics. For instance:

GOAL: Career development

ATTENDEES: Manager and employee

AGENDA:

• Review of Employee Career Goals - employee led
• Employee Challenges and Managerial advice - employee led
• Manager Feedback for Employee - manager led
• Employee Feedback for manager - employee led

People need to Know Rules to Use Them

How do top-performing teams achieve rapid and efficient results? They adhere to unspoken norms that have evolved organically over time. The key to duplicating and expanding the success of these elite teams begins with documenting these implicit guidelines and actively promoting them. Consistently emphasize these principles in each official meeting, and gradually, the team will internalize and practice them instinctively. Similar to a skilled improv group, they'll craft innovative products guided by the team's framework, rather than relying on random chance.

Structural Systems are how to Scale Impact

Ultimately, success hinges on developing Structural Systems to enable scalability. Transitioning from an individual contributor to a leader involves transforming personal best practices into systemic strategies for your team. Where an individual contributor focuses on personal results, a leader strategizes on creating rules and structures that guide the team towards desired outcomes.

This concept of structural systems is pivotal, not just for those leading large teams but for enhancing productivity at all levels. The advent of GenAI marks a new era in amplifying your influence. Consider ChatGPT: it can generate content more rapidly than any human, but it flounders without structured guidance. When interacting with Large Language Models, the clarity and specificity of your prompts - defining style, adhering to rules, outlining topics, and specifying formatting - are crucial. Just as you build and refine systems within teams, using LLMs effectively involves crafting and employing specific structures (like saved prompts) to maximize the utility of each interaction.

Many companies will be built on contextual prompts that turn the general predictive models into specialized tools for tasks like copyediting, blog writing, legal assistance, and more.

Structure is the foundation on which creativity and innovation can be built upon. Build that strong foundation, so you, your team, and your company can rise to unlimited heights.

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