What can Design facilitators learn from Improv

A subtle yet profound change is taking place in the role of a designer within industry. Designers are still the creators of physical products, interfaces and services. However, today they are seen less as lone ranger creative artists and more as catalysts of organizational creativity.

Call it design thinking, co-creation or collaborative creativity, designers seem like a natural fit to facilitate those sessions. Maybe this is because design, by its very nature, works across multiple functions or because designers can visualize abstract ideas, tell stories or are open to diverse viewpoints. 

That said, most designers are artistic by temperament and shy. Many are reluctant to stand in front of a group stakeholders and, sometimes strangers, to facilitate a design thinking session. Attending training courses, say on public speaking doesn’t help. These courses are either archaic or they propose techniques inadequate to address the interactive nature of collaborative workshops.

So how does one become a good facilitator? Based on my own experience, successful facilitation is an attitude that can be acquired. There are many ways to learn it but, unconventional as it may sound, you might want to look at the practices of Improv theater. In case you are not aware, Improv is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up in the moment. TV shows like Whose line is it anyway made Improv popular and associated it with comedy but Improv is a much larger field. 

I have condensed whatever little I know about Improv into 5 lessons for Design thinkers (all conveniently starting with S): Show up, Start anywhere, Say yes, Sing along and Stay on course. Let me explain.

Show up: I often hear people give reasons for not facilitating like ‘I don’t have the command over subject matter’, ‘I am not good at this’, ‘I don’t have the gravitas to control a large group’, ‘I need to practice and prepare more’. 

The practice of Improv says that showing up is already enough. Improvisers know that if they had to wait for anything, even inspiration, few scenes would ever begin. Players step on the stage because that’s where the magic happens. Woody Allen famously said that 80% of success is just showing up. Walking over to the whiteboard and offering to facilitate a session is winning half the battle. Having that courage means having faith in yourself and in others. Don’t worry even when things are less than perfect, even when you are not at your best or you are not sure how the show is going to go...

Start anywhere: Improv tells us that there is no such a thing as a proper beginning. Improv believes in plunging into the challenge wherever you are and in developing a new perspective of the job at hand. If you don’t know where to start, start with the most obvious thing that is right in front of you.

Correctly scoping the goal of a design thinking session certainly helps in making sure we know where we are and where we want to go. But it is possible that you walk into a session and someone springs a new prototype or the highest income person offers a debilitating opinion. If that happens, don’t let it get you down. Start wherever you are and go from there...like life, design thinking is all about going in circles. 

Say yes: The world of Yes may be the single most powerful secret of improvising. It allows players who have no history with one another to create a scene effortlessly. Saying 'Yes and' glues them together and gets their creative juices flowing.

There are times during a long design thinking session when the doubts creep in, differences surface and the energy in the room ebbs. As facilitators, we need to take pleasure from achieving goals but also help the participants maintain a positive, happy attitude in the face of failure. It isn’t about having ideas which are all equally good but about treating all ideas as equally good.

Sing Along: Great Improvisers don’t worry about how good they look or act. Instead they focus on being good to work with. They fill the room with positivity because they take care of each other.

During Design thinking sessions, we all have met ‘Resident Experts’ who love to hog lime light, ‘Point Scorers’ who love to put others down or ‘Hunters’ who wait to trap others. Design thinking, especially in large organizations, is as much about alignment and collaboration among different stakeholders as it is about generating novel ideas. Facilitators need to ‘read the room’ and make sure everyone understands that harmony happens when all voices sing together.  

Stay on Course: Improvisation always has a point. On stage, artists improvise in order to tell a story, to solve a puzzle or to create a new song. Similarly, a design thinking session has a purpose, a goal. Sometimes in the heat of arguments or in the excitement of a new idea it is easy for participants to forget or veer away from that goal. Good facilitators use the litmus of goal when overwhelmed with feelings or confused about decisions. They not just keep timing during the day but make sure everyone understands what we are aiming for at the end of the day.

PS: A couple of books on Improv that I came across: Improv wisdom by Patricia Madson and The Improv Handbook by Tom Salinsky and Deborah Frances-White. Both are great reads if you want to know more on Improv.