While facilitating Improvisation for Breakthrough Results sessions, Make Your Partner Perfect stands out as a favorite with the players.
During an Improvisation for Breakthrough Results session with graduate students from South Africa here on a Summer exchange program with a New York City university, the students reacted most favorably to Make Your Partner Perfect.
Improvisation sessions impart best practices in communication as the games are perfect physical metaphors for how we communicate and behave in our lives.
This day each game held a particular fascination for the group. Their greatest feedback was they could actually feel the impact of their communication on their partners.
Although they loved each game, and didn’t want to leave it; the one that stood out was the Make Your Partner Perfect game. The principles are:
- listen to your fellow players
- say “yes, and…”
- accept all offers
- attune to your audience
- get yourself heard; and
- make your partner perfect
The players amazed at how much this game had them live in the present moment & in the unknown, to think on their feet, and be in resonance with their teammates while projecting to the audience.
It was significant to them that make your partner perfect held the group so perfectly.
One woman likened it to when she’s had to speak on a panel internally in her organization and how critical it is to listen so carefully, to be physically attuned to her fellow panelists, and to stay aware if all the questions have been fully addressed.
It reminds me of a time when I was coaching an MD at a global bank getting him ready to speak on a panel. He invited me to come to observe him at the event.
It was shocking how appalling the other speakers were. Each one looked down and read from their notes with little or no connection to each other or to the audience. My coaching client was the last one to speak.
He listened so intently to the others’ presentations so that when he spoke he referred to each of his fellow panel members and summarized their key points tying them together as a whole.
This is a perfect example of make your partners perfect. He lifted them up and made them look good. (against all odds) I had deep respect for his ability to do this and so seamlessly. Kudos to him.
The principles of Improvisation are to:
- Listen
- Say “Yes”
- Live in the Moment
- Make sure you PLAY with people who have your back
- It’s good to be part of a great ensemble – the “we” is bigger than “me
- Make your partner perfect.
I invite you to try this out. If you are in the vicinity of NYC we offer an Improvisation for Breakthrough Results on August 28, 2024 in Midtown Manhattan. See here for details:
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:37467306-6b0b-467e-bb4e-5f746fd97008
https://presence-impact.com/2024/07/19/8-principles-improvisation-teaches-us-about-leadership/
