Alan Alda:
 
“I heard lectures before and they are most often cold.  What is the difference between that warmth, that presence, that connection to the people you are talking to – between that and the other thing, the cold version.
I remembered something I had been through as a young actor which was studying improvisation. I remembered the striking difference of that.
I became aware of those people who studied improvisation long enough became very charismatic.  Many of them became stars of entertainment that we all know. Many of them started out in improvisation before they hit the big screen.
I wondered if that training could be helpful to scientists (bankers, executive, technologists, etc.).  It was just an idea.
The thing about improvisation is that it is not standing around making things up. That is not the central part of improvisation.
The most important part of improvisation is making contact with the other (actor) person. I wondered if scientists could make contact with other people within the exercises and the games.  Could they make contact with their audience?  How could I get this process to work with scientists?
I tried an experiment.  I use the games and exercises of Viola Spolin.

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