The lovely Kat Koppett and I had the pleasure of talking with Linda Lombardo on The Voice Of Leadership about how improvisation can set leaders up to engage and own challenges by being open, aware and present in he moment.
Take a listen to our chat; we think you’ll enjoy it!
I suspect I am one of the very few coaches with a theatre in the back room. (OK, technically, it’s a rehearsal room, but it has theatre seats, lights and dimmers, a piano, and a stage area, so everyone ends up calling it “the theatre.”)
A theatre is a great place to hold a coaching session because coaching can often be about visibility, authenticity, and performance. We work together to reveal, then realize, your dreams. Together, we also reveal the ways you block them. And very often, realizing those dreams requires you to be more effectively visible in the world. Life, after all, is a series of performances.
As a young actor I worked for a director who would shout: “It’s called a PLAY, people!” Coaching, like rehearsal, is work. And it’s play. As a coach, one of my jobs is to help you learn to not only invite scrutiny, but also to enjoy it. By creating a safe space between us, we bring the uniqueness of you into focus. As you get clearer about your own strengths and challenges, getting clear becomes an enjoyable part of the process, and the enjoyment reveals even more power and beauty you have always held inside, that you have resisted letting out. You become a conscious performer, and learn to instinctively bring the right energy to the performance at hand.
Finding the confidence and grace to believe that you can stand up for yourself and your knowledge in the room–that you can find that authentic, powerful performance– is at the heart of the coaching experience. Holding your truth in a way that empowers you lets you own your own strength. When you face challenges, you are then strong enough to accept the feedback and lessons that help you grow, while you let go of projected fears you may have of the judgements of others.
I’m not a consultant. I’m a listener. I forge an alliance with my clients to really see them. I’m a champion and cheerleader for my clients. One person calls me a “co-conspirator.”
There are few coaching sessions where I don’t want to pull out that old Broadway chestnut, “Sing Out, Louise!” Mama Rose may have had her own issues, but encouraging others to shine in the world, to trust their own star power and be seen is never a bad thing.
We live in what is,
but we find one thousand ways not to face it.
Great theatre strengthens our ability to face it.
— Thornton Wilder
My coaching clients live in the real world. They face real challenges. Co-Active Coaching helps you find your own courageous conviction, the power that lets you set and achieve your true goals. My job is to to ask powerful questions, to listen and empower in a way that opens the skills and creativity that you already possess, rather than to instruct or advise.
I work to strengthen your ability to fully develop and use your own skills and creativity, your own power in the world. And sometimes to remind you to “Sing Out, Louise!”
The fact that I happen to have a theatre in the back room can be one more tool in our path to finding the shining star you already own, your own personal spotlight. (It’s also a fun place to play.)
Interested? I’m happy to chat. Just contact me today!
My partner, Kat Koppett, is a world expert in applied improvisation, focusing on how to use the techniques of improv to solve business problems.
She recently gave a webinar for Positive Business DC.
Improv for The Business Stage Changes the Way People “Listen”
http://youtu.be/Wg8RCNI2LkI
Marcia Moran reports that “a number of things Koppett said during the webinar have stuck and I’m now wondering if my approach played it a little too safe.” You can read about Marcia’s epiphany here: Applied Improv Fosters Creativity, Innovation, And Healthy Company Cultures
Check Kat out at Koppett & Company. She’s awesome.
So, my daughter sent me a short video of my granddaughter, who is one-and-a-half, playing with a ball. It made me think about how critically important play is in our learning, and what hard work it is.
This very short blog post is to ask you: what’s your best, hardest, most tiring/energizing play/work experience, and how did (does) it help you?
I’d love to hear from you!
The other day I related an observation a client and I cooked up about getting one’s ducks in a row. Baby ducks line up easily, but they don’t fly. Cute little aphorism, eh? There’s a growing awareness in the business world about taking too much effort to prepare, to make sure that everything is perfect, before launching a venture. Forbes magazine ran an article on the subject a few months ago.
I am interested in why many people I have known (alright, have been) have, at various times in their lives, fallen into the trap of getting The Big Idea and having it become The Big Plan, with endless iterations, simulations, provisos and contingencies, but no actual movement. The Big Idea becomes the Big Plan, and that becomes, over time, Vague Memory.
My brand new Turducken Model of Inactive Planning works like this:
But, see, the Duck doesn’t stuff so easily, because, unbeknownst to the IIP, the Saboteur has stuffed the Duck full of Chicken! That’s right. The ducks, in this case, (you’ll notice I added the “s” back in.) aren’t being lined up in a row. They are concealing the chicken, that lies at the heart of this whole sad IIP/Saboteur drama. So…the duck is too stiff and bloated to fit into the turkey, the IIP gets exhausted (see, in the REAL Turducken, you BONE the birds to make it possible to stuff them inside each other!) So nothing happens. So, maybe the IIP realises: “Duh! I gotta bone these birds to make this work!” The IIP, so enamored with having solved the problem of stuffing the turkey with the duck, doesn’t stop to consider the lurking chicken, but instead embarks on a knife wielding rampage, deboning with abandon. Well, bones provide the strength, the substance….And the IIP ends up with a big flabby mess, and maybe a seriously cut finger, or a huge mess of deboned idea, bloated duck, and lurking chicken. (I am not a real fan of Turducken, you see.)
Alright. This blog post isn’t perfect. But hopefully it will provide a bit of food for thought to go with all the yummy stuff you may plan to eat this week. Happy Thanksgiving.
I learn so much from my clients.
In a convers
ation just now, we were talking about getting all of one’s ducks in a row before launching an exciting idea. She said: “Ducks don’t really line up very well.” I blurted: “Baby ones do….but they don’t fly.”
We had a good laugh, and she basically demanded that I get that idea out there through my blog. So here it is. The metaphor is yours, dear friends, to do with as you will…
A friend recently took me to task for telling improv students to “celebrate failure.”
“You don’t mean ‘celebrate failure,’ ” she said. “You mean ‘celebrate risking failure.’ ”
That conversation was a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Here’s my conclusion: I mean both. Certainly I need to celebrate my willinglness to risk failure, because risking failure is the only reliable path to creative success. This part is easy, and is, I think, where I often stop in my thinking. I have indeed often invoked the phrase “celebrate failure” when I really mean “celebrate your willingness to risk failure in pursuit of success.” But actual failure? The result of the experiment that bombs? Do I really advocate celebrating that?
The answer is yes. It is very helpful to celebrate failure. The answer, if I am really truthful, is that I haven’t celebrated my own failures in life enough. But I am getting better at it. Why do I think it’s helpful, and why haven’t I done it enough? There are many reasons.
If I don’t first accept, then celebrate my failure, I risk denying that failure, and I minimize the possible learning to be gained. But if I say, in effect, “wow, yay me! I tried that new way to make crepes, and it was a train wreck! Woo Hoo! I’m covered with pancake batter from head to toe! ” a couple of things happen. First of all, my sense of humor is one of the most important tools in my personal toolbox, and I must be able to laugh at myself. When I can’t, even I can’t stand being around me. Secondly, that sense of humor often reveals analysis that is important. For me, honest humor is a big part of learning.
Babies learn to walk by falling down. They do not learn to walk by risking a fall—they learn by falling. The fall tells them what “too far in that direction with the center of gravity” is. So they fall sideways, and to the other side, and backwards, and forwards…imagine if a baby labelled himself “a failure” after just a few falls? They don’t, because babies are naturally celebratory beings. This is not to say that they don’t let us know that it hurts, dammit, when they give themselves a good clunk on the head during one of their trials. But they get back up. So perhaps in this sense, “Celebrate failure” means “I celebrate the me that continues to learn from failure. I celebrate the fact that I WILL learn this walking thing.”
A number of years ago I was talking with a friend about a very successful corporation. The friend, who had a bit of an axe to grind, referred to the CEO with some distain, and said “he collects failures.” I asked what he meant? “He finds people who have gone down in flames, and hires them. Look at his management team. Every one of them had a big crash in their past. He does it because then he can get them for cheap. They feel so bad about themselves that they will work for way less than successful managers would.” I didn’t buy my friend’s premise, though he listed several previous failures on the part of people on the management team.
First of all, my friend was nursing a grudge, and framing his remarks in a negative way. Secondly, however, as I said, the corporation in question is very successful. I can’t imagine that it would be if it were led by someone who collected “failures” with such low self esteem that they would work cheaply. (How would he even do that? Is there a special headhunter that looks for people who are full of self loathing?) I imagine that the CEO is wise enough to hire people that have failed for his management team because he knows that failure can be a great indicator of creativity, bravery, and dynamic, action-based thought. I further imagine that he doesn’t have much interest in the very safe individuals who have neither failed much, nor succeeded much, but simply exist to serve a status quo created by someone more adventurous than themselves.
In the improv classes, the instruction we give that my friend objected to is that our students take a “circus bow” when they try and fail. We use the example of the trapeze artist who fails in front of thousands….she falls to the net, flips onto the floor, and springs up, arms stretched out, in a gymnast’s bow. The very posture is celebratory–and we give her a huge ovation. Why? Because she was brave, and skilled, and she tried something we would never have the courage to try ourselves. We know that this time she didn’t do it, but she can. We know, from observing her failure, that she is inherently a success.
So why don’t I celebrate my own failures enough?
Back to the baby. It hurts, that clunk on the head. And that pain can drive any celebration out of the mind. But in the baby’s case, there’s a step two. He says to himself (in baby language, of course) “You know, that last time, I felt a little catch in my stomach, like the muscles there were trying to hold my weight from going backward, just before I fell back and clunked this noggin. So, if those muscles were a little stronger, If I tensed them earlier…then do that alternate the feet thing, and then…walking! Bob’s yer Uncle!” (Baby language is heavily influenced by 20th Century British slang.) “Yay, me!” says the baby. “I’ll get this walking thing in no time!”
In my own case, I sometimes stop at the “damn that hurts” phase. I forget the learning part. And that makes me forget to celebrate. When I stop at the pain, I forget to celebrate. I open the door to the saboteur voice in my head. When I feel the pain, acknowledge it, and then celebrate, I learn. And then, lo and behold…I succeed.
Boy oh boy, Mr. Crankypants. You don’t want to teach this morning. You don’t want to coach. You don’t want to walk the dogs through the glorious fall leaves. You don’t want to do the improv class tonight, do you?
Mr. Crankypants? Are you listening? You don’t want to listen with all your focus and honor your scene partner, whomever he or she may be, and you don’t want to be creative and playful and provoke laughter and positive growth. I see you there, muttering to yourself about the bad people who stole your string ball…and I know something else.
You aren’t really mister Crankypants. I see you! Peek-a-boo!
That’s you, isn’t it, Mr. Lazypants? Oh, and your twin brother, Mr. Scaredypants! Wait! There’s your sister, under that mask! Ms. Junk Food! How did she fit under that mask with you guys?
You haven’t fooled me. Mr. Crankypants is just a big old fraud. And so are you three lugs.
But the problem is, even though I have seen through your disguise, you still effect me.
So I am going to take care of you. I’m starting with a big, long breath, in……out.
Now I am going to go look at the sky. The rest will follow. Mr. Crankypants, some days I let you win. Not today.
A more personal page. Some old coaching related stuff, plus whatever I feel like adding nowadays. The sites directly related to my professional life are Mopco.org and Koppett.com
So, we told this very busy, very high power arts administrator about our dreams. To regularly perform in a venue where we could build a faithful audience. To have a rehearsal/development space. To run classes—a school, actually, where people of all ages could study improv, become part of our company, and improve their lives in many ways as a result of their creative growth. We waxed eloquent.
Philip listened gravely, then in his ponderous, thoughtful way, asked one great question— a coaching question if ever there was one: “What’s stopping you?”
I had answers for that. Lack of funding. High rents. Difficulty in getting good PR. Blah blah blah. Fortunately, I didn’t get a chance to speak.
My partner, Kat Koppett, jumped in and answered with the perfect answer. “Absolutely nothing…we’re doing all that, and it is happening. We just wanted to see if you wanted to join us.” The answer, it won’t surprise you, was yes. Philip wanted to help. And help he did, (and does) in ways large and small. (Mostly, actually, large.) And…in that moment, my view of the path ahead changed. I realized I was focused on the roadblocks instead of the journey. It was a huge realization.
That was seven years ago. Today, my company regularly performs in the”Underground,” a little basement theatre at Proctors. We have a faithful and growing audience. We just moved into a spacious new rehearsal/office space, where we are exploding with new creative projects. We offer a slate of classes for all ages, and we are developing a community of creative people, actors, non-actors, adults, kids…Everything we dreamed is real. It has been and continues to be a lot of work. And we wouldn’t be doing it, I think, if it hadn’t been for one great question and one great answer.
My small improv company is one of dozens of groups that have received support and assistance from Philip. But many don’t know the extent of Philip’s role as arts mentor and champion in the community. In fact, perhaps because it is human nature to complain, I often read letters to the editor criticizing Philip, often for things that he has little or nothing to do with. Proctors is a central part of a huge and successful push to revitalize Schenectady, and because of its size and stature, it has no shortage of critics. I sometimes get tweaked when I read criticisms of Philip that actually don’t make sense. But I know this guy: he’s got broad shoulders, and I am fairly sure he can shrug off those criticisms that are unjust, and learn from the ones with some merit.
In my coaching practice, clients often mention other people who inspire, assist, nudge, guide, mentor, and lift various people and organizations in various ways. Often the folks I hear mentioned are familiar to me. There are, in most communities, those people who devote themselves to developing others.
Another such person in my own life is Ms. Janet Tanguay. Janet is the Entrepreneurial Assistance Coordinator for the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, and she owns her own business: Art n Soul, Inc., where she is a creativity coach and artist representative. If you know anyone in a startup, or any artists in NY’s Capital Region, you’ve probably heard of Janet in one or another conversation, usually in the context of “Hey, you should get in touch with…” When I decided to expand my coaching practice, Janet was one of my first calls. And of course, she was instantly helpful. Yet I imagine that a lot of people, the majority of folks around here, have never heard of her. Personally, I think she should be famous.
Bill Ziskin, at Schenectady High School, is another of these amazing, mostly anonymous people. Dy in and day out, Bill provides excellent theatre education, a space where it is safe to grow, and a dry wit that doesn’t quite mask his real love for his students. I know there are so many adults out there who, if asked, would credit Bill with kickstarting their success in life. But most people have never heard of him. Bill should be on a stamp, at the very least, if not regularly profiled in People Magazine.
There are so many mentors, and I have little space…so for today I will stop with these three. But I have determined that it is important that from here on in, I publicly acknowledge all of the champions I know. Why? Because People ain’t gonna write about them, but it’s the right thing to do. And because it feels good. And because: who knows what connections between people, people with great potential, might happen if I do? What great enrichments to our community might happen? What might take flight? And let me say it again: because it feels good.
So I make you an offer: want to feel great? Think about the unsung heroes in your life, and sing out about them. Who knows what great thing might happen if you do?
I offer free sample coaching sessions. If you are curious about coaching, I hope you’ll contact me at coaching@mopco.org .
