In my narrative coaching practice, I like looking to the creative arts for inspiration. I attended an improvisation workshop earlier in the year to understand what I could use in my practice and (notwithstanding being so far out of my comfort zone in a room with a bunch of actors!), the key learnings for me were:
1      Be in the moment – a prerequisite for being able to respond to what’s in front of you
2       Stay loose with new ideas and feel the flow of the interaction so you can respond and pivot to what comes in response to them
3       Use and say, “Yes and…” as a great, simple tool for allowing ideas to flow

We also loosened our minds with simple exercises to put us in a more creative state  – for example, we first had to move around the room and point and name things we saw (e.g. a door handle), then we had to point at something and name the thing we previously pointed at, until finally pointing at something and saying the name of something different.

A fun experience all in all, but which left me even more in awe of those amazing improvisation comedy shows like “Mock The Week”.