Matt Abrahams

Because improv isn't about being funny.

Improv is about being in the moment and responding to what's needed.

And so, yeah, doing anything like that, you don't even need a friend.

You can just look at an object and start talking about it, describe it, share a story about it.

All of that could be so you could flip open a book and pick a word and talk about what that word means.

Those are some of those agility drills that can help you be better

when you're put on the spot.

And it builds a confidence too.

It's like, I can do that.

If I can do this when I pick a random word, I can do this when somebody asks me a question that I know a lot about the topic on.

So it's a way of building confidence and helping with that in the moment processing.

Yeah, a class I co-teach at Stanford through their continuing studies program is called Improvisationally Speaking.

I partner with a gentleman named Adam Tobin, who's an excellent improviser, and together I bring the communication piece.

And it's a way of giving people baby steps and permission to do some of these improv games because we directly link a particular improv activity to a specific communication need.

And when people see that, they open up.

At Stanford's Graduate School of Business, there are several courses that bring in improvisational ideas into very serious things, how to be a manager and adapt to management skills through improv, how to demonstrate your status and power through some of the things that improv teaches.

So taking improv or at least understanding some of those principles certainly can help.

Well, there are several factors.

One, I think, is that they're incredibly well-written.

They are poetic.