What does comedic improvisation have to do with everyday business skills? A fun-seeking, business-focused group of students found out earlier this year, when Business Improv came to visit our Masters of Accounting students.
“I didn’t really have expectations going in,” says Dan Brown, a student participant. “I assumed maybe they’d be putting us in situations where we’d have to answer questions on the spot.” Instead, Brown and his colleagues found themselves in an immersive role-playing experience where they had to re-evaluate some very common communication behaviors.
Learning to do improv
In one exercise, Brown says, “We had to hold a conversation with someone by taking what they said, and adding to it.” For Brown, who admits to a habit of holding conversations by asking and answering questions, it was particularly challenging. “It was hard to add to what they were saying, rather than interrogating them,” he says.
That exercise stood out for Associate Professor of Accounting Derek Johnston as well. “They forced you to keep the conversation going by ending with yes, and instead of yes, but,” he notes. These types of exercises, he says, ultimately teach more effective listing and enhanced communication, while encouraging a greater awareness of one’s natural inclination to change topics or make contradictions.
In another scenario, Johnston says, group members had to take on particular job roles — for instance, pretending to be staff members at a high school — to see how communication changed based on position and hierarchy. “They would assign roles,” he says, “like physical education teacher, principal, and so on.” Each person immediately began to understand their own character’s motivations and needs, and inevitably, they took sides quickly.
Lasting impressions
Johnston says the event was successful in breaking down barriers between professors and students. “I recently turned 45 and I still learned a number of new communication techniques; I found the training to be very beneficial,” he says. “When I look back to myself at the age these students are right now, I think Business Improv training would have been extremely helpful to me.”
About 30 students and 8 faculty participated in the event. And as Johnston says, “I would say it elicited a strong reaction. Whether that was always positive or sometimes negative, I think it was good… Students will need to recognize that when they become managers, they’ll have to be aware of breaking down barriers. They hope that in their future jobs, they’ll have supervisors who are open to ideas — and they’ll need to be as well, as they grow in their careers. And this was a great take-away for us as professors, too.”
We are thankful for KPMG as well as alumni David (’78) and Roberta (’79) Marfitano for their support of the fall training. They will be returning this April to work with these same students on leadership skills.
