Do you need more insight, or more improv?

Over the course of Christmas 2023, i read about improv. Specifically, the book 'Do Improvise' by Robert Poynton. And i lapped. It. All. Up. It changed so many ways in which i thought about how we work. Not the work itself, but how we develop the work. It started becoming apparent to me that linear processes of getting to ideas were... not good enough.

Strategy. Then ideas. Then review. Then debrief. And so on. It's all a bit boring after a while. Now, i get it. I understand why we do things this way. But my style has always been more hybrid than that. Strategy spawns ideas and ideas spawn strategy.

It's a terrible model if you're productising a linear process. It's a great model if you want to generating momentum fast. Which, as i speak to more CMOs, is a thing they want more of and that most agencies are frankly terrible at. But that’s enough about what i can do for you, eh?

Back to improv. It's not the silver bullet on how to develop sharp strategy at speed. But it bloody helps. Especially if, to quote Robert who paraphrases basketball coach Phil Jackson:

“There is more to life than improv theatre: but then there is more to improv theatre than improv theatre.”

It's another tool. An extremely underrated one. We're still bent on the response to complexity being control. But Robert has a more useful course of action:

“A complex world demands an improvised response.”

Marketing, strategy and ideas are nothing if not complex. We glorify simpler times but my suspicion is that it wasn't simpler, just more top-down. Which might be why people assume that tighter control can help us go back to simplicity (hence, authoritarianism).

But that feels like the tail wagging the dog. You can't go to simpler times by pretending you have the control you thought you did. Perhaps we never did have control. All we had was an illusion. Onward.

Here’s a fun idea: directional usefulness beats definitive answers.

In the book, Robert talks about the myth of improvisation being just random. Off the cuff decisions. Nothing further from the truth. Improv pros do prepare, quite heavily sometimes, but they are not definitive about it. In his words, they prepare "a territory, not a path".

A path presumes you've worked it all out, and others now need to follow suit. A territory is more communal, because you're not saying what the game is. You're just saying this is broadly where we should play. And this feels like a useful skill to bring to strategic development.

We add structure, sure, but in order to generate options, not stifle them.

I've been accused before of starting with the details, but only because in the specific there's universal truth. If it's good enough guidance for comedians, it's good enough for me. And the details are not the endgame, they're just a stepping stone to the next move.

One of Robert's mantras around improv is “be changed by what you hear”. It's advice that good improv directors give actors. It's also something that workshop moderators could tell participants.

Let what came before you guide what you were going to say next. If what came before you is detail-y, the next thing might result in a conceptual overhaul. We simply cannot know until we say/see things.

So, let's say/see things. And let's let others respond to those things, and say more things. As Robert says, "improvisation suggests that if you want to become a more creative individual, you need to be less of an individual. In a sense, all creativity is co-creativity."

Genius is overrated anyway. Not to mention exclusionary. That's right, i said it and i meant it. Let’s get over ourselves. Scenius is the endgame. And more improv, not just more insight, might be a quite solid way in.

Based on the book, here are seven exercises that are useful to try next:

1. The silent scene. Use body language, gestures and facial expressions to convey something about your brand. What it does or feels like. Where the category lacks. Bonus points if you can get the most senior person in the room to go first. Guaranteed ice breaker for many meetings to come.

2. Backwards scene. Think of the outcome and then work backwards from it. It may be that your story starts with the end customer benefit. Now you need to deconstruct how they got there, their troubles along the way. This might be an interesting way to think about customer experience.

3. Genre blender. Combine different story genres and perform a scene that incorporates elements from both. What might your brand look, feel and sound like in a world where solarpunk meets romantic comedy? Do you create a custom GPT to randomise genres for you?

4. Object transformation. This one could be powerful for physical products. Grab what you sell and, as the scene progresses, transform it into something else. What could a piece of food become when no one is that hungry? What else might it be used for? Could this reveal functional properties that you could turn into powerful emotional benefits? Could it reveal useful weaknesses for us to flip?

5. Constrained scene. You enact a scene based on pretty strict rules. For example, you can't use a certain number of descriptors for your target audience. Limit the dialogue to questions only. Do the scene as if it were a musical. Or only say words starting with the letter J.

Improv can be a fantastic tool for marketing and creativity once we recognise it's not random. It's just a different type of structure. And the more we understand our role as channellers of energy flows between people, the more we can use it effectively.

It doesn't mean every business should suddenly turn their board room into a performance theatre. But then again, it does mean that those who do might unlock a wicked competitive advantage.