Yes, and By Kelly Leonard

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It's good. Mine will be better ;-) ;-) ;-) Yes, and There are a lot of books out there about improv, but very few good ones on how to apply the principles in your work and career. This one fills that gap with an easy conversational style. I have worked with both Kelly and Tom at the Second City and they really know their stuff. If you want to help improve your work relationships, have more fun in your job, and be more creative and innovative to help advance you business and career, start here. Highly recommended. Yes, and This book has so much good insight into how and why seven elements of improv can improve your business and build better teams. I just wish it didn't read so much like a marketing tool for Second City.

Some of the case studies presented seems highly relevant to the element being put forth, but others seemed shoehorned in, like we should tell them about this thing but where does it go? Oh, just put it this section on listening. All that makes the book about half as long as it needs to be.

As a person who loves improv, I did learn some exercises and ways to make those more accessible outside of performers and relevant to all collaborative endeavors. That, of course, gives this book value, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. It's like a chip bag. You think you are going to get a lot, but most of it is just air. Yes, and Summary: If you're looking for books on how to get your team to be more creative, this should likely be on the list. I know a lot of the elements to be true. Yes and vs. No but is all the difference in communication.

While the book is excellent for advice on brainstorming and collaboration, I think at times, it assumes always the best of intentions. In work settings there are an array of things that people are trying to accomplish. There is a section where they even discuss this a bit, i.e. the Yes and response that allows you to disagree. If you're working with people who already has an established common goal and good intentions, then yes and can be fabulous. I think if you've got a harrier situation than that, you have to marry when to use Yes and and other methods of salesmanship.

I docked it 2 stars, because at times I felt the book was slightly too self-aggrandizing. Yes they deserve praise for their work, and yes, much of the work is ubiquitous, it is also true that there are some basic assumptions involved. Leadership isn't always about getting along. Sometimes, there should be creative tension vs. simply everyone agreeing into a tide. Indeed, I find that the agreeing it a tide can be extremely alienating for people that have an introverted or slightly slower twitch thinking process, i.e. people that would not be good at improv.

All and all, a great book to read for perspective and ideas on how to communicate effectively. Yes, and This was a very different take on leadership, from the perspective of improvisation. I'd attended a session at PLA one year that had us do Yes, And exercises - it's quite a challenging mindset to put yourself into when you're used to saying NO most of the time. Reading this book helped me put it in perspective, and I think now I'm better equipped to embrace the philosophy. Not sure I'd survive the don't say NO for an entire day concept - I might explode the way one of the examples did in the book.

There was a lot of name-dropping, but I wrote it off to the authors' need to prove their credentials. Yes, and

This book came to me at just the right time. I'm not sure how it got on my radar, but I recommended it to my library for purchase and then it came up that they had added it to the collection. So it was automatically checked out to me. So glad it came in the first few weeks of the year! I had been trying to determine what my word of the year for 2018 was going to be... and while reading this book, I realized that my word for 2018 is LISTEN. I need to listen to my husband instead of asking him to repeat himself because I was doing something on my phone. I need to listen to the inner voice in my head warning me that something feels wrong. Listening is such a huge skill that you can apply everywhere!

Deep listening is essential to improvisation. It is also critical in many parts of business. From selling situations, to employee evaluations, to brain storming sessions and more. In other words, the care and feeding of our listening muscle is absolute priority for anyone who wishes to create, communicate, lead or manage effectively. (8% progress of audio)

Sheldon Patinkin (sp?), who has worked as a director and teacher at Second City for more than fifty years, puts interesting spin on the axiom 'you're only as strong as you're weakest member'. He offers that at Second City, your ensemble is only as good as its ability to compensate for its weakest member. The difference is that in our case the weakness is put back on the ensemble rather than the individual. (33.7% progress of audio)

I kept pausing to write down good one liners like these:

Change initiatives require real behavior changes. Before people can change behaviors, they have to change their attitudes.

Sometimes being a good boss means getting out of the way.

The best contemporary leaders are skilled at operating in an ever-shifting dynamic that allows them to shift as well, letting the most knowledgeable staff members take center stage when necessary and assuming more direct control of the environment when it's called for. Interestingly, studies show that these traits are more found in women than in men.... A study in leadership in 2011. Although males have a much higher percentage of the top leadership positions, out of the 15 functions of leadership effectiveness, females were rated more positively in 12 of them.... women outscore men in leadership effectiveness. This is due primarily to a change in leadership styles. Moving from a command and control style of leadership to a more collaborative model plays to women's strengths. Women are better listeners, better at building relationships, and more collaborative, and that makes them better adapted to the demands of modern leadership. (88.3% progress of audio)

Anyone who is a parent or is in a relationship knows exactly what we are talking about. According to Forbes columnist Glenn Llopis, 85% of what we know we learn through listening and 45% of our workdays are spent listening. Yet humans only listen at a 25% comprehension rate. More alarming, only 2% of professionals have actually taken any formal training in listening skills. (91% progress of audio)

“We have a listening problem. In our world, in our country, in our places of business and in our homes. Why? Because we don't practice what we aren't taught. Sure, we are told to listen by our parents and our teachers, but despite the fact that listening is the primary means by which we learn, we've never been given the tools to develop our listening skills. (91.7% of audio progress)

I mean... everyone deals with people. We all need to listen and relate better with others in our families, our jobs, and everyday interactions. This book speaks to so many of those things in such a simple way. It came to me at the right time in my life and I know that I'll be re-reading it in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Thanks to San Diego County Library for the digital audio version via OverDrive.

[Audio: 7 hours, 19 minutes] Yes, and Given the association with Second City and improv comedy, I was expecting a more captivating book than this was. It was only so-so, and I skimmed through the 212 pages pretty quickly. There were a few interesting anecdotes, but overall, kind of a 'meh...' book. That is, until I got literally to the last two pages, that contain One Last List, which is taped to the wall of the Second City office, and is the best part of the whole book (repeated below verbatim)!

Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don't check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word no from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you're sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Don't be [a jerk], and don't abide [jerks].
Be on time.
Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don't revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say we rather than I whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you're trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser. Yes, and Just finished reading this book for my second time, nearly 3 years since I first read it. I found the book to be equally as inspiring as the first time, reminding me of so many powerful concepts of leadership and high performing organizations, specifically:
- Communication as an operational imperative
- Break down Organizational Silos
- Failure as a driver of success (so many similarities with Lean Startup)
- Listening and Empathy
- A culture of building on people’s ideas
- How to foster a culture of creativity
- Ability to think fast, adapt and respond
- Gain comfort with fear
- Follower-ship is as important as leadership
- Give and Take (Adam Grant) - it is about the balance
- High performing leaders “read”....people, rooms, organizations....
- High performers know when to listen, lead, follow, change on the fly

I really appreciated the variety of exercises that the book introduced and the summation in the appendix that listed each exercise and its purpose. I can see a wide host of applications for organizations to play with these exercises.

Favorite Quotes:

It is common knowledge that diet and exercise are keys to staying physically healthy, but practicing improvisation is like yoga for your professional development—a solid, strengthening workout that improves emotional intelligence, teaches you to pivot out of tight and uncomfortable spaces, and helps you become both a more compelling leader and a more collaborative follower. Even better, these qualities are fully transferable to your life outside the office. The benefits of improvisation can extend to your personal relationships, whether with your partner, your family, or your friends.

The biggest threat to creativity is fear, especially the fear of failure. By deflating the negative power of failure, you erode fear and allow creativity to flourish.

Many of us believe that we are good listeners, but there is a huge difference between listening to understand and listening while waiting for the chance to respond.

Team before Self: What improvisation does, in its most simple form, is to take the focus off ourselves and allow us to dial down our personal judgment. When we’re concentrating hard and fully present in the moment, there’s no room for self-consciousness or shaky nerves. All your energy goes into the task at hand.

*** In one-on-one meetings with colleagues, don’t check e-mail and don’t answer any calls. Focus on the person in front of you; listen to what they are saying as well as to what they are not saying. Creating a space where a fully engaged conversation can take place is part of staying in the moment. This will not only earn you the respect of your colleagues, it will also make it more likely that they will choose to engage and confide in you, giving you a decided edge in your organization.***

It may be surprising to some, but being a good ensemble member or a good teammate or a good colleague is an excellent way to spur personal growth.

One tenet we take extremely seriously at The Second City is “always take care of your partner.” It means that we take great care to support our cast members, not judge them. It means we work together, onstage and off.

Final words to live by:

Look people in the eye when you meet them.
Smile.
Don’t check your texts or e-mail when someone else is talking.
Be curious.
Try to eliminate the word no from your vocabulary for just one day.
When you are wrong, acknowledge it, say you’re sorry, and move on.
Forgive yourself and forgive others.
Lead as you would want to be led.
Don’t be an asshole, and don’t abide assholes.
Be on time. Excel at preparation.
Ask yourself, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
Make your partner look good.
Respect, don’t revere.
Listen to the whole person.
Read the room.
Share the conversation.
Love your work.
Applaud others.
Say we rather than I whenever possible.
Consider that you might not be right.
Open your door.
Try not to work out of fear; work from a sense of possibility.
Understand the audience you’re trying to win over, and give them a role.
Be an improviser.

Closing:
I recommend this book to leaders at every level. There is something in this book for everyone; from the most senior executive to the newest team-member. This book does a fantastic job of explaining the importance of culture, how to create it and tools / exercises to reinforce High-Performing Behavior.

TEAMS! Yes, and This book is simply a regurgitation of information from bigger and better business books, wrapped in a skin of self-promotion. If you can see past the name-dropping on every other page, the underlying content is somewhat enjoyable. Yes, and The title of this book comes from the basic concept behind improvisational theater: “Yes, and.” In other words, one actor invents a line on the spot, like, “Wow! Look at all those stars!” The other actor has to come up with an instant response by agreeing to the scenario and adding to it. For example, he might say, “Yeah. Things sure look different up here on the moon.”

Once you become aware of “Yes, and,” you’ll see actors on talk shows doing it all the time. Stephen Colbert does it with Jon Batiste at the opening of every show, but as Batiste is a musician and not an actor, you can tell when he gets flummoxed by the curve balls Colbert throws him. The actors Colbert interviews fare better.

But this book isn’t meant for actors; it’s but for businesspeople. “Yes, and” is the antidote to that idea-killing equivalent of most business meetings: “No, but.” “We should do X.” “No, but Y.” And then nothing gets done.

Considering that our courts follow the adversarial model, our elections are mudslinging contests, and our classrooms, in claiming to teach critical thinking, end up feeling more like dens of one-upmanship, I think the collaborative approach of “Yes, and” would be a welcome cultural change. But as much as I love the concept, I did find my mind wandering in spots. Part of the problem is that the book was written more for employers, and I’m an employee. Also, while it was fun to read about the improv exercises and learn what skills they’re meant to develop, actually practicing the exercises would have made the book more meaningful. I did one exercise with my mother, who pointed out that I was saying, “Yes, but,” not “Yes, and.” In other words, “Yes, you’re right about X, but you’re wrong about Y.” I guess my critical side needs some taming.

Overall, I loved the main lesson of this book, but I got the feeling that an article would have been enough to do the subject justice. Some of the success stories the authors cited came across as self-promoting filler. So good book, but not uniformly compelling. Or perhaps that’s just me saying, “Yes, but,” again.
Yes, and

The Second City has launched the careers of celebrated comic performers such as Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert and produced award-winning content. But it's the actual improvisational process developed and honed over the years by The Second City that has become its legacy. Players master an ability to co-create in ensembles, using philosophies that celebrate a Yes, And approach. They embrace authenticity and failure, and espouse the idea of following the follower, which allows any member of the team to assume a leadership role.

For more than two decades, The Second City has taken these same principles in thousands of corporate clients, showing leaders how to apply the tools of improv to common business challenges. Here, for the first time, Second City executives Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton describe how you can use the same skills that thrill audiences around the world to improve your emotional intelligence, increase creativity, and learn to pivot out of tight and uncomfortable situations. In this engaging, often humorous, and highly practical book, you will learn how to become a more compelling leader and a more collaborative follower by employing the seven elements of improv:

Yes, And, by which you give every idea a chance to be acted on;
Ensemble, reconciling the needs of individuals with those of the broader team;
Co-creation, which highlights the importance of dialogue in creating new products, processes, and relationships;
Authenticity, or being unafraid to speak truth to power, challenge convention, and break the rules;
Failure, teaching us that not only is it okay to fail, but we should always include it as part of our process;
Follow the Follower, which gives any member of the group the chance to assume a leadership role;
Listening, in which you learn to stay in the moment, and know the difference between listening to understand and listening merely to respond.
When we are fiercely following the tenets of improvisation, we generate ideas both quickly and efficiently, we weather storms with more aplomb, and we don't work burdened by a fear of failure. Even better, these qualities are fully transferable to our lives outside the office.

More people are beginning to recognize what The Second City has known for a long time: In the midst of a revolution in how we learn, communicate, and work, professional success often rests on the same pillars that form the foundation of great comedy: Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration. That's where improvisation comes in. Yes, and