Kelly Leonard, The Second City: Improv and Business Share the Same Stage
The Second City is arguably the most renowned and important improv institution in the world. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Stephen Colbert all honed their craft in Chicago on The Second City stage. Kelly Leonard hired each of them, along with many other budding stars throughout the 1990s and 2000s, when he oversaw Second City\u2019s creative expansion and development. In 2015 he co-authored the book, Yes, And. Today, Leonard is the executive director of applied improvisation at Second City Works, the business arm of The Second City, and he\u2019s the host of the Getting to Yes, And podcast. He joins us to talk about how applying improv to business teaches us to listen and focus effectively, collaborate with others, and be ready for change. Because business life isn\u2019t any different from human life. We just need to listen to each other more, embrace our failures, and keep improvising. \n\nListen to this podcast episode to learn:\n\n\u2022 Why improv is essentially \u201chuman being practice\u201d that teaches us how to make something out of nothing -- and that\u2019s what we do in business, too\n\n\u2022 How rehearsals and synchronicity create \u201cpeak performers\u201d in the arts...and in business\n\n\u2022 Why organizations (and the humans within them) have a listening problem, and what we can do to fix it\n\n\u2022 How isolation and a \u201cconspiracy of silence\u201d around suffering ultimately hurt us at work\n\n\u2022 Why it\u2019s better to incorporate many failures into your success narrative rather than try to beat failure out of you\n\n\u2022 The one improv technique you can start using today to create a better connection with your coworkers\n\nFor more information: www.secondcityworks.com