Page 1 of 6

Improvisation, The Perfect Training Technique To Master The Practice of an Emotional Intelligence Corporate Culture By Harry V. Redinger, MBA The Strategic Path Group Corporate Culture Development Specialists

Improvisation is the perfect training technique for an organization’s management and staff to master the practice of their corporate culture. Corporate culture is often referred to as an organization’s set of shared values. These shared values often consist of tradition, personality type norms, and emotional intelligence norms. However, distilling your corporate culture down to a written statement through a series of workshops and groups discussions is trivial unless both management and staff are empowered to maintain internal check and balances to keep everyone within the corporate culture bounds of the organization. Ok, for this to work, both management and staff have to master the ability to communicate with

each other spontaneously, act in the moment, and this is what Improvisation is all about. Improvisation training helps us to engage other on critical subjects, like staying within the acceptable bounds of Emotional Intelligence, in a classy way without “slamming” others. The real magic of what Improvisational training is all about is that the Seven Rules of Improvisation are also the Seven Rules of Effective Corporate Communications – both verbal and non verbal. In addition, you don’t have to master Improvisation to immediately understand the benefits of thinking on your feet and using a bit of creativity to keep a conversation in motion. Just one improvisation exercise often opens one’s eyes to the reality that they have more communication options than they realize. The Three Components of Corporate Culture We traditionally find three components of a Corporate Culture, whether they are in writing or not, Tradition, Psychological Type Averages, and Emotional Intelligence norms.

First – Tradition: There is often some aspect of the product or service, senior management lifestyle, and/or senior management hobbies that become a part of the corporate culture of the organization. For example, if the CEO is fanatical about Bass Fly Fishing and has Bass Fly Fishing Trophies hanging on the walls of his office, then no doubt, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few Bass Fly Fishing Trophies hanging on the wall of your office.

Second – Psychological Type Average: It’s not unusual to find the average Psychological Type (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) of a group of individuals to be very indicative of the energy, the aura, and/or the culture of an organization. For example, if the majority of an organization’s psychological types are introverted, then we could say that speaking softly within the work environment is an aspect of the organization’s corporate culture. Thus, if you are a highly extroverted and loud individual, you might

find yourself clashing with the organization’s corporate culture. If this were shared as apart of the interviewing process, perhaps there would be more awareness of what the employer and employee are getting into before the employment offer is agreed upon.

Third – Workplace Behavior Norms (Emotional Intelligence): All organizations have established workplace behavior norms, even if they’re not established in writing. Violating a workplace behavior norm can lead to immediate job termination. Again, it can often be a guessing game to determine what these norms are and the range for acceptable behavior within each of these norms.

Page 2 of 6

Establishing Corporate Culture Norms for each of these three components of a Corporate Culture empowers all involved with the organization to believe in the organization and now, with a much higher level of trust invest their lives into the organization. The Relationship Between MBTI Type, EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence, and Corporate Culture

Psychological Type is innate, it’s apart of us, and we can’t change it within us or within others. However, we can adjust (change) our Emotional Intelligence (EQ) behavior to adapt to our workplace and life environments. It’s important to understand what aspects of someone are a part of his or her innate personality type and aspects that are a part of his or her EQ behavior. We can’t ask some to change their Psychological Type, but we can ask someone to adjust aspects of their EQ behavior to be more within the norms of the organization.

One’s MBTI type is directly related to one’s EQ behavior. Based on one’s MBTI type, they are naturally skilled at some aspects of EQ behavior and can be blindsided by others. This relationship brings new meaning to the Serenity Prayer.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed (MBTI Personality Type),

Courage to change the things which should be changed (weak EQi 2.0 Scales),

and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

The Five-Step Emotional Intelligence Corporate Culture Development Process The Strategic Path Group specializes in guiding organizations through a five-step process to develop and establish a written corporate culture statement. The First Step is Senior Management Orientation so they can in turn present orientations to staff. The Second-Step in this process is a Myers-Briggs Team Building Workshop to help management and staff read, innate personality type in themselves, others, and the group as a whole.

Page 3 of 6

This is important because when we communicate with others, we want to take into consideration their MBTI type so we can sensitive to their communication needs. All groups have an innate personality type aura, which is an important aspect of an organization’s corporate culture norm. The process of group dynamics has a magical way of figuring out the common Temperament (Psychological Type) of a group. The Third-Step in this process is an EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Team Building Workshop to help management and staff read EQ behavior in themselves, others, and the group as a whole. There are five realms and fifteen scales of emotional intelligences.

This is important because we want to practice acceptable EQ norms while at the same time be aware of the MBTI type of others and the MBTI type averages within our work environment. A part of the EQ orientation step is Improvisation Training. Mastering Improvisation is in reality mastering effective corporate communications. Keep the conversation in play so mutually beneficial conclusions can be found. Empowered to call to the attention of those around us when their EQ behavior falls outside of the EQ bounds of the organization or if some one is not respecting the MBTI type of others is an essential aspect of a healthy Corporate Culture. The Fourth-Step in this process is a Corporate Culture Development Workshop where the participants are broken into small group discussion and eventually assembled into on large group discussion to pin down the specific aspects of an organization’s Corporate Culture. The Fifth-Step and final step is debriefing senior management on what was learned and ideas on how to establish the company’s Emotional Intelligence Corporate Culture for long run success.

The end result of this Five-Step process is meaningless unless it’s applied to day-to-day interactions by management and staff.

Mastering Improvisation In Order to Respect MBTI Type and EQ Emotional Behavior Norms Mastery of Improvisation leads to the mastery of one’s Emotional Intelligence based Corporate Culture because in it’s meant to be used in the NOW. Improvisation teaching us to act in the NOW and not to SLAM others by

Page 4 of 6

keeping an conversation in motion to find mutually beneficial conclusions on sensitive issues. The benefits of mastering improvisation:

1. Shows the individual that they are in more control of their situation than they realize

2. Neutralizes situations to find win-win compromise

3. Encourages everyone to think on their feet

4. Opens the ebb and flow of communications

5. Increases innovation On one hand, Improvisation is exercise for your brain’s ability to be conversationally creative. On the other hand, Improvisation is something you only have to do once to realize the above benefits better achieve your organization corporate culture communication goals. Thus, Improvisation Training is an excellent way to promote the end results of both an MBTI Team Building Workshop and an EQi 2.0 Team Building Workshop. Most have never been a part of an improvisation exercise or workshop and thus will no doubt be apprehensive. Reality is, everything in an Improvisation exercise is all about speaking about what come to your mind at the moment as you are play acting a part in case study scenario. For example, a typical EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Improvisation exercise would be structured as follows: Emotional Expression Scale Exercise The following is an example Emotional Intelligence Improvisation exercise in the EQi 2.0 Emotional Expression Scale. Step One – Read The EQ Scale Definition

Emotional Expression deals with our ability to openly express our feeling both verbally and non-verbally in a way that is congruent with the message that you want to send to others.

Step Two – Read The Case

Party “A” Just presented a Power Point presentation to Party “B”. Party “A” knows that his/her company’s price, quality, and ability to deliver on time and has the competition beat. Unfortunately, Party “B” perceives Party “A” as being arrogant and cocky, and thus does not seem to be interested in the purchasing Party “A” goods and services.

Step Three – Improvisation Exercise

Party “B” is to explain to Party “A” that their company is not interested in over issues of integrity. Party “A” is to try to address Party “B’s” concerns and try to regain Party “B’s” trust.

Time Three minutes

Step Four – What Did You Learn

Did Party “A” win or lose the contract? Each group shares.

Step Five – Personal Development Exercises

Open Discussion: What kind of Personal Development Exercises can you do individually and as a group strengthen your awareness of Emotional Expression.

As you can see in the above Emotional Expression Scale Exercise example, that both participants have much room to creatively embellish the case scenario. However, for all to get the most out of an Improvisation exercise, we have developed Seven Rules of Improvisation that all participants want to be aware of as they interact with each other.

Page 5 of 6

The Seven Rules Of Improvisation

Rule No. 1 – Trust Others: Drop the defenses and believe the best in others. In other words, don’t be skeptical and absorb the information as genuine and trustable. Thus, if Party “A” says to Party “B” “The pink color of your hair distracted me so much that I did not understand specific objectives of your presentation.” Ok, Party “B’s” hair is not really pink; however, Party “B” wants to proceed with the improvisation as if his or her hair is pink.

Rule No. 2 – Don’t Negate or Deny: Make eye contact, pay attention, and watch the body language. Never respond to your improvisation partner by saying “That is not true” or by saying “I do not believe what you are saying to me.” Don’t SLAM the person you are communicating with, keep the conversation rolling along. This is probably one of the most important communication techniques that will come from doing improvisation training.

Rule No. 3 – Listen and Focus: Make eye contact, pay attention, watch the body language, and be aware of the Psychological Type that your improvisation partner is communicating. Your ability to creatively respond is going to be directly related to your ability to listen for the critical facts and details. Critical listening skills will come from this exercise. For Introverts, with will be easy and for Extroverts, this will take a bit of discipline.

Rule No. 4 – Be Specific: Give or ask for details, don’t generalize. By practicing Rule No. 3 – Listen and Focus, you can now take this information and verify what you leaned and/or ask for more details. This process keeps the conversation going and shows that you are listening. By asking for more details, you can now take this information and look for mutually beneficial agreements and closures.

Rule No. 5 – Look Beyond the Words: Determine the real message, not just what is being said. Look between the lines of communication. Feel the aura, the energy of your improvisation partner and then ask “Is this what I am really hearing?” However, be careful not to negate or SLAM your partner. Try to summarize what you believe that you are hearing. Again, keep the conversation going.

Rule No. 6 – Support Rather Than Upstage: The goal is not to be right but to work well together. Have you ever-noticed how professional interviewees answer questions by first saying “That’s a really good question” or by saying, “That’s a really good observation.” Again, don’t SLAM your communication partner within an improvisation or in real life. People who support the other person’s augment are much more likely to find compromise and a positive outcome. Fight fire with water not fire, it just rises the temperature reduces the conversation to trench warfare.

Page 6 of 6

Rule No. 7 – Depersonalize: Don’t take things personally but deal with the situation at hand. In general, we should never take anything personally. Everything we hear is per the melodrama of others. Be aware of what you hear, but don’t take it personally. This is particularly true in an improvisation exercise because it’s all made up anyway. Again, this is another lesson that comes from Improvisation training, to DEPERSONALIZE and not to take things personally, a skill that will pay dividends in all of your communications.

Be aware of the above Seven Rules of Improvisation, because they are really the Steven Rules of Effective Corporate Communication. Whenever you have a conversation or communication encounter that did not turn out the way you wanted, no doubt, one of the above seven rules coupled with one of the scales of Emotional Intelligence, would have probably generated a more positive outcome. In Review Corporate Culture is a set of shared values that often consist of an organization’s history or tradition, the average personality type of the organization, and the average emotional intelligence norms of the organization. A written Corporate Culture is meaningless if management and staff are not empowered to hold each other to the mutually agreed upon Corporate Culture norms. Improvisation is the most effective way to train management and staff on how to engage each in the NOW, and keep critical conversations going so no one is SLAMMED and a mutually beneficial outcome is found. The Seven Rules of Improvisation are same as the Seven Rules of Healthy Corporate Communications. The higher the collective EQ score of an organization, the more likely this organization is going to achieve their vision of the success.

Harry Redinger: Managing Partner at Strategic Path Group; Master Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Practitioner; Qualified EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Practitioner; Certified California Psychological Inventory Practitioner (CPI 260); Author of The Strategic Path, Business Plan Development for Emerging Entrepreneurs; Business Plan Development Instructor at UCLA Extension since 1993; MBA Pepperdine University, BS Industrial Technology, California State University, Long Beach.

Copyright © Strategic Path Group, May 2014