Screenshot courtesy of ComedySportzMilwaukee
Alex Thien knows what you may feel about drudgery in your workplace.
“I think anybody reading this can remember those moments at work where they’ve burned the afternoon away getting marched through a pedantic PowerPoint presentation or had to do a physical activity with the group in the guise of team building that made them just slightly uncomfortable,” he says.
As a manager at ComedySportz (CSz) Milwaukee, Thien comes from a uniquely empathetic perspective: “I can speak from personal experience. I’m an admin, not a performer, so when I’ve been placed in situations in the past where I’ve had to participate in an activity and felt like I was performing, I definitely felt off. In the end I would focus on me and try not to embarrass myself so if there was a teaching moment in what I was working on, I definitely didn’t learn it.” CSz offers Applied Improv (A.I.) as a means by which to make those teaching moments more memorable.
Thien explains the differences between ComedySportz facilitating an evening of improv performance and nurturing effective communication among workmates. “An A.I. session, while holding the same tenants of what we utilize in our workshops and performances, has additional concepts woven through it to apply for the situation,” he says. “Just like our workshops and performances, we like to focus on spontaneous fun while utilizing various soft skill sets in relation to listening and communication to build the moment or joke for entertainment purposes.
“What varies for our A.I. programming is that we tailor these sessions specifically to a client’s needs to focus on their desired goals instead of aiming specifically for entertainment.” He cites customer service. public speaking and multi-department integration as three business concepts CSz can help improve with improv’s “highly refined system of observing, connecting and responding,” per its website.
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Rolling With the Times
And just as ComedySportz performers have adapted to conditions surrounding COVID-19 to keep on entertaining, A.I. facilitators are rolling with the tumultuous times to continue educating. “When it comes to the current pandemic, the biggest challenge has been translating the programming to a virtual platform,” Thien concedes. CSz, however, has risen to that challenge. “Since we focus heavily in these sessions on those face to face soft skill sets, if there’s any problems such as connection and visual/audio while operating virtually, it makes things a little more tricky. But my lead facilitators have workshopped out a lot of kinks, so I feel fairly confident in what they're able to do in that medium.”
Whether via videoconference or in person, in service of a local non-profit for a multinational corporation, Thien summarizes the intention of ComedySportz Applied Improv when he says, “We’re a firm believer in if you’re having fun, you’re going to learn, and it’s going to be easier and stick with you longer than if you weren’t.”
Speaking of having fun, more of it in CSz’s performance mode may be had Friday, June 12 at when referee Matt Garnaas officiates between local teams the Sparkers and Dendrites. Buy a Zoom link to the show at www.CSzMke.com.
