Improv(ising) Your On-Boarding
Applying improvisational techniques to business, and specifically to on-boarding and retention strategy, isn’t about “winging it”…it’s about evolving so you don’t have to.
Picture this…It’s (let’s call him) Johan’s first day on the new job at a global tech company. He enters the lobby, and has to look on the directory because no one told him the office suite number. He rides the elevator up to the correct floor, finds the office and enters a killer reception area: ping-pong table, gorgeous modern furniture, really cool reception desk with no one behind it.
As Johan sits down beneath a large flat screen looping a perfectly polished company-culture video, he realizes that he has the name of the person scheduled to greet — and presumably on-board — him, but has no idea what he looks like. So as people wander past the reception area, happily going about their awesome jobs at said company, Johan smiles awkwardly, wondering each time if this is the person he’s supposed to be meeting. It feels like a blind-date. Like, the worst blind-date ever.
For three hours Johan sits and waits.
Until eventually…finally…his greeter swoops in to save him from his now confused, irritated, anxious, getting-very-hungry, also-wondering-where-the bathroom-is state.
The “Why”
In the simplest sense, when we feel welcome and included, we’re inclined to stick around longer. Which is why it’s so important to create an on-boarding program — an experience — that not only makes a great first impression, but is also effective in communicating the tools, culture and values of your company. (For all intents and purposes, it should probably not include epically long waits in the reception area on the first day.)
All that is to say, on-boarding is kinda important.
Of course, there’s more to the story…The quality of the getting-to-know-you period is vital for new hires, yes, but it’s also a pivotal opportunity to establish or refresh a culture of growth throughout the rest of your company.
A Show vs. Tell Approach
Improv techniques lend themselves particularly well to a great on-boarding program because it’s all about experiential learning:
- The tenets of Improvisation are very similar to many company’s culture and value tenets (working as a team, valuing the ideas of others, and learning from mistakes).
- Improv is about communication, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.
- Applying improv techniques to a work environment provides the tools and teaches the skills required to shift around unexpected changes and through periods of growth.
The complicating factor is that you’re expected to communicate as seamlessly with people as you do with computers, while your leaders are required to exercise nimble decision-making skills in a layered and unpredictable landscape. In both cases, being responsive, adaptive, innovative, and intuitive is a must. Yet it’s rare that both of you are equipped with the tools and methodology to effectively evolve as a unit.
So how do you develop and implement training that earns a great first impression with your new hires, and enables all team members to thrive in an environment of continued, inclusive growth?
First, your mindset. It’s helpful to imagine that you are embarking on the construction of a flexible framework. You’ll want your on-boarding program to have room to grow and change with the company, and the space for check-ins (audits) to hear from new hires, talent development and others on how to continue to improve the content and delivery.
With that in mind, the overall objectives look something like this:
- Review and assess current on-boarding process
- Revamp and/or refresh the on-boarding process in collaboration with key people inside of your company
- Create experiential content that can be used in person or remotely, so that participants learn by doing
- Put together a mentorship program so new hires have people to turn to when questions arise
- Implement the training by facilitation from The Improv Effect
- Infuse communication training into the content and training, so multiple internal people can run the program
Gaming the System
Now that we’re covered on the general-framework front, let’s get specific with an example of how the pieces can be woven together. In other words, how can you weave improvisation techniques into distinct aspects or dynamics that regularly occur in an on-boarding scenario?
An obvious example for such a scenario is the simple act of meeting new people, which can be nerve-wracking in an unfamiliar work environment, even for the consummate extroverts among us. Aside from figuratively breaking the ice, a great way celebrate similarities and differences while simultaneously learning to actively listen is an improv game called Commonality Boggle. Here’s how to play:
Step One: Start by splitting the participants up into small teams of four to five people.
Step Two: Each team is equipped with a pen and paper, and given five minutes to develop a list of attributes that everyone on their team has in common.
Step Three: After the allotted time has passed, the teams take turns reading their list aloud to the group. If any team shares an attribute read aloud by another team, they must cross it off their list. All remaining attributes are totaled by each team, and the team with the most points wins.
Because Commonality Boggle expedites and gamifies the very basic human instinct to build rapport through verbal mirroring, it is fantastic for quickly establishing a social foundation that can positively influence the rest of the on-boarding experience.
Another prevalent aspect of on-boarding is the process of educating new hires on the company’s customer base. Even team members who are not on the front line must understand the customer holistically — Who are they? What do they do? What are their needs and wants? What motivates them? At a higher level, the dynamics of reacting to customers is equally essential.
The same goes for improv. If you’re playing a character, the ability to empathize, be flexible, and responsively adapt to cues from your troupe members and the audience can make or break a scene. How well you understand the needs and desires of your character in this case, is half the equation. The other half is figuring out how to then calibrate your actions to serve an outcome.
In a game called Pair Email Writing, these factors of empathy, flexibility and responsiveness function well because it enables new hires to embody the roles of both the customer and customer support. How it works:
Step One: Have a facilitator outline a typical customer persona for the group.
Step Two: Divide the group into pairs, with each pair playing either the role of the customer, or the role of customer support.
Step Three: Invite each pair to “write” an email to their counterpart (i.e., a customer pair writes an email to customer support), taking turns saying either one word, three words or one sentence at a time.
Step Four: Debrief with the group. Ask them how it felt to use and respond to what their partner “wrote” in the email. Did they struggle when their partner went in a different direction than they imagined?
The beauty of applying improv techniques to business scenarios like on-boarding is that it gives you the opportunity to engender a real and lasting cultural shift centered around meaningful, experiential learning. Don’t just tell new hires about daily life at your company…show them, and let them live it for themselves.
When applied improv is woven into the culture of a company, it instills a safe place for change-makers to energize, grow and innovate. Our experiential courses, workshops, programs and challenges give participants fresh ways to reinvent the way they approach teamwork, effective communication and presentation skills, and creative thinking.
Learn more here, and check out an entire book of games for work, co-authored by our very own Jessie Shternshus: CTRLShift: 50 Games For 50 ****ing Days Like today. http://amzn.to/1bLkjvE and www.ctrlshift.biz. Have a question or comment? Here are some emails and Twitters:
