The Power of "Yes, And" in Workplaces & Teams
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These two words can change your team’s culture (and as cheesy as it sounds, maybe your life).
“Yes, And” — the core concept of improv, and a powerful tool for businesses.
“Yes, And” is the core philosophy of improv, the meat-and-potatoes of how improv works. For the uninitiated, if you’ve ever seen the TV show ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ then you’ve seen improv in action.
“Yes, And” can also be an incredibly powerful mindset and mode of operating for teams and business. I am going to explain how it works in improv, and how it can work for teams as well.
At the end of this post, I’m also sharing a link where you can download my “Yes, And” Manifesto that outlines what a “Yes, And” culture looks like in action on teams.
In improv, “Yes, And” is how everything works.
For improvisors, we say that everything you do, and everything that your partner(s) say and do is considered an offer. And your job as an improvisor is to say ‘yes’ and accept your partner’s offer, and then add more information into it. continuing the action forward.
For example, if I’m on stage and my partner says to me:
“Buckle in, Captain, we have to launch off this planet before those aliens come back!”
I immediately know and immediately accept the reality that:
I’m in a spaceship
I’m a captain, and my scene partner is some member of my crew
We are on a planet and have to leave
Aliens are likely out to get us
“My job is to accept that offer and reality immediately, and add more information onto it in order to move the idea and scene forward.”
My job is to accept that offer immediately, and add more information onto it in order to move the idea and scene forward. I might respond with something to the effect of:
“Alright (while beginning to strap myself in), you start the launch sequence and I’ll broadcast a message to the crew to prepare for liftoff. We’re not done refueling so we’ll have to take off with what we’ve got and hope we have enough to outrun those aliens and reach the alliance outpost on Starlax Five.”
Offer accepted, action moved forward, and more information and context brought to the scene. Both scene partners continue to accept and add on with every action and offer back and forth to unfold a story completely made-up in the moment as it’s happening.
The “Yes, And” concept that is how the magic of improv is created and what makes it possible. And that same concept of “Yes, And” is something that for you as a human being, leader, coworker, etc. can adopt and use to greatly improve interpersonal and team dynamics, and impact on others.
This may completely change how you interact and perform with others.
“The way that people respond to other people’s ideas, offers, contributions has a profound impact on their relationship and the experience of each person.”
Adopting a mindset and operating mode of "Yes, And” can drastically change how you show up and impact others by shifting how you view your own communication and interactions.
When you start observing and being aware of how people interact and respond to one another through the lens of using (or not using) that “Yes, And” concept, there is a good chance that it will completely change your perspective on human interactions — it absolutely did for me.
The way that people respond to other people’s ideas, offers, and contributions has a profound impact on their relationship and the experience of each person.
The five tenets of a “Yes, And” culture.
Some of the work that I do with teams and organizations is around developing skills and adopting this concept to create a “Yes, And” culture.
Surrounding the core concept of “Yes, And” there are generally five main skills that you have to master in order to become a great improviser. These five skills are also the same five tenets in a “Yes, And” culture. They are:
Say yes
Listen and be present
Make others look good
Embrace change and failure
Be positive
Applying these tenants, and the behaviors that embody them, as an individual and as an entire team has a profound impact on the dynamics and environment of any team. I have seen hundreds of times over, first-hand the ways that it creates a more cohesive, positive culture of higher level impact and engagement.
The “Yes, And” Manifesto (available to download at the end of this post) outlines what each of those five tenets looks like in practice in examples of clearly defined behaviors.
Of course, there is nuance to this.
“...obviously in business and life you cannot say yes to every single thing or idea in the world.”
The practical application in a workplace environment of these tenets covers great heights and depths when it comes to looking at how individuals on teams behave together. One of the most impactful of these tenets is the first one: Say Yes. Let’s take a closer look at that.
First of all, obviously in business and life you cannot say yes to every single thing or idea in the world. There are plenty of terrible ideas out there that you must say no to, otherwise you’ll put yourself into personal and financial danger, or go right out of business.
That is not what ‘saying yes’ is actually about in this context. It’s not literally about saying yes to everything — rather, it’s a mindset of being open and receptive to other people’s ideas and looking for ways to say yes whenever we possibly can.
Saying yes more improves communication.
When people operate with the mindset of looking for ways to accept and say yes to things whenever possible, it results in others feeling free to share their ideas and thus, improved communication and creativity. It creates more trust and goodwill on teams and in relationships, leads to more positive outcomes for customers and coworkers, and generally feels better than looking for reasons to say no.
“Saying yes as a practice is about being focused on what’s possible and how things can happen, versus finding all the reasons why they can’t.”
Saying yes as a practice is about being focused on what’s possible and how things can happen, versus finding all the reasons why they can’t.
When you start to see the world through the lens of constantly looking for ways to accept other’s offers, it will shift how you view every interaction you have.
FREE DOWNLOAD: You can download the The “Yes, And” Manifesto here that outlines the 5 tenets in detail and what a “Yes, And” culture looks like in action on a team. Enjoy :)
Related Blogs:
The Currency of Saying Yes on Teams
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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