Why Improvisation Should be Part of the Plan!

“However hard we work to avoid it, we are constantly accosted by things we didn’t plan for, from a puncture to a deflating economy. Life is a whirling torrent for which nobody has a script”

So says Rob Poynton in his excellent book, Do Improvise.

Does that ring true for you?

OK, I know that the title of this blog sounds like an oxymoron. Isn’t improvisation what you do when you’ve failed to plan?

If that’s your reaction, I understand. I’m an engineer and I like to plan. I’ve been involved in manufacturing operations, engineering projects and change programmes – and I’ve always worked to a plan. Fail to plan – plan to fail. Right?

Well, I’m not saying you shouldn’t plan, but could we sometimes be missing opportunities or better solutions? What if there’s a better way?

Since I set up as a self-employed management coach and relocated, I’ve been thinking about this question, and I’ve learnt a few things that I’d like to share.

  • We tend to feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and therefore overplan in to order to reduce it. However, we’re probably kidding ourselves because there’s a limit to what we can plan and control.
  • We need to be open and alert to opportunities and be willing to change the plan to achieve a better outcome.
  • There’s opportunity in uncertainty so we can learn to be OK with being uncomfortable, with not knowing.
  • There’s a balance between being proactive and reactive – between planning and serendipity. We can take an action, observe the results and learn, then adjust or adapt as necessary. This approach fits with Agile Methodology which is increasingly gaining traction.
  • Improvisation is not the same as winging it –  it’s an approach with skills you can practice and develop.

Rob Poynton sums up the practice of improvisation in six words:

Notice More, Let Go, Use Everything.

Simple (although not easy to do well), but brilliant and powerful.

Notice more about what’s going on around you (maybe what your data is really telling you), notice more about other people and about your own feelings.

Let go of expectations and limiting assumptions.

Learn to see everything as an offer – mistakes as an opportunity to learn, the potential in unexpected situations to help you move towards your goal, even the lack of a resource as a spur to creativity (necessity is the mother of invention).

When I shared some of these ideas at a Mixer Event with The Norfolk Network, one of the delegates suggested that when meeting potential new clients, improvisation (in the sense described here) should be the first approach and your plan for the conversation should be a back-up (Plan B). And those involved in education described how effective teaching was all about interaction with the learners and therefore required these improvisational skills.

Far from being a coping mechanism to fall back on, improvisation can be a strategy for a better outcome.

If this sounds like an approach you’d like to explore, why not get a copy of Do Improvise and / or contact me to discuss from a coaching perspective.