Improv: Act, to Know the Self and Others, to Humanize Organizing

How we act reveals us as who we are. Our bodies do not know how to lie. In this workshop we will be using experiential improv theater exercises that engage the body, mind, and spirit to co-create mindful presence and group dynamics in order to learn about organizing. With collective observations and reflections, we will connect at the human level, going beyond our assigned roles and titles, beyond our race, religion, or ethnicity, or any categories that divide us. Theater improv exercises are a highly structured way to engage the whole human being and connect everyone with verbal, physical, emotional and social actions, and interactions. Humor from improv situations is a powerful way to bring down barriers and tackle sensitive and subtle issues enacted in social settings. Shared observations and reflections help bring out how we experience and live out the dichotomies that trap us, and what barriers, internal or external, exist to prevent us from broadening our sight. In respectful interactions, we uphold our own and others’ dignity (Hicks, 2011), or negotiate inevitable and difficult conflicts. Embodied experience takes us beyond the dry language of theories, or even words, towards humanizing management. This is participatory workshop, with no prior improv experience required.