Announcing The Improve Studio
For so long I wanted a place to practice the people things. So, I'm creating what I need and inviting others to join me too.
I’ve always wanted a space to practice the people things.
Things like initiating a difficult conversation, responding to something someone says that comes very unexpectedly, giving, and receiving hard to hear feedback, sharing the way someone’s actions made me feel.
I’ve read the books that teach how to do these things.
I joined the masterminds. I took workshops. I hired coaches, found mentors.
But just like reading a book about how to play guitar didn’t make me a better guitar player or watching videos of people horse riding didn’t make me a blue ribbon winning horseback rider, these books and intellectual learnings weren’t actually effectively designed to help people be actually better at those people things.
But the thing I always wanted, and would have been most helpful is a space where I could practice with other people. Just like, as a writer, I can practice writing or as an athlete I could practice my sport, working with people was never a place. Instead, we’re just forced to practice in the wild. Which is kind of bizarre considering we would never expect any musician, athlete, doctor, dentist, (insert so many other professionals here) to just practice their craft solely on the job. When I realized I needed this kind of space to practice, I found myself taking my intentions to (improv) classes telling myself I would try to play characters that mimic the characters I wanted to play in real life. I’d intentionally practice confidence, clarity, listening fully, or even expressing almost foreign to me emotions, like anger, disappointment, in front of other people.*
*Note: another really cool thing I realized was that when I expressed things like heightened anger, disappointment, sadness onstage, I didn’t really need to express them as intensely offstage. Expressing the feeling actually allowed me to then approach situations a bit more calm and logically offstage. A post topic for another day :)
I was totally the kid that rehearsed what I was going to say before I said it, and then I would go to say it, and I would totally freeze or forget everything I had practiced. It wasn’t until I started practicing and performing improv, and learning about nervous system regulation, that I realized the embodiment of these things that I was learning was even more important. I couldn’t just practice in my own head or even on paper if I wanted to practice communicating and collaborating with other people I needed to actually practice with other people.
So I’m creating the very thing I always needed and still need. The Improve Studio - a place for people who work with people to practice things involving people. And perhaps I’m not the only one who wishes a space like this existed to practice things like,
difficult conversations,
giving and receiving feedback,
expressing (especially harder to share) ideas, feelings, or concerns,
handling unexpected moments on teams and with others.
The Improve Studio is a practice space to do just that. Because leadership and working with people in any capacity is an art form and like any art form, to get better it can be practiced.
I’m not sure why it took me so long to create the thing I always wanted. I guess that’s a topic for another day. I’m writing the book I always needed, How to Handle Anything. I wrote two other books I also needed. As a teenager I started the Italian ice / gelato business I needed in more ways than one (another topic for another day). In creating the things that I needed, once I shared them, turns out other people needed those things too.
Create what you need
Then share it with others too
They might need it too
So, I’m inviting 6 to 11 other people to join me in this to start, to form our ensemble to practice together. I’m going to bring in (and pay) monthly experts and rather than just listening to them share their techniques we’re also going to practice them. And then we’ll also have space in regular open lab sessions to practice the things that are actually going on in our work / lives so that we can train our nervous systems to handle these things IRL.
It’s going to be co-created together and all the topics and design of it in terms of when we meet will be designed specifically for our group (what I’m calling an “ensemble”). So that it is most useful for us. We all have other lives. We’re doing this because we’re in ensemble with other people, whether our full time jobs, families, friends, school, and community. The intent is for this to be integrated into people’s lives, so we just get a space for us to practice the things, so that when we go out to our full time jobs, families, friends, communities, we’re a bit calmer and better able to handle the things in real life because we practiced offstage.
If you want to know more or join me, check out the website and feel free to send me a DM with any questions about it.
And, if you want to try it out, I’m hosting a special sneak peek session on September 10, an interactive taste of what it’s like inside. Here’s the link to register for the sneak-peek session. I realize it might be hard to fully grasp, and because it’s an embodied experience, it might be helpful to experience it to decide if it might be right for you in the season you’re in.
Working with people is an art, and like any art form, the only way to get better at it is to practice.
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