🤸 Lessons from improv, 3 myths about behavior, & thermostats vs. thermometers

Hey — it’s Cristina & Jenni.

Each week, we share leadership reflections, resources, and laughs to help you excel in your role (+ have fun along the way).

As two tech leaders, we’re here to “lead in public” by sharing what we’re learning in our day-to-day roles, encouraging others to do the same, and learning and growing as leaders together.

Enjoy!

What we’re reflecting on this week

How would you feel if I told you that you'd be spending 2 full hours tomorrow doing improv...

via Zoom...

with your colleagues?

My guess is that many of you feel a little queasy at the thought.

Improv is nerve-wracking, not to mention doing it surrounded by coworkers.

The virtual setting adds an extra layer of potential technical mishaps.

Aaand this is exactly what my direct reports and I did recently as a team-building exercise 🙃

Luckily for us, it was much less intimidating than it sounded. We were in great hands with the facilitators, and it was one of the most popular virtual events we've done in the past 2 years.

While many company-sponsored events can feel either too close to work (in-depth training) or too far from work (the 15th virtual happy hour of the year), this fell in the sweet spot of fun AND applicable.

Here are 3 communication lessons we learned that you can apply as a leader (and encourage your team to adopt, as well):

1. Have an "emotional objective"

Performing in front of an audience places an emphasis on the question: "How do we want the audience to FEEL?"

Yet even if we're hosting a meeting or speaking up in front of a group, we generally don't stop to consider this.

💪 I'm now approaching each work meeting (and also some personal convos!) with an emotional objective in mind.

2. Leverage the power of "yes, and"

You might be familiar with this improv concept and the way it moves a plot along.

Rather than turning down the other person with a "but," the "and" affirms their idea and allows for a deeper dive into the topic - and it's especially powerful for handling objections.

💪 On top of replacing "but" with "and" as much as possible, I walked away with the general “what if?” philosophy that comes with it.

3. Use the "LAB framework" for better listening

As an extension of "yes, and," we learned about the LAB framework. LAB stands for Listen - Affirm - Build, and it helps improvisers extend the storyline.

The facilitator asked us which step we were weakest at of these 3. Every single person's answer in the chat? "Affirm."

💪 Even if I were the world's best listener (L) and asked fantastic follow-on questions (B), it's also key to validate and affirm what's already been shared (A). This makes the other person feel heard and, as a nice side effect, buys some time for internal processing.

→ Where can you apply these improv concepts during your work week?

What we’re learning this week

• 👀 TEDx Talk by Jeni Cross on the 3 myths of behavior change - Change is top of mind for many of us right now given the economy, reorgs, shifting business priorities, etc. As we navigate change, we’re often faced with the need to get people to alter their behavior (and it turns out, that’s tough!). For that reason, we really liked the concrete examples and humor in Jeni's talk.

• 🧵 OnlyCFO thread about network capital - OnlyCFO is prolific and pretty much always on-point. In this thread, he walks through the importance of investing in your network similar to how you’d invest in the stock market.

• 👀 One of the best Mac keyboard shortcut videos we've seen - If you geek out about productivity and efficiency, this one’s for you. (Includes sections on all apps as well as G Suite specifically. Chef’s kiss.)

What we’re enjoying this week

We love a good pep talk. We love a good analogy. This video’s got both!

That’s it for this week — thanks for reading.

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️