"What do you do for work and for fun and do you do them at the same time?"

Whenever we meet someone new, either networking, or dating, or small talk in the dentist’s waiting room, there’s two popular questions we ask to quickly sum humans up:

“What do you do for work?” and “What do you do for fun?”

As though they’re always two completely separate things.

“What do you do for work?” is essentially, “What do you make yourself do with your days to make enough money to put food on your family?”

And “What do you do for fun?” is like “What silly things do you do with any leftover time to try and help you recover from work?”

Instead of treating them as polar opposites, and that fun/play/joy could only possibly exist outside of work, try asking what I like to call a combo platter:

“What do you LIKE to do AT work?”

It forces them to think about the positives of what they do for a living. Are there little moments that are the highlights of each day? Is it the people? That they’re making a difference and helping others? The snack drawer? Do they just generally like their job?

In other words, as we’re always saying, look for the joy in work.

How to Measure “Soft Skills” in Improv Training: Active Listening

Minimizing miscommunications with Improv

Let’s say you book your team for a listening skills workshop, how will you know if it worked? Are they saying, “Wait, what’s happening, I’m lost?!” less frequently? Fewer chairs being thrown? Less crying? When it comes to behaviour change, how do you measure success?

Well, first, let’s define what we’re talking about. Listening is holding focus on one thing.

Do they currently do that? And if not, how do we make them do that? Listen, nobody wants to be a “bad” listener. So there must be a reason people check their phones, tune out to think about what else needs to be said or done, or stare out the window wistfully during status meetings. And like most of the time, the thing preventing positive growth is… fear.

Here’s the Play with Fire Improv patented Listening Scale™ to show how fear affects listening:

Here’s the scale in relation to what the person will prioritize when it comes to listening:

Here’s the scale in terms of how someone might reply to what was said:

These are sliding scales, so someone might respond differently in different situations, but it gives you a sense of where someone is now in terms of their listening skill level. Now let’s talk about how improv training can help move them up the scale.

How improv helps if you’re always lost in thought.

Anxiety is tough on listening. Or having a busy mind, in general. Essentially, if you’re in your own head, your focus isn’t really on anything outside of your head. You can hear sounds, people talking, but nothing is really registering. It’s like driving somewhere and not remembering the journey.

Improv helped me be aware of other humans. Because improv is a group thing, you’re forced to pay at least some attention to what’s going on, or you’ll be completely lost. And the fear of embarrassment about being lost is usually enough to shift focus outward at least for a second or two. You might not be holding the focus just yet, but knowing that it’s even possible to shift outside your head is a good start.

How improv helps if you’re easily distracted.

There are always going to be other things that need to get done. And the feeling that they all need your attention right now. And the phones to constantly check on those things. So how do you prioritize holding focus? To quote Hale Dwoskin, of The Sedona Method fame, “Do what you’re doing when you’re doing it. Don’t do what you’re not doing when you’re not doing it.”

Improv teaches you that what’s happening right now is the most important, and only thing. When you’re building a world out of imagination, it’s like walking through the pitch black with a flashlight, the world appears as you go. What’s coming up? We’ll see when we get there. Right now, this is all there is.

How improv helps if you’re always planning your response.

I wrote a whole post on this, so I’ll link that here. But to quickly recap: most people believe that if they can sneakily plan a response in their heads while you’re still talking, their response will not only be immediate, but also better. (“Better” in this instance is not blanking or saying something stupid and feeling embarrassed.)  

Improv teaches you that shifting into your head to plan your response makes it MORE likely you blank or say something stupid, because what you say has a higher risk of not being related to what the person said while you were tuned out.

How improv helps you stay fully present.

The only reason we’re not all great listeners is fear. Fear sells you on the idea that interactions are better if you go into your head to plan smart responses. Fear tells you that giving someone your full attention will look too intense. Fear says you’re missing out on something more important. Improv shows you that this moment right now is the only time that exists! That sounds pretty important.

To recap, here’s how you measure success when training the “soft skill” of listening:

1.    Get a sense of where people are now on the Listening Scale™.

2.    Do an Improv For Listening™ workshop (or a few).

3.    Observe where they are after.

Improv helps you shift focus out of your head, so you can stay present with the other person the whole time they’re talking. In other words, improv makes you a great listener!

26 Ways Improv Can Help Your Business In 2026

What are you going to do this year to help your team? You could book a team building workshop, an active listening workshop, a presentation skills workshop—or just cover all the skills in one go, with improv!

Improv helps with Listening & Communication Skills

 1) Improves listening skills through the practice of staying present and focused

2) Hones non-verbal communication, reading body language, energy and tone

3) Develops openness to different ways of thinking

4) Enables thinking on your feet

Improv helps with Collaboration & Team-building

5) Promotes building ideas together through “Yes, and”

6) Encourages the support of the ideas of others

7) Bonds the team over stories and laughter

8) Builds trust among team members and other departments

Improv helps with Creativity & Innovation

9) Breaks rigid thought patterns with outside the box thinking

10) Lessens fear of making mistakes to open up to creative problem solving

11) Opens the mind to many different perspectives and points of view

12) Shifts the mindset to see ideas in terms of potential vs pitfalls

Improv helps with Confidence

13) Forms the ability to handle change and uncertainty without panic

14) Keeps the fear of failure and the judgement of others from holding them back

15) Builds trust in themselves and the team

16) Increases the willingness to take calculated risks

Improv helps with Leadership & Management

17) Harnesses the ability to stay calm under pressure, respond vs react

18) Cultivates the ability to make decisions on the spot

19) Promotes inclusive leadership, focusing on delegation and empowerment

20) Focuses on emotional intelligence with authenticity and empathy

Improv helps with Culture

21) Creates a safe, supportive environment with “Yes and”

22) Fosters a sense of shared ownership of outcomes (we’re in it together)

23) Reduces miscommunications, misunderstandings through clear communication

24) Aids in conflict resolution, objection handling and negotiation flexibility

Improv helps you find Joy in what you do

25) Improv is fun, which improves morale and engagement

26) Improv helps you play!

If any of that sounds good, reach out to book an improv workshop!

26 Ways Improv Can Help You In 2026

Improv helps with everything!

Did you write a list of New Year’s Resolutions with the plan to do a bunch of different tasks to achieve those goals? Simplify, man! Just do improv!

Improv helps you…

1) Laugh more.

2) Play characters that don’t have your problems.

3) Get out of your head.

4) Be silly and be okay being silly.

5) Practice failing and recovering.

6) Use your imagination to create wonderful things.

7) Tell fascinating stories.

8) Move your body in interesting ways.

9) Think differently and be okay with others thinking differently.

10) Adapt to the unexpected.

11) Let go of expectations.  

12) Surprise yourself! (Improv gets you doing things you had no idea you could do.)

13) Be open to the ideas of others.

14) Love and support the ideas of others.  

15) Connect with people on a deeper level.

16) Judge less. Yourself and others.

17) Accept things as they are. It’s not settling, just not denying.  

18) Take yourself and any “failings” as little less seriously.

19) Trust yourself more. You can do this.  

20) Feel more confident.

21) Make bold choices. (Or make any decision, then boldly follow through.)

22) Make new friends.

23) Know that you are enough.

24) Release stress from your body and mind.

25) Focus on all the little moments of joy.

26) Play!

If you like the sounds of that, reach out to book an improv workshop today!

Why you suck at listening, and how improv can help.

You’re listening wrong. But don’t worry, it’s a pretty simple fix. Right now you’re trying to multitask. Listen to what the other person is saying AND plan your response ahead of time. You can’t. It’s impossible. Just ask science.

A quick google (or Chat, for you kids) of “peer reviewed study multitasking impossible” and you’ll find something along the lines of “The human brain is incapable of completing more than one cognitive task at a time. Instead, it rapidly switches back and forth among competing tasks.” Meaning, you can’t do both.

But don’t worry, that’s good news. Because you don’t need to listen to both. The only thing standing in the way of you being a great listener, is choosing to focus on the person talking to you, over the thoughts in your head.

Now this seem might seem like an obvious choice, but that’s when your fear steps in. The fear that if you don’t plan your response in advance, you’ll blank or say something stupid.

Well here’s even more good news! You don’t need to overcome that fear. Just realize it’s wrong. Planning in your head actually makes it MORE likely that you blank or say something stupid.

Blanking isn’t the result of no thoughts, it happens when there are too many thoughts all at once, and it’s too overwhelming to focus on one. The upside is, if you’re not in your head, but focused on the other person, this is much less likely to happen.

Saying something “stupid” is pretty subjective. There’s no guarantee someone won’t judge what you say even if you do plan. But staying focused on the other person means your response will be directly related to what they just said, instead of the “gist” of what you thought they were saying. And that decreases saying the “wrong thing” and any miscommunications immensely.

In conclusion, staying focused on the other person is all upside. So why don’t we always do it? We’re just out of practice. It’s like meditation, or any mindfulness exercise. Holding attention on one thing is hard. Until it isn’t. Then it feels natural.

An improv workshop will kickstart your listening skills. Improvising is quite literally the practice of thinking on your feet. Get good at that, and you become confident in your ability to respond in real time, so you stop planning your response in your head, dedicate all of your attention to the other person.

Because when you’re building a world with someone out of nothing, where you could be a pirate, or a dragon, or a mailbox, in space, or the jungle, or inside a flower, it’s pretty essential that you pay attention to every single word that’s said.

So next time someone is talking to you, be aware of where your attention is. If you go in your head, shift back out. Stay with them the whole time. They’ll feel seen, and heard, and like it.

Remember: Use the other person’s words as the jumping off point for your response, not the thoughts in your head.

Congrats, you’re a great listener!

What happens in an improv team building workshop?

Great question!

Quick caveat, each workshop gets customised based on your team’s needs and goals, the number of people, how long we have, etc., so what happens can really be anything. But this general outline can be a good starting point to get a sense of what a session could look like.

Bonus caveat, this outline isn’t going to sound nearly as fun as improv actually is. Just know that behind all skill-building talk, the workshops will always have a focus on fun and laughter.  

Let’s begin.

1) INTRODUCTION

We’ll do a quick intro on improv, the idea of “Yes and,” and the benefit of learning/honing this skill. At the start of any workshop, most people just want to know two things: what’s this about, and how it’s going to help me?

With improv, I’ll also address two other big questions: “Will I have to be funny?” and “Will I be put on the spot and look silly… and have to be funny?” No and no. These improv exercises are focused on connection and collaboration, building stories and ideas together. With everyone participating at the same time, and nobody is singled out or has to be “good at it.”

2) WARM-UP EXERCISES

A few simple improv games to get people moving their bodies into a sense of play. Games so easy there’s no fear of “messing it up.” Because even though I mention not needing to be good or funny in the introduction, there might still be some fear of looking silly in front of your peers.

Eg. “Yes Let’s!”

Someone calls out an activity, like “Let’s play basketball!” and everyone practices being open to other people’s ideas by responding with an enthusiastic “Yes! Let’s!” then playing imaginary basketball together.

3) SKILL BUILDING EXERCISES

This is where we explore the meaning of “Yes, and”, and how using it in work interactions makes for better team communication, connection, and collaboration. 

Again, which exercises go here can be determined by the type of team and their goals, whether overall communication skills, listening skills, conflict resolution, presentation skills, creativity, leadership and management skills, and so on.

Eg. “Word at a Time Story”

In smaller groups and/or pairs, each person takes turns adding just one word to the overall story, so nobody has too much control over where the story goes. Trains listening, being open and judging less, being present, letting go of control and thinking collaboratively.

4) PERFORMANCE EXERCISES

This is the section where not everyone is participating at the same time. Some are performing while the rest are their audience. A chance to put your newly honed improv skills into practice. This part is closer to what you might see on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

One small group at a time (unless it’s specifically a presentation skills exercise, then you might be alone for this part) will play an improv game on the “stage area.” The games are designed for success, aka ease of laughs and joy.

Eg. “The Show Must Go On!”

Five participants act out a 1-minute scene improvising a conversation between five different characters. Then we repeat the same scene 4 more times, each time removing one participant, but not their character’s line. Eventually, one participant has to recreate the whole first scene by playing all 5 characters. (If this seems hard, reminder, we do build up to this.)

5) Q&A

Throughout the workshop, I’ll explain how to do each exercise, but also how it applies in the real world. With that said, if there are still any questions, we leave time at the end for discussion.

And then, one last, fun, everyone moving together cool-down exercise.

--

That’s about it. Again, this is just a general outline, and can be adjusted to anything you need. We’re improvisers, after all.

One workshop we did for The Toronto Raptors staff and management, we broke them into 8 different “teams” and did a bracket-style competitive improv tournament, so there’s really no limit to what an improv team building workshop could look like.

But if you like this starting point and want to talk more, reach out.

Fearless Presentations: Learn to actually enjoy public speaking.

Most public speaking classes are designed to help you do it better. Which, I guess, makes sense. The logic being, if you can get good enough at presenting, you’ll never make a mistake, which is a big part of the fear. Public embarrassment. But to me, that’s like being afraid of snakes, and only learning how to avoid snakes. It’s all good, until there’s a snake.

From my experience, it doesn’t matter if you tell me how to hold my hands properly, inflect the right words, and structure the ideal pitch, if as soon as I get up there, I panic and blank on everything.

What you actually need is to practice being bad at presenting. Practice blanking, and recovering from blanking. Practice panicking, and how to handle it and keep going. Instead of learning to be perfect, which is in reality just a way of avoiding failure, practice failing!

And this doesn’t just apply to public speaking, but all of life. But for the sake of this workshop description, it’s about public speaking.

If you, or anyone on your staff is a nervous presenter, reach out to us and book a Fearless Presentations workshop.

Through a series of improv games and exercises, we’ll get them thinking on their feet and more able to go “off script,” caring about their audience and communicating an idea more than focusing on how “well” they’re presenting, and overall find their voice and style and actually learn to enjoy sharing and connecting with others.

Don’t let your fear of public speaking hold you back in your career. You can overcome it, it just takes work. And by work, I mean doing improv games and a lot of laughing.

Improv for Anxiety for Business: What if my staff is terrified of an improv workshop?

A lot of times when I’m working with a company to plan their improv workshop, it’ll be brought up that amidst all the excitement and buzz for the event, there’s also a fair amount of trepidation. Meaning, some of their coworkers/staff have come up to them and said, “Do I have to do the improv?” “Will we have to go on stage?” “What if I’m not funny?” All the fun stuff our brains think about.

So they ask me, do you know how to handle a workshop when some (or most) of the people are terrified and don’t want to be there? And I’ll say, honestly, that’s my specialty!

I go into corporate workshops almost the same way I go in to teach an improv for anxiety class. Knowing that there’s a mix excitement and nervous energy. And quickly explain that improv isn’t about being individually funny or showing off, it’s about connection and collaboration, and building ideas together without judgement. In other words, goal #1 is to create a safe space.

For any adult, the idea of “being silly” can be scary. Most of us have been told off for “goofing around” since we were kids. Parents, teaches, managers all telling us to be more serious. Add to that the fact that during the workshop you’re still technically “at work” and depending on who participates, you might be acting goofy in front of your boss(es).

But there’s no reason we can’t do our jobs seriously AND also enjoy them. We can be talking to coworkers about an important project, and yet still enjoy the conversation. Humans instinctively want to play and connect and enjoy life, it’s just been a while since we felt “allowed.”

Improv is as a place where you’re allowed to have fun. And to put everyone at ease, no, I’m not gonna start the workshop with “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” style scenework, where two people have to be funny while everyone else watches. Sure, I could probably find two volunteers willing to do it, but I can tell you the anticipation/dread from the people “waiting their turn” won’t be fun. As much as improv is about stretching comfort zones, it ain’t about breaking them.

Think of improv as a series games and exercises designed to get people playing together like kids used to during recess. Moving around and being silly, connecting with your inner child, your free to be creative side, your state of play.

Because yes, an improv workshop is going to help everyone think faster on their feet, adapt to change, listen and communicate more effectively, feel more confident, and all that good stuff, but one of the main keys is that you’re laughing while learning. So it’s important that they’re having fun. Because it’s easier to play and laugh when you’re not so scared. 

How Fortune 500 companies use improv to build their leadership skills.

PART 2: Improv helps you care about others.

In Part 1, we talked about the importance of the ability to make decisions. Now we’re talking about which decisions to make. And ideally, they’re decisions that will help the team you’re leading.

Imagine you’re on stage with someone. And they start the scene by saying, “Well, I hope you’re happy now.” In Part 1 we talked about all the decisions that need to be made to help build the world out of imagination. What did you do? Who would ask you that? What’s the context? Etc. All decisions you could make by going in your head and rummaging around for answers.

Now let’s shift outside ourselves and focus on them. How did they say it? Annoyed? Angry? Almost laughing? How are they looking at you? How close/far are they standing? What do they want from you? Like is it funnier TO THEM if you say that you are happy now?

In other words, improv teaches you to care about your scene partner(s). In real life, you can think of your “scene partner” as anyone you’re having an interaction with. Be present with them. What are they feeling? What do they want out of this conversation?

Humans tend to think other people think like they do. And often get frustrated when they don’t. But with improv, you quickly learn to be open to different ways of thinking, and even more important, appreciate different ways of thinking. So in a leadership position, you learn it isn’t about teaching your staff to be more like you, or that you’re the only one who knows how to do it “right,” but appreciating people for who they are, and what they can bring to the table.

In other words, you learn to let go. Leading isn’t about control. At first, out of fear, people often try to steer conversations/situations to where they want it to go, or to where they think it should go. But it’s hard to control others, and make them say or do everything you want. It’s frustrating. So with improv, you give up control, and the next thing you know, you’re sharing an experience where the collective ideas are way better than your individual ones would’ve been.

In conclusion, if you want to care more about others, a key leadership skill, you should definitely try improv.