The Applied Improvisation Mindset : Tools for Transforming Organizations and Communities

How can the practice of improvisation become the lens through which we view the world? The Applied Improvisation Mindset takes readers deep into the maturing field of Applied Improvisation (AI), with stories of 18 practitioners from five countries who embrace an improvisation mindset to create a more collaborative, equitable, sustainable, and joyous world. Myriad organizations have discovered how the mindset and skills applied by great improvisers onstage can reveal emergent, generative ways of interacting with others offstage.

With case studies on developing presentation skills, reducing anxiety in teens, or preparing climate risk managers across the globe for the challenges ahead, this second volume serves as a valuable resource for both experienced and new AI facilitators. It is a primer for higher education and K-12 faculty combatting traditional teaching limitations and a practical “how to” for theatre practitioners, artists, educators, or anyone seeking to transform their organizations and communities.

“Status roles and improv are at the heart of what makes our culture tick. In this detailed and insightful book, Dudeck and McClure share so much of what we need to understand to do the work and make an impact.” —Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing

“The Applied Improvisation Mindset allows us to understand how improvisation can create a specific mindset to surf the waves of these unpredictable times. Dudeck and McClure have edited a crucial title for all kinds of professionals who want to make a difference in the world and make it now.” —Mariana Lima Muniz, Professor of Drama, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

“Dudeck and McClure serve (again!) as indispensable guides and translators of how the wisdom and magic of improv can apply to (and transform) everyday group work and life.” —Priya Parker, facilitator and author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters