What are we doing when we aren’t creating and implementing social media marketing strategies for our clients? On March 23rd, actor Ricky Wayne and staff from The American Stage in St. Petersburg, FL came by to introduce our team to the world of improv comedy in a great teambuilding experience. Needless to say, it was a wild time – but we also learned a ton about each other as a team.
As anyone from the world of improv knows, you can discover a lot about yourself and your fellow performers quite quickly. We learned about how we approach our work at The Go! Agency and came up with great strategies to improve collaboration and teamwork.
When Ricky and the team began, we started with an ice breaker. Each Go! Agent said one true fact and two false facts, and the rest of us had to decide which was the true statement. We learned that Kaylee, our Social Media Manager Lead, used to be a lifeguard. Bill, our new Social Media Executive, explained that he ran several marathons when he lived in New York. Finally, some employees were surprised to find out that our CEO Christopher was a classically-trained pianist.
After our icebreaker activities, we dove into one of improv’s most famous exercises, “Yes And.” The classic activity helped us perform skits successfully and improve our teamwork. This emphasized positivity, arguably the most important element of improv. Instead of changing someone’s idea to conform to your own, we worked with what we were given, and the performance is all the better for the collaboration. For example, Alyssa and Jamie created a fun beach scene scenario by utilizing each other’s strengths and talking points.
In the next exercise, we experienced the impact negativity had on our improv skits. Instead of bouncing off each other’s plot points, we shot down ideas and left our partners scrambling. As a result, we had less-entertaining performances and a lot of embarrassment. It was clear to see how this lesson can be translated into our work – positivity works even in tense situations!
Another enlightening aspect of our time with Ricky Wayne and American Stage was when we went into smaller groups and saw just how far communication could go with teamwork. For example, our Marketing Assistant Dan started off a conversation about the warm weather that’s coming to Florida, and by the end, we all learned what we all like to do on our days off and even about our morning commutes to the office.
Not only was improv a gateway into interesting conversations and a tool to better know our fellow Go! Agents, but it was a way to improve work ethic and productivity.
As we are all working on social media strategies and content, we’re keeping in mind the upbeat attitude and perseverance that improv teaches!
