Think on Your Feet Read online

  PRAISE FOR JEN OLENICZAK BROWN AND THINK ON YOUR FEET

  “[Think on Your Feet] is a helpful maven’s guide ideal for anyone who views a podium with fear and trembling.”

  —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

  “Think improv is just for comedians? Think again! Improv is about knowing where you are in the moment and being able to pivot to find what works. Jen Brown’s book Think On Your Feet will help you and your team develop these skills to be successful in every business situation.”

  —WENDY DAILEY,

  Talent Advisor at Sanford Health

  “Before reading this book, I was never one to study or practice for anything, especially when it came to communicating. I just figured that because I have the gift of gab, no practice was necessary. Sheesh, was I wrong! After being in numerous situations where the spotlight came to me unexpectedly, I can appreciate this ‘bible’ on perfecting your impromptu speaking and communications skills. I’ve always been one who commanded attention with only my voice, but with Jen’s humorous yet intentional insight on how to maneuver in any situation, I can now command attention with intention!”

  —MALEEKA T. HOLLAWAY,

  founder of The Official Maleeka Group

  “Too often fear of saying the wrong thing holds us back from our achievements. This book provides the tools and mental hacks to help you communicate confidently. Jen Brown’s unique incorporation of improv frameworks and exercises are not only wholly effective, they’re wildly engaging. This is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their communication skills.”

  —KATIE KAPLER,

  CEO of CourseHorse

  “Think on Your Feet is both super readable and relatable. It blends the best of a fun improv class with the career guidance books we devour because they set us straight. Jen’s account of how best to apply improv basics to work and life moments bring a fun perspective and approach to age-old concerns. I fully recommend this book to anyone hoping or plotting how to get ahead with the next phase of their lives. Improv or scripted, Jen’s explanations and samples of common professional moments make any scenario relatable, so that you’ll feel prepared and ready.”

  —EILEEN CANNON,

  Senior Director, Content + Curriculum at PBS

  “Jen Brown offers a refreshing new way of looking at human interactions and to ourselves. Everyone who aspires to become a more engaging and thoughtful communicator should follow Jen’s ideas to bring a bit of improv to their lives. A must-read for college students!”

  —AÍDA MARTÍNEZ-GÓMEZ, PHD,

  Coordinator, Department of Modern Languages and Literature at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  “Jen offers a way to break through one’s preconceived notions and learn how to really collaborate with other people. She teaches how the reality that is created by using improv techniques in our conversations is powerful and can help to manifest the change that each of us desires, in work and in life!”

  —ASHLEY KNIGHT,

  Program Coordinator, HR at Wake Baptist Health

  “Through multiple real-life examples and suggested activities to guide the reader, Jen’s enthusiasm for applying lessons from improv to communication is very evident.”

  —JILL SCHIEFELBEIN,

  founder of The Dynamic Communicator

  “Jen Brown not only makes improv accessible, she also weaves in lessons of empathy and strength. This is a read, learn, apply book. I’ve learned a new language that I already see sneaking into several conversations, and, more importantly, into my actions.”

  —TRAVIS SHERIDAN,

  Global Director at Venture Café

  “Think On Your Feet is a self-improvement book that teaches you how to apply the brilliant lessons of improv to your daily life. As an HR professional, I know a thing or two about sensitive conversations and this book is filled with advice on how to master even the most difficult of conversations. Jen offers a wealth of great tips, fun tricks, and exercises and shows you how to work them into your day-to-day. ‘Yes, and’ I’ll be recommending this book to my whole team.”

  —JESSICA DEGRADO,

  HR People Partner at Atlassian

  “Plenty of books tell you how to do planned comms work. This is the only one that explains the benefits of sometimes thinking on your feet and doing less planning, not more.”

  —SREE SREENIVASA,

  Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business and Loeb visiting professor at Stony Brook University

  “I have seen Jen think on her feet and deftly respond to a wide variety of situations. Her background in improv, teaching and facilitating, make her eminently qualified to offer tips to make us all more adept at responding to the unexpected.”

  —SHARON VATSKY,

  Director of Education, School and Family Programs, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

  Copyright © 2020 by Jen Oleniczak Brown. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN: 978-1-26-045704-9

  MHID: 1-26-045704-4

  The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-1-26-045703-2, MHID: 1-26-045703-6.

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  Contents

  Introduction

  CHAPTER 1: Attending to your Audience: Who, What, When, and How

  CHAPTER 2: Interpersonal Communication—the Everyday Professional Communication

  CHAPTER 3: Networking and Small Talk

  CHAPTER 4: Leading a Meeting and Leading in a Meeting

  CHAPTER 5: Interviewing

  CHAPTER 6: Get Out of Your Own Way

  CHAPTER 7: Presentation Skills

  Conclusion

  Notes, References, Resources

  Acknowledgments

  Index

  Introduction

  When you think about presenting without planning ahead of time, how do you feel? Nervous, excited, anxious, stressed, happy? Take a moment to think about the following situations:

  • You’re asked to give a five-minute update on a project you know nothing about at the weekly staff meeting.

  • You’re asked one challenging question during an interview for a job you’re really excited about, and you’re thrown completely for a loop because you were not expecting it at all. And this isn’t a survival job, this is something that would turn into a career and make moves for you. And now you might not get it, all because of that one question and your deer-in-the-headlights look.

  • You’re headed to a networking event, one that matters, not a company cocktail hour. You’re looking for people to collaborate with and who can help advance your career. You walk in, and in that moment you freeze. What do you say to them now that they are here and oh God, are you staring? Yes, you’re staring. Quick, look down at your shoes!

  Do these situations sound familiar? Impromptu speaking in professional situations is tough business. How many times have you thought, “I wish I would have . . .” after a moment you were caught off-guard? Have you ever “prepared” for a situation, overthought every single moment that could possibly happen, only to be shocked when something you didn’t actually plan for happens? Cue stress, anxiety, and the would-haves.

  Preparing for the unexpected is one of the best ways to handle the unexpected: “I don’t know what’s going to happen in my meeting later today. I have an idea, and I’ve prepped items I’m interested in talking about, but things could go in a completely different direction than I expected.” And that’s OK! The key to that is learning how to prepare for the things you can’t prepare for.

  Sounds weird, right? Prepare for what you can’t prepare for? Get ready to think on your feet! Take a class in the flexible!

  Improv is the way to prepare for the unexpected. I’m not talking about the one person on stage telling jokes to an apathetic and potentially drunk audience. I’m talking about the team sport of improvisation, specifically improv comedy. Before you chuck the book across the room, consider this: improv is a heightened reality. You take things that happen in real life, and you practice your reactions and responses—while keeping in mind the rules of improv you’ve learned along the way. Then you take those improv rules and apply them to what’s happening in your here and now.

  Improv at its core is listening and responding to the world and the situation around you. Every action has a reaction, right? You’re learning how to pay attention to what’s going on around you, process that information, and respond to it. You’re not flying by the seat of your pants, but with enough practice, it may look like you’re doing exactly this while still giving off the impression that you know what you’re talking about.

  Improv has a long history, much of which isn’t important to you or to me, honestly. If you are interested in the nitty-gritty backstory of improv, head down the rabbit holes of commedia dell’arte, Konstantin Stanislavski and Jacques Copeau. Modern improv is thanks to people like John Dewey, Dudley Riggs, Viola Spolin, and Keith Johnstone. Start with those great search terms; I’ve also included more resources at the end of the book for your interest.

  For our intents and purposes, we need to remember that improv has rules, and improv is about listening and responding. The rules are vague yet open enough to build a place for success. You’re probably not planning to go on a traditional stage anytime soon, so you don’t need to worry about being funny. I repeat: please don’t worry about being funny. Improv is not about being funny, or witty, or telling jokes, or doing schtick or anything else. It’s about being real.

  In improv, you create a reality and live in that reality. All of those scenes you might have seen on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” are all moments of reality created by the performers. While they perform, they are living in that reality. They also are not flying by the seat of their pants. They are following the rules of improv and listening to one another, collaborating on the creation of that reality. See how it might help in those impromptu moments of speaking that you didn’t necessarily plan for?

  In 2012, I started what I thought would be a side hustle. I was a museum educator, and I realized that my other educators and coworkers were not as flexible as I was. They couldn’t think on their feet when students or adults asked questions they weren’t expecting. They often got rattled when plans changed, and they got stuck overthinking things. This isn’t to say I didn’t get stuck in my head, rattled, or caught off-guard. I simply knew how to recover from it.

  At that point, I had been doing improv comedy for years. I also noticed several industries were adapting improv for their day-to-day work. Therapists were using it in sessions with clients, teachers were using it in their classrooms, and sales and marketing professionals were using it to practice for their pitches. So I started The Engaging Educator (EE), with the intention of focusing on improv for educators and museum professionals—I would continue being an educator, and that would be life.

  This was true for a few months. Then surprise! Professionals across all industries wanted to learn to use improv “off the stage” and take classes with other professionals, and not with actors or people who wanted to perform.

  Since 2012, we’ve grown and taken our brand of improv-based education and thinking to over 40,000 people in six years. We do not work with actors or people who want to be actors. Our focus is to do exactly why you bought this book: help you think on your feet in professional situations.

  Like all good continuing education, you’ll have to take some time in real life, when you’re not reading this book, to reflect on things you’ve read. This book contains activities, ideas, schools of thought, research, and examples, but it’s ultimately up to you to remember everything you learn from these pages and apply them to real life. This book isn’t a cure-all—you won’t rock through it and know all of the answers. Improv is something that needs to be practiced and worked on. It’s not something you can study, memorize, and be amazing at. As with all continuing education, you have to continually educate yourself about improv.

  A few how-to-use this book points:

  • Improv is all about show, don’t tell. You can commit all of this to memory, memorize the ideas and rules, know this book word for word, but that won’t improve your communication skills. You’ve only memorized a book. Take the things you learn here and apply them to your real life. Whether you’re an “I need things spelled out for me from the beginning” type or someone who is looking for simple ways to adjust what you’re currently doing, improv can offer you something. Remember: Don’t just talk about doing it. Do it.

  • Be intentional. Part of improv is making choices. Not doing something is also a choice, so remember that. The critical part of all of it is knowing that you’re making a choice to do something. That intention—the decision around a choice, response, and action—is what makes improv work. You need to be conscious of that intention. More on this throughout the specific chapters.

  • Reflect. If you want to make a change, you have to start with looking at yourself. Improv won’t necessarily change the world. You might, however,
change your work environment or work life with improv. The only way to see that change and actually make it happen is to intentionally reflect on what’s happening in the situations at work and in your work life, and consider a change. There are many moments for reflection in the book—like right now. Check in with yourself and see what you’re looking to work on when communicating. Are you thinking about your current job or a job you want to get? Improvement happens when you’re thinking about a specific goal, after you’ve clearly defined what success means to you. If you don’t know what you’re working toward—you will 100 percent always be disappointed. So take a moment and look at yourself: What are you looking to work on? Throughout the entire journey, think about what’s happening, what’s changing, and what you want to work on.

  • Glows and grows. While you’re reflecting, you’ll discover amazing new ideas. One tiny thing can change so much so quickly! That will be a glow. Glows are also things you do really well. Maybe you are already really great at identifying what you want or keeping a conversation on track. That’s great! That’s a glow. How about something you need to work on? Maybe you’re not the best at flexibility and you really like to take control of the conversation. That would be a grow. It’s not a failure. It’s something you need to work on. I have to give credit here where it’s due. The glows-and-grows idea comes from one of our amazing facilitators, Jill Frutkin. I’ve since co-opted it in all of my workshops and talks. You can use it, too, it’s now all yours.

  • Try this and this helps . . . . You’ll notice sections called Try This and immediately following, This Helps. Try This contains activities you should do. For some activities, you might need a friend, but you can do most by yourself. Do these activities! Improv has to be practiced and you’re not going to learn how to adapt it properly simply by reading about it. After you’ve read through the activity, This Helps explains the point of the activity.

  I advise you to read through every section, because even if you think a chapter is not relevant to you right now, it may be useful to you in the future. Or you can adapt it for a current situation. For example, even if you aren’t interviewing for a job right now, you might be in the near or distant future. You can adapt this section for a podcast interview or an interview for your company newsletter. You also might read something in the interviewing chapter that helps you with your meeting skills. Improv for professional communication is a funny beast. I could apply just about everything to everything, so throughout the text, I’ve connected some dots between different ideas and situations. And in other places, I simply had to make a choice about what applied the “best.” As you’re working your way through, reflecting and actively thinking about the application, as well as your grows and glows, think about where else you can apply each specific tool, besides the situation given in the book.