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Improvisation, Inc.: Harnessing Spontaneity to Engage People and Groups Paperback – January 15, 2000
| Robert Lowe (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Performers have been doing it for centuries. Now for the first time, Robert Lowe, a pioneer in the field of improvisation, hands you the techniques you need to think on your feet and apply these techniques in your workplace or classroom.
This book gives you:
* The same techniques that improvisational actors use to increase their confidence
* A method of using humor to establish a strong rapport with your audience, students, or participants
* An effective way of using body language and voice for greater clarity and impact
* Scores of field-tested worksheets, checklists, and group activities to help you incorporate improvisational thinking and speaking into your own presentation style
The business world may be changing at breakneck speed, but this ancient form of theatre is as appealing as ever. Buy this book and put improvisation to work for you today!
- Print length270 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPfeiffer
- Publication dateJanuary 15, 2000
- Dimensions7.01 x 0.85 x 9.23 inches
- ISBN-100787951420
- ISBN-13978-0787951429
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The creativity and playfulness of improvisation opens up vast possibilities for business, and Robert Lowe shows the way second to none." -Dr. Ginny Whitelaw, author, BodyLearning, How the Mind Learns from the Body: A Practical Approach
"Organizations perform below their potential because of poor communications, unchallenged traditions, misunderstandings of the facts, procrastination, bureaucracy, avoiding the unattractive, and disbelief. This book shows effective, fun ways to release the natural talent that everyone has to help overcome these harmful stalls, both as individuals and as a group." -Donald Mitchell, chairman, Mitchell and Company, coauthor, The 2,000 Percent Solution
"Not only very enjoyable to read, but a necessary training tool. Lowe's "Improvisational" method of thinking is how the new generation of business people will deal with one another. This book is worth reading." -Emory Mulling, president, The Mulling Group
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Product details
- Publisher : Pfeiffer; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 270 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0787951420
- ISBN-13 : 978-0787951429
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.01 x 0.85 x 9.23 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,281,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,765 in Communication Skills
- #32,433 in Business Management (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Robert Lowe is America's leading improvisation teacher for executives and managers. He captures the best of his years of experience in this fascinating book filled with exciting exercises to help you better tap into your inner resources.
Most people associate improvisation with comedy clubs and speech tournaments in school. What has this got to do with business, you ask?
Improvisation is a remarkable way to communicate because it creates more authentic messages and delivery of those messages. It is as though the person is speaking from the innermost soul. Compare that to reciting a prepared speech or script that you don't really believe in or understand.
Those who have studied communication know that body movements and tone of voice have more impact on the hearer than the words that are spoken. With improvisation, those movements and tones are much more powerful and authentic. In a sense, your subconscious ends up speaking directly to the other person's subconscious. In improvisation, your subconscious loosens up to emerge with ways to act on subtle clues about your audience that you are not even consciously aware of.
Comics often use improvisation to develop the basis of routines that they polish into slick, prepared comedy. In doing so, they are using the creativity-enhancing aspects of improvisation The most confident humorists rely only on improvisation for their comedy.
Experience with improvisation can also help you and your team to have better ideas supported with both more confidence and more flexibility when you are communicating in an important situation.
Robert Lowe's book here is especially valuable because it also helps you assist your colleagues to improve their improvisational skills as well. The wide variety of exercises in the book is very valuable because some of them are bound to feel very comfortable for anyone. But be sure to try the ones that initially feel uncomfortable. Often, those are the ones that work best once you let go of your conscious mind. Those are also the ones that make you stronger and more capable in less time.
Another benefit of improvisation is that we all learn best when we are playing. And improvisation is wonderful fun! Why do I say that? Because I have used improvisation training myself, and found it helpful to me in many business situations. At the end of every exercise I have ever done, I was having a ball. Further, I found that I am more comfortable with myself after have worked on these important skills.
I first developed an interest in this subject when I observed that many of the most talented members of our consulting firm's staff had acting training. These capable people noticed more about those they were communicating with, and had more ways to be effective in getting their points across. So for years, learning these skills has been part of our staff improvement process. From those experiences, I found that improvisation training was the best method to use.
A major strength of this book is that Robert Lowe genuinely likes people and enjoys working with them. You will find a warm supportive style behind everything here that will encourage you and others to make rapid progress.
But don't just read this superb book. Also, try out all of his recommendations so you can feel the power of this wonderful creativity-enhancing communications method!
Overcome your stalled thinking that only traditional ways to learn can make you and your organization more effective!
One of those excruciatingly boring books it is:
1) The person narrating the book is a robot. How fitting, for a book about playfulness and improvisation.
2) The style is oppressive: so many lists! Every other sentence is a list! Is this some kind of brainwashing drill?
3) Too many boring, boring descriptions and statements of most banal facts. UGH!
Can you tell this book is really frustrating me? It's truly a painful listen; I wish the author had just stuck to the exercises.
Lists are are horrible way for anyone, especially a creative person, to convey info. After the fifth or sixth item on the fifth or six list, how much do you think sinks in?
Add an extrememly rigid narrator, I'm sorry to say, and this book is unusable for me.
I tried. I really tried. As I said, I needed this book. But after less than one chapter, I pulled the CD out of the player and, with a combination of disappointment and relief, put it back in its case. Maybe the style gets better as you go on, but I'll never know.
Won't someone write a book about this subject that's readable?
Hold on to your seat, Lowe doesn't just present old Spolin games, he defines their use in our technological highly-communication-based era.

