Improv Prototyping

Develop effective solutions to chronic challenges while having serious fun

Five Structural Elements – Min Specs

1. Structuring Invitation

“Get ready to address a shared challenge by acting out the situation and improvising prototypes of possible solutions. You will be dramatizing the simple elements that work to solve a problem with a playful way to get very serious work done!”

2. Space and Materials

• An open space or stage at the front of a room [spotlight].
• Chairs for participants to sit in clusters of three to four [breakouts].
• Props for scenes (optional).

3. Participation Distribution

• Roles include host [tech host], players, and observers.
• Minimum group size is nine.
• Everyone is included as both players and observers.
  

4. Group Configuration

• A central group of three to four players and many small groups of three to four observers.
  

5. Steps and Time Allocation

Intro: Share the structuring invitation and identify a shared problem. Invite a few participants to be players in a short, improvised scene. (1 min.)

Preparation: Send the players to a separate area [breakout room] to plan their scene while the observers divide into small groups. [Prepare breakout rooms.] (3 min.)

Acting Out the Scene: The players return and act out their scene while everyone else observes. [Spotlight the players.] (5 min.)

Whole-Group Debrief: The group debriefs using 1-2-4-All [Chatterfall], identifying successful and unsuccessful “chunks” from the scene. (3 min.)

Prototyping: Observer groups return to their breakouts [send participants to same breakout rooms] to piece together successful chunks into a new prototype. Each group selects volunteers to act out their prototype. (5 min.)

Acting Out More Scenes: Everyone returns to plenary. Invite a few groups to share their improved prototypes. Continue with as many rounds as necessary to arrive at one or more prototypes that are good enough to put into practice. Thank everyone who acted! (3–5 min. per scene)

WHY? Purposes

• Enable people to act their way into new thinking: Improv Prototyping is a rehearsal for real life
• Break a task that seems daunting into smaller pieces
• Engage and focus everyone’s imagination on solving messy challenges
• Break through frozen or resistant behaviors
• Create an engaging and fun alternative to dry or unproductive training
• Work across functional and disciplinary barriers
• Help people learn from peers that have behaviors that solve the problem

Taking it online

Improv Prototyping works online with no major adjustments. It can be scaled to larger groups more easily online than in person.

Tips and Traps

• A concrete and sharply defined problem will lead to better results.
• Specify details for the scene such as key roles, location, and props.
• Coach players on the rules of improv:
• Trust and accept all offers (“yes, and . . . ​”);
• make action-filled choices,
• giving and taking;
• engage in one conversation at a time;
• listen, watch, concentrate (look, don’t think!);
• and work to the top of your intelligence.
• 
  

Riffs and Variations

• Invite a “creative director” to help specify scene details and redirect the players if needed.
• Discover better (and worse) actions by inviting the audience to replay the first scene in small groups, inviting face-off competitions judged by an “applause-o-meter.”

Examples

• Hospital trainers have substituted Improv Prototyping for conventional courses
• For sales reps to invent new ways to interact with their customers
• For managers to make their interactions with people who report to them more productive
• For health-care providers to practice end-of-life and palliative-care conversations with patients and family members
• For teachers to discover effective responses to disruptive classroom behaviors
• For training young nurses to stand their ground on safety issues (see “Dramatizing Behavior Change to Stop Infections” in Part Three: Stories from the Field).

Optional String

Start with Discovery and Action Dialogue, Simple Ethno­graphy, or User Experience Fishbowl to define the theme for Improv Prototyping.

Attribution: Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by Antonas Mockus (former mayor of Bogota) and Improv artists.

Source: Liberating Structures