Every day we deal with the unplanned and the unexpected, from a broken toaster to losing (or gaining) a major client or navigating our way through a global pandemic. Our natural ability to improvise gets us through. But we feel as if we’re winging it, rather than acting with courage and conviction.
First published in 2013 and now fully updated, Robert Poynton shares his acclaimed method taught to some of the world's biggest brands and companies, including Nike, Chanel and PwC, to show us how simple improvisational skills can be applied to the everyday business of work and life.
It's a practice that helps us to navigate life's daily obstacles and remind us how the unplanned and the unexpected can be a source of wonder and delight - leading to moments of serendipity or thoughts and ideas we wouldn't have otherwise have had.
Do Improvise will help you to:
Become more productive without trying harder
Overcome creative blocks and generate new ideas
Respond fluidly to circumstances beyond your control
Realise that you don't have to know everything.
Not sure what to do next? Improvise.
Robert Poynton is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. His work there is practical not academic – he designs and runs executive education programmes, helping senior leaders understand and work with complex change via a playful approach drawn from the methodology of improvisational theatre. His own clients include the BBC, Chanel, Merck and Unilever. He is the author of Do Pause: You are not a To Do list (Do Books), and the founder of Yellow, a new online learning experience. He has been a contributor to the Skoll World Forum and Singularity University Global Summit. He has led courses on leadership, change and complexity at the IE Business School in Madrid, Ashridge Business School and Schumacher College. He is married with three sons and divides his time between Oxford and an off-grid house just outside the small town of Arenas de San Pedro in rural Spain.
