We’ve all heard the great improv practice, “Yes, and…” and maybe even played a few improv games in high school theater class. As an actor it’s common to warm up with a round of “Yes, and...” Yet, it is one of those exercises I felt should remain on stage; off-stage, it seemed to be merely a way of hijacking a conversation. A few years ago the true depth of the practice became clear as I began to see skillful communicators using it to move conversations and processes out of stuck places and to invite in creativity. It is generous and generative. Why YES?…Read on.

There’s an old joke about community theater. Imagine a group of young, scrubbed, overall-clad youngsters in a barn. One projects loudly, “We’ve got a barn! Let’s put on a show!” The others ad lib with big smiles, “Sure thing!” “I can build the sets with this old scrap wood!” “We can use this sheet for a backdrop!” “I can sew these old rags into costumes!” Then, all at once, the whole group stops talking, orients towards a kid standing on a hay bale, settles into varied comfortable but affected positions, and gazes expectantly. The kid on the hay bale launches into a monologue and/or song. This stereotypical trope from amateur theater is easy to satirize (Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman does this with love). And I am not recommending that anyone do this on stage, exactly…but the truth is that the audience …Read on.