 Okay, our next talk is about why leaders need improv. Would you give it up for Andrew Tarvin? So when I was a little kid, I had aspirations, dreams of becoming an international soccer superstar. And then I realized I was too skinny. I was born 8.3 pounds and then stayed that way until I was 15 years old. So then I evolved and I decided that I wanted to become an international hip-hop superstar. But then I realized that I didn't have quite the lyrical flows that would be highs and lows that would come from beats from a Bose. So then work and then my family got our first computer and I realized what I really want to do is become an international IT superstar. And so that's what I did. I went to the Ohio State University and got a degree in computer science and engineering. And after I graduated, I started working at Procter & Gamble as an IT project manager well on my way to achieving that dream. But my first week on the job, my manager at P&G gave me advice that would change my life. And I didn't know it at the time, but he gave me this advice. He said that it's better to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. And many of you have probably heard that, but for me it was so empowering at the time because it gave me ownership of my career at P&G. And of course, as a young upstart, I was like, all right, I'm going to see if he actually means that. So I decided to do things that I thought would test the boundaries. And I decided to use something that I had just recently started learning about in college, which was improvisation and comedy. And so I started to add jokes at the end of all of my emails. And I started teaching improv to some of my teammates and I started to offer to be the emcee of events that I had no right of even attending. And the one thing that I did that I thought for sure I would have to actually ask for forgiveness for was that I proclaimed myself the corporate humorist of P&G, gave myself a job title, wrote a blog. And I assumed that eventually someone would come and stop me. I assumed someone would say, hey, you can't just give yourself your own job title. But instead, people just started referring to me as the corporate humorist. And it ended up working. And as I did the research about humor and the workplace and improv and business and happiness and productivity, I realized what many of you have realized is that the same skills that it requires to be effective as an improviser are the same skills that it requires to be effective as a leader. This is incredibly important because of the world that we live in, right? Because we live in what some people call a vukal world, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Volatile because not only is the world changing, but the rate of change is increasing. It took 46 years for electricity to reach 25% of the US population. It took 26 years for TV to do it and only seven for the internet. And now memes rise and fall overnight. Do you guys remember about a year ago when for three days we were all obsessed with what color a dress was, right? That happened instantly and then almost just as instantly went away? Volatile. It's also uncertain. Some futurists estimate that 50% of the jobs that exist today won't exist in 10 years. And this isn't just jobs that we think of like the cash registers at McDonald's that we're starting to see already being replaced, but also things like artificial intelligence is changing how we invest, right? Some computers are better investors than people who have gone to school for years for it. And that's good for computer science engineers who are introverted like myself, right? Not as good for the people who are going to school for that. It's a complex world. This device, this simple device that we have in our pocket is a result of over a thousand patents from hundreds of different companies. And that simple task of you sending a message from one person to another is about infusing electricity into a rock, sending zeros and ones into outer space and then into the pocket to the person next to you. It's a complex world in which we live. And finally, it's ambiguous because we don't know what we don't know. And we don't always know the cause and effect. And when we're working with clients to try to help them achieve success or we're thinking about how some of our patients need to be happier or if we're thinking about even a question like what is the meaning of life? It's hard to find the right answer because there isn't one. It's an ambiguous world. And so how do we lead in a vocal world? Well, we need to think about how do we think, create, move and lead on our feet. In short, we need to improvise. Because improvisers, they're not about just making things up as they go along. It's not about doing something that they've never done before. But improvisation is about taking the culmination of everything that you've learned up into that point and executing it in the moment. It's about creating preparation and skill and putting it into that idea in that spot. So we can learn from improvisers. We can learn the skills that they have learned. We can learn things about the importance of vision. Because, yes, improvisers create in the moment, but I would say that most improvisers have a vision. And maybe that vision is to entertain an audience, or it's to train leaders, or it's to help kids with autism learn a little bit better. They have some type of overarching vision. And the reality is that you and your clients are working far too hard not to know what you're working for, right? Because the work that you do is only worth it if it is actually worth it. And you need to know that by having a vision. But having a vision doesn't mean having a script, right? Because having a script doesn't take into account change. Blockbuster had a script. Kodak had a script. Nintendo has a vision. Nintendo has been around since the late 1800s, started out as a card company. Their vision has nothing to do with video games. Their vision is to bring people closer together. And you see how they execute that in the way that they work. Improvisers also know about the value of versatility, especially in terms of a unique team. Because they bring together a diverse group because they know that's how to create interesting moments. Because as the old management ad says that if two people think exactly the same, one of them is unnecessary. So improvisers bring a diverse group together to create these interesting ideas and they work to build the team. Because the difference between a team and the team is simply leadership. It's the improv mentality of accepting and building what other people offer and making use of what you have in that particular moment. Next, improvisers look for vulnerability, right? And they look to create that within their teams. Not necessarily like Kumbaya, let's all hold hands vulnerability, but in authenticity. In recognition that we are all in the business of dealing with other humans. And so we need to be able to connect as humans. And the truth is, no matter if you're on a stage or in a boardroom, respect precedes results. Research at Google with Project Aristotle shows that the number one most important attribute for an effective team is psychological safety. It's creating an environment in which people feel safe and secure that they can be their authentic selves. And that if they share an idea, they're not gonna be reprimanded or made fun of. And we do that as improvisers by treating our fellow players as poets and geniuses so that they become poets and geniuses. And we also try to teach this idea of vigor, right? Of this ability to thrive and survive. Because we know that as improvisers, we're going to mess up. And that we're not always going to be perfect. And we need to create this ability in this space for us to be okay with that. Because the truth is that failure is just data. It's simply data to say this didn't work. And it's epitomized my growth mindset, right? That word yet from Carol Dweck. And that word yet is so important because it's yet, if I haven't achieved it, that's okay. Yet, I still actually have to do the work, right? Because we initially need to do that failure and use that as learning so that we can succeed, right? We've all heard the quotation from Thomas Edison that I haven't failed 10,000 times. I've found just 10,000 ways that haven't worked, right? But we only know that quotation because he eventually succeeded, right? But if he was that person that tried 10,000 ways that never worked, we'd be like, who's that guy? We'd be quoting Einstein, like the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, right? He needs to get yet, he needs to actually use it to succeed. And finally, improvisers create velocity, velocity through action, through movement, because action creates more action. It doesn't matter how great of an idea you have in your head for a scene if you never actually actually get it out there for people to see, because knowing matters, but doing matters more. The things that we actually do, the things that we actually execute are what's really, really important. And this is what we can learn from our improv brethren, right? All the people in this room from improvisation, we can learn about vision and vulnerability and versatility and vigor and velocity. And we can do that as a way to create change. Now, it is normally at a presentation like this that you would tell a story to wrap up everything, something that kind of epitomizes everything that I just talked about and is kind of the crux of what we're talking about. But I'm an improviser, so I didn't write one. So instead, I'm gonna improvise one using a game that I'm sure many of you know and have always played, because it doesn't mean that I didn't prepare for this, right? And so a few of you, if I can get this word, a few of you I talked with before and I asked for lines of dialogue, game called Blind Line or Mind in Pocket. And so I'm gonna improvise for you a final story using lines of dialogue people in this audience of giving me, reaching in periodically, reading one and incorporating it into the story. But to start, I need a suggestion for a story. So for you, what's something that you're passionate about outside of improv or work? Something you're passionate about? Cats, X, oh, this is great. I happen to know a great story about cats. All right, excellent. This is our improvised leadership story about cats. Thank you. So once upon a time, many, many years ago, there was this little girl named Stacey. And Stacey grew up wanting desperately to be a veterinarian, to specifically work with cats. Now, this is an interesting challenge for Stacey, though, because she was born with a deathly allergy to cats. In fact, the day that she went to her parents and told her, hey mom and dad, I wanna work with cats, her mom turned to her and said, oh honey, I'm sorry. But I find your lack of faith disturbing. I find the lack of faith you have in science to say that you can't do that. We know that you have a deathly allergy to this. And little Stacey was like, but mom, I love cats. And so her mom was persuaded and she was like, all right, fine. We'll get you some type of like bio suit, right? So they went and they got her a bio suit that she could wear. And so she would go and she would play with cats. But all the other kids that would play with cats would make fun of her because she looked weird. In fact, one little boy would look at her and he said, be the change you wish to see in the world. I think you should change professions because you look like a weirdo. And she was like, no, that's not what the quotation means. Mean something more. So she didn't let them get down and the teacher that would actually was helping them with this program for future veterinarians took little Stacey aside and says, look, I see what you're trying to do and I know it's challenging. So I'm gonna help you as much as possible. In fact, when I was first starting out, my own teacher once told me, oh, hi, Mark. And it was this great moment because I didn't know the teacher even knew my name. I thought I was one of a hundred faces in the audience, but he knew, he knew I was something different, something special. And so Mark worked with Stacey to become a better veterinarian to work really hard and she started to work. And one day she was working in the lab and she noticed something about the fur and she thought to herself of the fur or the cat. She thought, run, forest, run, because she had named all the bacteria on all the fur and this one was named for us and she's like, I figured it out. The allergy that I have to catch is this bacteria and if I were to get rid of this bacteria, this forest, if you were to run, I would be able to pet the cat with my actual hand. And that's what she did and she won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work and allergies for cats so that people could actually press them. And at that Nobel Peace ceremony, the host said, we know Stacey has done this wonderful work and we just have to say of her, admission makes you look pretty ugly. And we have to admit, we didn't think you could do it, but you did. And Stacey went on and she created this great moment and this movement and she inspired tons and tons of people and when she passed away on her birthstone it left this wonderful inspiring message that said, I'll have what she's having. So I think we can all learn a little bit from Stacey and be that improvised leader because she had the vision to know what it is that she wanted to do long term. She had the versatility to seek out people that could help her. She had vulnerability to admit that she needed help in the first place. She had vigor because she didn't give up and finally she actually did something. She created velocity through action and I inspire and hope that all of you would do the same thing and be improvised leaders. I've been Andrew Tarvin. You guys have been great. Thank you very much.