What would it mean to your business if your teams worked together more effectively?
Communication, teamwork, and collaboration are NOT just “soft skills.” They’re fundamental drivers of business performance. When teams work well together, everything improves: engagement, creative output, and goal achievement.
Improv training can help even well-functioning teams meet and exceed their potential.
As a professional improviser working regularly in front of paying audiences, I understand the pressures (and rewards) of collaboration and creativity on-demand! For over 25 years, I’ve guided business teams to apply these same skills to their work.
The Benefits
Improv training is active, engaging, and experiential. No boring PowerPoint slides here! It’s learning with a smile, with immediate and long-lasting results. Through a fun mix of exercises, games, and discussion, you and your team will learn how to:
- collaborate to achieve success
- encourage spontaneity and non-judgement of ideas
- develop active listening skills and empathy
- maintain employee wellness through mindful self-awareness
- build courage and accept vulnerability
- embrace a growth mindset and incorporate failure as experience
- embody servant leadership (“Follow Your Followers”)
- define your leadership objectives and adjust your communication approach to match
- understand status roles and their effect on team communication
And as you’d expect, my improv workshops are adaptable to your group needs. Contact me today to explore what’s possible and get a quick demonstration of my exercises and teaching. I guarantee you’ll get at least one new tip to boost your team performance.
“Very insightful, good interaction and very relevant for business executives.”
Andrew M., Toronto
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“Pleasantly surprised how useful and connected improv insights are with the business and leadership game. David made for a safe environment.”
Peter D., Toronto
Your Facilitator
David Raitt is a professional theatre performer and instructor with over 25 years of experience in improv comedy. He is an alumnus of the world famous Second City theatre company, having performed in 11 comedy revues in Toronto, at theatres and events all over Canada, and on Norwegian Cruise Line. For 17 years, Dave was a faculty member of the Second City Education Company, teaching communication skills to students and at-risk youth. He has also taught many business team workshops for Second City. (Full bio)
Workshop Details
- My standard business workshop is 2 hours long. I can also put together a customized all-day or multi-day curriculum.
- Ideal group size is 10-15 participants, with no more than 25 recommended. For large groups, I may need to engage additional facilitators.
- Space requirements: Improv is active. The space you provide needs to be open and able to accommodate the group standing or sitting in a loose circle. Chairs may be used, but there should be room to move them aside for some exercises.
- I prefer teaching in-person for best results, but I also offer Online Workshops via Zoom or other online meeting software of your choice.
- From $500—including initial meeting, drafting client brief, and workshop preparation. (Detailed quote available after project discussion.)
Specialized Workshop Examples
I’ll work with you to build a custom curriculum to meet your needs and goals. For inspiration, here are some specialized past offerings we can expand on:
- Improv for Leaders: For teams to be most productive, leaders must walk a fine line between pointing the way and “following your followers.” Use improv to discover the benefits of servant leadership. Understand the role of status in effective communication. Learn how to adjust your approach to match your objectives. An active, enlightening session for executives, managers, and team leaders at any level of your organization.
- Classy Customer Communication: Ideal for customer-facing teams. Sales and service are a public performance, and they demand top-quality communication skills. Improv helps you serve clients by building listening skills, flexibility, and a collaborative mindset.
- Speak Up with Improv: Get more comfortable with public speaking and business presentations using the tools of improv. You’ll tell better stories, know how to adapt your speech for any situation, and get presentation coaching from an actor and director with 25+ years in theatre. A fun, safe way to step out of your comfort zone and boost your skills.
- Crushing the Online Grind: Remote work is increasingly a legitimate option for business teams. But as we’ve all discovered, online communication is more difficult than it seems. We need to build new skills to promote engagement, productivity, and employee well-being. Improv can teach your team better ways of working together remotely.
- “Deep Dive” Skills Workshops: Develop specific communication skills with fun explorations of Active Listening, Collaboration & Teamwork, Co-Creativity, Spontaneity, Resilience, and many more topics.
- Extend Your Learning: For lasting results you’ve got to practice! I offer unique Top-Up Sessions to evaluate results, answer questions, and remove roadblocks to success.