A Simply Activity to Better Engage Staff

By Beth Boynton 

Integrating improv activities into your day to day work can be part of an organizational development effort to boost to morale, improve communication skills, build positive relationships and cultures.

Today we're exploring an incredibly simple activity called “I am”.

If you are willing to take 10 minutes out of a staff meeting, clinical inservice, orientation process or other, you will build positive relationships and promote assertiveness and listening skills! Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this activity as the results can be profound!

Discovering “I am”
This exercise is simple and promotes trust, self-awareness, empathy, and communication skills. By making time for “I am” in your meeting, you will help staff practice assertiveness and listening while inviting people to get to know each other a little better. 

How to Teach “I am”
On a piece of paper, have staff complete the sentence, “I am _____________” three times.

Tell them they will be sharing with 2-3 others in the group. Give them examples:
“I am excited about this meeting.”
“I am stressed about our new EMR.”
“I am hungry.” 

Give the group 5 minutes or so to complete and then instruct them to share with 2-3 others over the next few minutes. 

Facilitation Tips

• Encourage participants to spent equal time sharing their “I ams” and listening to those of others. 
• Be patient with the initial quietness of this activity. People tend to be tentative at first, yet within a minute or two all sorts of conversations emerge.
• If your group is large use a bell or other signal to wrap up their conversations.
• If time allows or your priorities warrant debrief with questions:

1. What do you think about this improv exercise?
2. Can you describe any learning related to emotional intelligence or communication skills?
3. Is, and if so how, is this activity helpful to the team?​

What do you notice about this activity?  Was it easy to teach?  Did people seem to have fun? Even some who might groan a little?  

There is a lot more to applied improv than meets the eye!

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