I attended a training in contact improvisation recently and it got me thinking. Contact improvisation is a form of dance where you make contact with a partner, listen and see what happens. The results are often hugely enjoyable, sometimes athletic and chaotic and sometimes delicately intimate. Contact improv is often regarded as a “dance for dancers” as it explores some of the subtler aspects of human interaction.
I wonder what the business equivalent of contact improvisation would be? In a way it is analogous to any business interaction whether with customers, clients or with competitors. The normal approach is to come to any business interaction with an idea of a desired outcome or goal (e.g. sell a stress management training workshop). However, what is apparent form contact improv is that more interesting and more fruitful things occour spontaneously by listening and being with the contact. What would it be like to do this next time you are training, selling or receiving a complaint? This is a scary place to go as we want to control things to get what we want – I would claim that the paradox is that the more we try and do this the less we are able to respond to what is actually going on, be creative and therefore achieve anything. Be, not do again I guess…a hard one to put into practice.