Lesson from Improv Comedy: Keep Your Goals in Perspective!
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Goals are tricky things. I think they are great, and they help people focus and motivate themselves. Without the right mindset, though, we can get caught up in goals and lose sight of the big picture. Some goals appear very straightforward, such as ‘Sell one hundred units of my product to Company X'. But is that goal straightforward? Let's put that aside for a moment.
Consider an improv comedy performance. My group plays a game called ‘Scenes Without the Letter ____.' in this game, the audience would provide a letter of the alphabet that the performers were not allowed to use in any word they said. The letter would always be a very common one such as ‘t' or ‘s.' If a performer used a word that contained that letter, he would be eliminated and replaced by a new performer. When done right, the game is fast, fun, and the audience has a great time.
What is the goal of this game? You might say, ‘to not say the letter the audience provides.' That in fact is not the goal. In a performance, the goal of any scene or game is to entertain the audience. Not saying the letter is just the method by which the performer achieves that goal. Performers often get so caught up in not saying the letter that they lose sight of the real goal. They end up not saying that letter for a long time, but they do it in a way that bores the audience. (If you've never seen performers pausing before they speak and speaking only one or two words at a time, let me tell you, it can move beyond boring to painful).
Let's now return to the straightforward goal example from the opening paragraph, ‘sell one hundred units of my product to Company X.' Is this the real goal? The goal of any business endeavor is to make money (for a nice book on this topic, read ‘The Goal' by Eliyahu M. Goldratt). Selling the product to Company X is just the means by which to achieve that goal. What if Company X has no use for the product, but they do need another service you offer? You might get so caught up in trying to sell the product you miss the other opportunity. Or what if Company X needs 1000 units of the product, but you are so fixated on selling 100 that you never discover that need? In a less obvious example, maybe Company X has no budget for the product, but a relationship with them will lead to future sales and referrals.
The easiest way to keep real goals in perspective is to make sure you can answer why you want to achieve them. Why do you want to not say the letter in an improv comedy scene? To entertain. Why do you want to sell to Company X? To make money.
Friedrich Nietzsche said, ‘He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.' Make sure you know your ‘whys' and keep your real goals in perspective.
Avish Parashar is a dynamic professional speaker who shows organizations and individuals how to get what they want using the Art and Science of improv comedy. He weaves together humorous stories, witty observations, and interactive exercises from improvisational comedy to get people laughing, learning, and motivated! Avish is most commonly called upon to deliver programs on Motivation, Sales, and Communication
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