Nobody performs alone: what opt-in means in improv training

Most buyers have the same thought somewhere between reading the sessions page and sending the enquiry, and they keep it to themselves. Will I have to perform? Or, more often, will the quiet person on my team, the one who will read the word "improv" in the invite and book a dentist's appointment for that afternoon. Improv training for introverts sounds like a contradiction to a lot of people, and what they are worried they are buying is forced participation.

It is a fair worry, and I would rather answer it here than have you carry it onto the call. Two rules answer it. They are said in the first two minutes of every session, and they are printed on the sessions page so you can check them before you book anything.

Two rules are said before anything else happens

Everyone takes part. Nobody performs alone.

The first rule is why group sizes are capped per facilitator, up to 25 with one. The cap is there so that nobody ends up sitting and watching, because a spectator gets nothing out of the session and knows it. There is no back row to go and sit in.

The second rule is the one the quiet person needs. Everything is played in pairs or small groups. There is no circle of people watching one person struggle, at any point in the two hours. The attention in the room stays spread across everybody, so what you get is a room doing something together rather than a room watching somebody do it.

Opt-in means you can sit a round out and rejoin

A lot of providers use the phrase opt-in, so I should say what it means here. Every exercise is a round. Anyone can sit a round out and rejoin when the next one starts. That holds from the first exercise to the last, and it is the same rule for the most senior person in the room as for the newest starter.

The first rule still stands, so nobody spends the two hours in a chair. Sitting a round out removes the moment where somebody feels cornered, and once that moment is gone most of the reason to sit out goes with it.

The order of exercises means the risk only rises when the group is ready

The other thing that keeps people comfortable is the order. The Taster opens with ten minutes of framing, then a physical, low-stakes exercise whose only job is to get people standing up and using each other's names. Listening comes next, in pairs. The scene work, and the work on recovering from mistakes, comes after the break, by which point the group has been on its feet for an hour and nothing bad has happened to anyone.

So the risk goes up only as people get more comfortable, and the first exercise is built for people who have never done anything like this. You do not have to take that on trust either, because the order is on the run sheet and you can read it before the day.

If you are the quiet person on the team

If you are reading this because you are the one who was going to book the dentist, this is what will happen.

Nobody will ask you to be funny. Comedy is not the instruction at any point. Nobody will ask you to stand up on your own and make something up while colleagues watch, and there is nothing to prepare or read beforehand, so there is nothing to have got wrong before you arrive. The first exercise is about names and the second is about listening, which is a thing quiet people in meetings are often already doing more of than anyone else.

You can sit a round out, and you can do it more than once. The fee comes back in full if the session does not land. That promise is made to the person who booked it, and you are a large part of who it is for.

Two formats where people do watch

There are two formats where the word watching is accurate, and you should know about both before the invite goes out.

The Experience, the full-day format, closes with a set where the team plays short scenes for each other. It is low pressure and it is opt-in, and by then the group has spent a day together, but it is still a closing set with the team watching, and it is better you know that from the description than find out after lunch.

The Management Lab is different again. Managers play scenarios in pairs with the rest of the room watching, and I say that at the start because it is what the session is for. The first hour builds up to it, in pairs and as a whole group, and anyone can sit a round out and rejoin. Nobody plays themselves, no real names are used, and feedback is about what a line did to the conversation, not about how anyone came across.

Neither of those is the Taster, and the Taster is where most teams start.

For the person booking it, put the two rules in the invite and add the third one about sitting a round out. The booking form asks about access needs and adjustments as standard, and the pre-call is where you can tell me about the person who is dreading it. There are four things worth knowing before you put this in front of your team, and they are on the about page. The second of them is what this piece has been about.