Wool&Prince Founder Finds Value in Applied Improv from CSz

Mac Bishop, CEO and Founder of Portland’s Wool&Prince, writes about his company’s experience with our Basic Improv Skills Workshop:

I’d like to share our recent team building experience. We hired an improv coach (Patrick from CSz Portland) to guide us in a workshop. I had a vague idea what improv was, but mostly based it on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Patrick was great at setting the stage. He talked about how improv is built on “Yes, And” — the idea that you accept whatever your partner has said or done, and then you add to it. It’s not about being funny; it’s about making the other person look good.

We did several exercises that got us out of our comfort zones and into a space of experimentation and collaboration. One of the most powerful concepts was the “Spotlight Effect.” We tend to believe that others notice and care about our mistakes far more than they actually do. If only we could treat ourselves as generously as we treat others when they make mistakes.

By the end of the workshop, my jaw hurt from smiling so much and it ended up being one of the most rewarding Wool&Prince experiences I’ve had in ten years. Perhaps it was the last two years of minimal group activities due to COVID or that we went into the event with mixed expectations, or what it actually was — just an incredible shared experience of growth, laughter, and team building.

View Mac’s original post (and learn more about the great clothing) from Wool&Prince here.