IMPROV YOUR WORK

Embrace the Shake

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:46:31 -0400

Embrace the Shake

Toronto lawyers do improv to help with their communication skills

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:16:13 -0500

Toronto lawyers do improv to help with their communication skills:

Toronto lawyers learn skills from the strange and wonderful world of The PIT Improv Workshops. Moaning, funny walks, strange situations: tools to help communicate.

“THE...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:19:23 -0400

“THE EAVESDROPPER”

www.ImprovYourLife.com

www.ThePIT-NYC.com

digitalspark: Six techniques to learn … for improving your...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:10:19 -0400

digitalspark:

Six techniques to learn … for improving your creativity and innovation.

The ones that work best for me are merging ideas, sketching notes, and thinking opposites.

“THE DISEASE...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 09:53:34 -0400

“THE DISEASE BUCKET”

www.ImprovYourWork.com

www.ThePIT-NYC.com

Don’t Judge

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:54:11 -0400

Don’t Judge

American Bar Association Journal Mention!

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:05:02 -0400

American Bar Association Journal Mention!:

We just got the first mention in the ABA Journal for our Improv CLE!

Be Yourself?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:41:57 -0400

Be Yourself?

NEW PIT CARTOON BLOG: "COWORKERS WE HATE"

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:52:06 -0400

NEW PIT CARTOON BLOG: "COWORKERS WE HATE":

“Coworkers We Hate” are cartoons that capture the images of coworkers that are universally hated by other coworkers. Click “Who Do You Hate?” to submit your own dreaded coworker stereotype and we will turn it into a “Coworkers We Hate” Cartoon!

Largest Law Firm Collapse in US History

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:10:43 -0400

Quoted from NYTimes.com:

Several of the largest firms have adopted business strategies that Dewey embraced: unfettered growth, often through mergers; the aggressive poaching of lawyers from rivals by offering outsize pay packages; and a widening spread between the salaries of the firm’s top partners and its most junior ones.

These trends, they say, have destroyed the fabric of a law firm partnership, where a shared sense of purpose once created willingness to weather difficult times. Many large firms have discarded the traditional notions of partnership — loyalty, collegiality, a sense of equality — and instead transformed themselves into bottom-line, profit-maximizing businesses.

“Because the partnership lacks any shared cultural values or history, money becomes the core value holding the firm together,” said William Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University who studies law firms. “Money is weak glue.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/dewey-leboeuf-files-for-bankruptcy/

"Creativity is all about courage."

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:24:01 -0400

“Creativity is all about courage.”

- Lyn Heward (via someonesnotebook)

anonymousmethod: be yourself

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:50:29 -0400

anonymousmethod:

be yourself

classroomcollective: Fraction Match: Egg Style!

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:28:19 -0400

classroomcollective:

Fraction Match: Egg Style!

Public Speaking ~Taren Sterry

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:31:07 -0400

I love teaching public speaking. I love it when students come into the classroom with different challenges and we get to work on them one by one and yet learn from each other. The best thing about being a teacher is leaving a class and having the feeling that I’ve actually been able to help someone today because of my own past experiences with public speaking. Hopefully, that makes us both better people and speakers, for tomorrow.

Everyone focuses on the fear around public speaking. I try to focus on the fun. We can be afraid of lots of things in life: relationships, finances, risk, change. But if we approach these things from a curious, rather than a trepidatious standpoint, we open some room for new experiences and then perhaps, for some success. For instance, on first date, if we go into it expecting Jeremy to complement us, ask us about our careers and pay for our dinner, and he doesn’t do any of those things, we might consider this a “failure” and complain about this to our friends. Or, we can consider what we learned from the situation. What did we complement Jeremy on? What did we learn about his career? Why did we expect him to pay? Maybe Jeremy is broke, afterall. (Or a third wave feminist trying to honor you?) Prolly not, but maybe!

The challenge we’re dealing with here is expectation. Expectation is a killer in public speaking. When we expect things to go a certain way and they don’t, we get disappointed and thrown off our game. The laptop runs out of juice, people stare at you weird, your boss shows up unexpectedly, no one asks questions at the Q&A portion, you sweat, you shake, you suddenly remember when Jennifer Hurnblad said in 7^th grade that it looked like you peed your pants in front of everyone and you almost died of humiliation. Why did you just think of that right now? What are you supposed to be doing? Oh my god, you are talking about the budget right now and while you were thinking about Jennifer Hurnblad and have no idea what you been talking about for the last…10 minutes??!!

In Improv Your Public Speaking we focus on staying in the moment, connecting with your audience, remaining present and having fun. We bring back up handouts to prepare for faulty laptops, we practice thinking quickly on our feet so that we can go off script and then get quickly back on to stay on track, we work on what to do whether you have a raucous crowd or quiet audience, and finally, we figure out how to all of this while having FUN.

If you struggle with any public speaking challenges, take the class!! See you at the PIT!!

TAREN STERRY is a writer and performer in NYC. Her current play, 180 Days, is in its fourth extended sold out run at Stage Left Studio. Taren performed improv at the PIT for three years with Fancy Dragon and Tomahawk! Taren is a 2008 Manhattan Monologue Slam Winner and wrote, produced and starred in the totally hilarious “Totes Hilare.” In 2009, Taren was a winning model on Bravo’s The Fashion Show (long story). Taren can be seen every month performing original material at Stage Left Studio and teaches improv at the The PIT.

"FEAR IS THE LOCK AND LAUGHTER THE KEY TO YOUR HEART"

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:28:37 -0400

““FEAR IS THE LOCK AND LAUGHTER THE KEY TO YOUR HEART””

- ~CS&N

blackswanyoga: 5 communication tips to get what you want and...

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:31:13 -0400

blackswanyoga:

5 communication tips to get what you want and change the world

"The creative adult is the child who has survived."

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:32:08 -0400

““The creative adult is the child who has survived.””

- ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

Better communication can do wonderful things, like double your business

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:20:47 -0400

safzath:

This post is brought to you by Citrix GoToMeeting. Any company in the world that is doing business right now already knows that the Internet can make or break them…. http://dlvr.it/1XGCJz

Tips on innovation

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:17:20 -0400

Tips on innovation:

howtobemorecreative:

“Business leaders” taking a leaf from “the way that designers solve probelms”

Question. Don’t just ask the obvious questions. Look deeper and don’t be afraid to rethink basic fundamentals about your business and products.
Care. Caring doesn’t just mean giving great customer service. Get to know your customers as intimately as possible. Immerse yourself in the lives of the people you are trying to serve.
Connect. Find ways to bring together concepts, people, and products. Many great breakthroughs are “mash-ups” of existing ideas.
Commit. Give form to your idea as quickly as possible: create a prototype and begin testing it right away. This is the only way to know if you’ve touched on something truly promising.

A couple more tidbits in this article listed below. What’s nice about these it that they are ripped from their linked sources, so if you find them particularly interesting, go nuts and read more.

Three ways to help your company snap out of it

Forget breakthroughs, take innovation baby steps

Convince others to embrace risk

Use constraint to instigate innovation

From the Harvard Business Review

revoltfactory: C&A displays Facebook fashion Likes Facebook...

Wed, 09 May 2012 12:26:05 -0400

revoltfactory:

C&A displays Facebook fashion Likes

Facebook likes displayed in realtime on hangers in a C&A storie in Sao Paolo

(via Adverblog)