Setting the Stage: Motorola offers a core set of programs to help leaders at all levels gain new skills and be more effective in their roles. They recently built a new, two-day program on change leadership for a specific leadership level. As part of the recurring program, they focused on helping participants learn three common styles for responding to change and how leaders can be more effective in managing their team through changes by recognizing their style and the styles of their team. While Motorola would be delivering most of the two days with internal facilitators, they were looking for a partner to help bring the change styles to life and give some additional skills to participants in the afternoon of the first day.

Playing our Part: We combined live improv skill building exercises with video to create a truly customized approach to helping the group become more effective leaders. To demonstrate the change styles in action, we created three short videos that used comedy to model behavior associated with each style and to show how perception can impact whether the styles work (or don’t work) together. We then integrated these videos into a three-hour session led by our facilitators that furthered the participants’ understanding of the change styles. At the same time, they learned improv skills focused on communicating, thinking on their feet, and responding successfully to change. The result was a highly interactive and focused afternoon that can be replicated every time the program is offered at Motorola. Feedback from participants ranged from “it was an action based way of learning some good ‘tools’ that I can immediately start to use with my team” to ” very much achieved the goal of forcing me to think differently and improve”.