It's not about well-rehearsed acting to bluff clients (like conventional management consultants).
Impro is about improvisation: having a deep reservoir of experiences and reference points, but no pre-planned templates; empathizing with the client's situation; thinking fast; being open-minded and creative; challenging received wisdom; pulling disparate ideas together; assembling a synthesis; embodying a story; imagining a solution; presenting difficult concepts smoothly; having conviction in your ideas; high risk tolerance; be convincing; be committed to doing what you say and implement what you imagine; create a technical solution, an operational scenario, a bottom-up deployment plan, and a path to win strategic acceptance based on results.
(I strongly suggested to every employee to take some into improv classes for the same reason. I didn’t want them to be better actors. I wanted them to be better listeners, which is what improv is really about)
Is it wrong to say that they are developing sociopaths in this fashion? Anyone ever read the book to say how it is applicable? If you were a client how would you feel about knowing that your interactions with your consultant were all an act?
“Being a successful FDE required an unusual sensitivity to social context – what you really had to do was partner with your corporate (or government) counterparts at the highest level and gain their trust, which often required playing political games.”
