When it comes to arranging a professional development or team building workshop, companies often know what they want. There is less certainty, however, about how to evaluate the facilitators and event planning companies that offer to provide improv team building facilitators.
I am a strong proponent of bringing improv into the workplace, because I have extensive first hand experience with the infectiously fun and undeniably effective power such workshops can provide. However, without mincing words, I know of many corporate clients who have booked improv based workshops and been sorely disappointed with the results. Team building workshops can be financially expensive, but even more costly to your reputation if delivered in a less than professional or effective fashion.
Over the last 15 years in the field, I’ve noticed several telltale signs that you can use to separate excellent improv based workshop providers from less polished or committed options.
Here are 8 must ask questions when evaluating companies like The Radical Agreement Project for your next event. These questions are written from a client's perspective so that you can simply repeat them to providers you are in conversation with. Following each question are some thoughts on what you should want to hear in response along with answers from The Radical Agreement Project.
ONE: How long has the instructor you would send me been teaching improv and where have they been teaching it?
The facilitator is the product you are purchasing when you book an improv based workshop, so it is fair to ask how much experience the facilitator has in the given area. If you are paying a premium rate for your workshop (let's say over $1,000), you should expect a facilitator with years of experience to directly lead your event, rather than someone who has only dabbled in improv. It is more common than you might imagine for an event planning company or improv theater to send a relatively fresh (less than three years experience) improv instructor to your event.
At The Radical Agreement Project (RA) we only use workshop facilitators who are “Teacher-Level” improv instructors. A “Teacher-Level” improv instructor is someone who has been selected to teach improv at a major improv school, such as Second City, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, The Hideout Theatre or The Groundlings. You can’t secure a position as an improv teacher at such schools without first having studied improv for years with thousands (yes really, thousands) of hours practicing improv exercises in a studio setting.
More than that, reputable improv schools like the ones I listed, will not allow an individual to teach improv until they have successfully coached students for hundreds of additional hours. For this reason, the instructor(s) The Radical Agreement Project (RA) will send you for your event will truly be subject matter experts-- not only masters at explaining, leading and providing feedback on exercises, but also highly skilled at navigating the small group dynamics of an interactive workshop. Such skills often determine whether a workshop is successful or underwhelming.
If a provider offers an instructor with less than 3 years of teaching experience, then it may be a sign that they aren’t taking the quality of your event seriously. After all, if they haven't hired the instructor in question to teach improv to their students, why should you bring them in to teach your team?
TWO: Can I read a bio for the instructor you would send me before committing to your company?
The answer to this question should be yes. If a company does not have a bio for the instructor in question that specifically addresses their experience leading workplace improv events, it is a sign that the company in question may send you an unqualified instructor.
The Radical Agreement Project always makes the online bios of our instructors available to our clients before finalizing a contract. For example, this bio of our expert improv instructor based in Austin, TX who leads many of our workshops in the Austin, Houston and San Antonio markets. Bios allow clients to understand who they are hiring, the level of expertise they will bring and there are no surprises.
A provider might respond to this question with “Let me get back to you” and that’s a perfectly fine response. It means they are checking with their instructors for availability and that they don’t want to misrepresent who is available to you. It’s a good sign.
You will of course want to check any bios provided for credentials similar to those described in the previous section.
THREE: What exercises will you teach in the workshop? Can you provide a description?
This is a natural question and perhaps the most commonly asked one besides, "How much do you charge?". Because of that, if a provider cannot easily provide a few sample exercises that would be used in the workshop, take it as a worrisome sign.
RA has an online library of common exercises used in our corporate workshops maintained here. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to browse through the exercises to get a feel for how professionally applied improv exercises are designed and thought of by experienced facilitators.
Note that the exercises are not just descriptions of how any given exercise is played, but instead include physical space and group requirements, variations and most importantly, learning takeaways tailored for specific learning goals (for example, team building, communication and agility).
This is how any write up you receive should generally look and feel. Maybe not everything would be the same, but the write ups on the RA site are not just simple games for actors; they have been tailored in order to have application to the development of professional skills. That's what you want to look for.
FOUR: Can I see reviews or a list of references from past corporate workshop engagements?
Though rarely asked for, reviews and references are one of the most surefire ways to evaluate the professionalism and effectiveness of a workshop facilitator or provider. A service provider that cannot provide a good number of reviews or references is not much of an option at all.
Be sure to ask for reviews not just for the provider broadly, but for their work in facilitating improv based professional development workshops. For example, RA’s Google Business listing has almost 100 positive reviews, but if you look closely you’ll notice that many of these are for our free online workshops, multi session classes for aspiring comedians or our touring college shows, while only a few are for our corporate engagements. On the other hand, you can find reviews of RA’s work midway down our Improv @ Work page that are specific to our corporate engagements and nothing else.
Many improv team building providers are improv theaters or schools that will take corporate training work when it comes, but are not actually passionate about or prepared for such work. This is why a provider might have many reviews that are very positive, that are nonetheless, entirely unrelated to the service you are interested in.
References that include past client's names, companies and contact information, should be available on request, as RA’s are.
FIVE: Can you send me a promo video?
Filming, editing and polishing a professional promo video is hard work and if a provider hasn’t bothered to create one (as RA has) you have to wonder why? If they are cutting corners on marketing, will they cut corners when it comes to preparing an excellent event for you?
The same is true for all other basic marketing assets: A well designed website, exercise write ups, blog posts explaining their services and of course, the time honored but essentially useless (these days) business cards. If a provider has skipped any of these steps it is only natural to wonder what else might be glossed over under their less than watchful eye.
True story, I knew a really great improv instructor who didn’t believe in putting any work into marketing; he preferred simply to provide excellent workshops. And he was a really great instructor so I could understand his point of view. He would also show up to corporate engagements wearing, I kid you not, old sweat shorts and t-shirts with the sleeves ripped off.
If your reputation at work matters to you, it is probably worth finding someone who believes in putting their best foot forward.
SIX: What advice would you have for preparing my team or office space for an improv based workshop?
This is a big one. If a provider hasn’t put thought into these questions they either are unaware how important they are due to inexperience or they simply don’t care how their corporate engagements unfold (again, way more common than you might think).
RA has put the thought in and always shares this blog post with clients before an event. If possible, we also push for a production meeting before the event to review best practices on both of these fronts. Since I have already written extensively on these topics in the aforementioned blog post, I won’t repeat myself here, but having an invested and experienced partner for workshop prep is important.
SEVEN: Can I have a meeting with my workshop facilitator before my workshop?
At RA the answer is yes! All clients are entitled to a 30 minute prep call with their instructor and if there is reason for it, they can have multiple calls/meetings with their instructor.
I wont say making an instructor available to a client is required for you to feel comfortable about a provider, as do believe some excellent providers might balk at this request. But it is a fair way to separate the absolute best providers from the rest. I’ll also say, direct calls between facilitators and clients is one of the most effective ways I've found to ensure a high workshop quality on the day of the event.
EIGHT: Can I be a part of the curriculum building process for my event?
At RA, again the answer is yes! This is another question that I wouldn’t say is dispositive. I do think it is possible for a good improv workshop provider to turn down this request. After all, unless you are an improviser yourself, how helpful can you be in creating an improv based workshop curriculum?
Still, I have had several clients ask me for an extra level of transparency and access: a renowned doctor at John’s Hopkins, a passionate manager at Meta and an L&D expert at an advertising firm.
I’ve never been disappointed by the results. In fact, I recently wrote about the results of collaborating intensely with a client on an agility workshop here.
So again, not dispositive, but if your provider is willing to take this extraordinary step in order to earn your business, then it is a very good sign that they will deliver an excellent workshop for you and your team.
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