Improv! Corporate Workshops was created when the founders realized that organizations thrive on the same skills used by improvisational theater and improv comedy players.

Good improv players master these skills:

Listening Presenting Creative Thinking Problem Solving Conflict Resolution Risk Taking Teamwork Leadership

Prior to 2003, workshops taught by ImprovJacksonville’s Creative Director Scott Abrams were for individuals seeking to improve their skills, or to become an improv comedy player.

Scott, Management Consultant John Bryan, ImprovJacksonville Marketing Manager Al Emerick and Management Consultant Jim Dixon of Performance Consulting, Inc., developed a series of workshops that teach employees and managers the skills used in improv theater.

The First Customers

The first customer, daniel, Inc., requested a workshop as part of daniel’s annual management retreat. The workshop was so well received that daniel’s leaders hired the improv team to do a workshop for all one-hundred twenty employees. Later daniel, Inc. requested two more workshops for specific groups of staff members within the organization.

The satisfied managers of daniel, Inc. referred the second customer, the Nemours Hospital Children’s Oncology Department. The twenty-six attendees were experiencing a lot of stress, and were just looking for something fun to break the constant tension in their workplace. This event taught the facilitators the real power of their new improv workshops.

Shortly afterward, one Nemours employee said that it had “totally transformed how we work together.” Beyond just having a lot of fun, participants learned to value each other in new ways. They developed new skills that made everyone more effective together in the workplace.

Workshops & More Workshops!

When the SuperBowl came to Jacksonville, the improv team worked with the Jacksonville Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and Florida Community College Jacksonville to provide customer service training. They worked with the hotel, restaurant and transportation employees who got high survey marks for outstanding service during the event. They also developed a program for Team AllTel, the game-day vendors, employees and managers who served up to 75,000 Jaguars football fans on Sundays during a recent football season.

Organizations all over Northeast Florida have asked Improv! Corporate Workshops to create and deliver programs customized just for their needs. Workshops are for small and large groups of employees, for leadership teams, for multi-company events and for staff development day programs involving six hundred employees. Companies have hired them to deliver multiple workshops over a period of time, and have embedded the improv training in their leadership development workshops.

In addition to the original skill-based programs above, the workshop lineup now includes:

	Customer Service
	Sales Training and Reinforcement
	Change and Growth Management,
	Diversity Reality
	Competitive Edge Connections

The Enablers - We Make it Better

We can help with the implementation of major organizational initiatives. These are always tricky - success can mean huge rewards in the marketplace. Failure...the results are often equally big, and devastating.

Improv! Corporate Workshops supports the introduction of major corporate initiatives. We can also assist efforts at the midpoint, when momentum is slowing, enthusiasm lags and the program needs something truly different and effective to catch fire again.

The workshops always include healthy doses of teambuilding, laughter and self-discovery. Lessons learned are always related back to the workplace.