Have you ever been in a business meeting or situation and found yourself thinking about what you were going to say next, instead of actively listening? Do those conversations end up building trust between you and the others? These scenarios cease to be a problem when you are trained in Business Improvisation®
Bob Kulhan has been helping business people understand and react more successfully for over 20 years, using his skills in improv.
He was a member of Chicago’s famed Second City acting group and has performed in the iO and Annoyance Theaters, as well as the PIT in New York City.
In our interview, Bob explains his technique of, Yes, And, explained in his book, “Getting To YES And-The Art of Business Improv.” The phrase, Yes, and, is the cornerstone of improvisation. For example, in a sales conversation, rather than being satisfied with a No answer, or an objection to your presentation, simply respond with, Yes, And — what can we do to make our product work for you? Always keep the client engaged and let them tell you what they need and explain how you can fill that need. Read More
The things that make improvisational comedy work are often the same things that make a new company successful
This year, our shelves were packed with books profiling the personal and enterprise effects of globalization in the new economy. Covering topics as wide as how to improve workplace resiliency through improv comedy to reimagining corporate hiring strategies to leverage the gig economy, seven of my favorites lent sharp new insight into the direction of the labor market and enterprise’s response to it.
As Bob Kulhan points out in his book, busy executives are turning to the most unlikely sources to gain a competitive advantage. One of those unlikely sources is improvisational theater. While you might assume these executives are trying to get some much-needed comedic relief, Bob Kulhan points to something deeper. There is a talent present in good improv actors that he believes business leaders can tap into for powerful results. That talent is the subject and focus of Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv
Well, this one’s a bit different from the usual fare of Bible materials and such. I’m working on broadening my horizons. Bob Kulhan’s book definitely stretched my thought processes. One thing we don’t do well in established churches is improv. Whether you leave it like that or add an “e.”
Bob Kulhan is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration for The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University as well as an Adjunct Professor of Business for Columbia Business School, Columbia University. He also is the Founder and CEO of a company called Business Improv.
I walked slowly across the room, stretched out my arms and said “hot frying pan” to a man I didn’t know. That man acted as if I’d passed him an imaginary skillet, pretended to feel its heat and passed the cookware to someone else.
Having run a short training session based on improv with my own team many years ago (where we focused on the concept of ‘yes and’) I was immediately attracted by the title. It’s impossible not to smile when you read this book. Whether it is the ‘Eights’ exercise or celebrating ridiculous ideas, “Yes And” will remind you how to have fun at work – and as a result I’m convinced your business will be more effective. 
In the early morning of May 2, 2011, a team of Navy SEALS invaded a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and killed Osama Bin Laden. As author Bob Kulhan writes in his book, Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv, “the mission had been meticulously planned: the SEALS trained for it over months and several contingency plans were developed and put into place.” Unfortunately, during the raid, one of the team’s helicopters crashed. In addition, “the SEALS discovered that the intelligence they’d based their plans on was not entirely accurate,” he writes. “There were a number of unknown variables (how many people they would encounter, the types of people, the weapons, the doors and hallways, etc.). So they had to improvise.” 
Most of us aspire to be great leaders—passionate, inspiring, thoughtful and productive. But we all know people in the business world who do a terrible job in leadership positions: awful bosses, disengaged department heads, ineffective team managers, and otherwise bad bigwigs in nice offices who make the work environment an unpleasant one.
WHPC host Bill Horan talks with Bob Kulhan, author of Getting To Say Yes and The Art of Business Improv about what improv has to do with business and how saying “yes and” instead of “yes but” can make a big difference.
As the owner of a shipping company in Puyallup, Washington, Pavel Vosk didn’t realize how little he understood his demographic until he had to 
Drawing on his early career as an improv comic and his current experience as business trainer, CEO, and college teacher, Bob Kulhan offers a far-reaching lesson on how we can use mental agility and respectful communication to improve organizational outcomes and culture. At first, Kulhan’s strong voice and high energy seem too dramatic, and some of the writing too bloated and cute. But one is quickly engaged by this master class on how to be phenomenally effective in communicating to and influencing people in work groups. Drawing on research in social and cognitive psychology and communication science, just one of his many valuable messages is that people become more authentically engaged when prevailing views are respected (“YES”) prior to adding new ideas (“AND”) to any discussions. T.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine 
Rasmus Hougaard is the founder and managing director of the Potential Project, author of 
Collaboration, as many MBA students quickly learn, is key in a business environment. For four 
Bob Kulhan, author, actor, and CEO of Business Improv, as well as adjunct professor at Duke and Columbia business schools, joins Steve to talk about what business people can learn from practicing techniques borrowed from the world of improvisation. Bob has worked with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and has taught for many years at Second City, Chicago’s legendary comedy club and talent incubator. While he’s gone on to help countless businesses improve their communication cultures via corporate training programs staged by Business Improv, his insights and practices could arguably be used by just about anyone, whether to become more productive in business or for relationships overall.
Each month we compile a list of our top selling books. These books are featured on our site, within our Keen Thinker Newsletter, and syndicated through various publications. We hope the popularity of these titles offers guidance for those seeking an interesting and helpful new book. We report our bestsellers to The New York Times and Nielsen BookScan. Congratulations to these bestselling authors for February 2017! 
I’m the first to admit I don’t do well at thinking and responding quickly, but I greatly admire people who can—especially when they can be witty at the same time. And, sure, I love to watch Whose Line is It, Anyway?, so maybe I came into this book with the sort of misconceptions that the author wanted to dispel about the idea of improv in business. And I may still be a little bit disappointed that the book was not just full of improv games to play in some sort of team-building activity. However, after dispelling my preconceptions, the author does deliver what was promised: a solid system for using principles of improv to achieve your best performance in business. 
Why are business executives paying thousands for improv experts like Bob Kulhan? Besides possibly getting a much-needed laugh and chance to connect, these leaders know improvisation develops mental agility that powers athletes, soldiers, and others to stay focused amid the chaos. Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv”, written by an improv master who successfully brought improv to the business school at Duke University, helps leaders use that superpower to excel in leadership.
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Status is powerful. Once a team gets working, any initial willingness to communicate can go right out the window if nobody feels comfortable disagreeing with the VP at the end of the table, or the new junior salesperson who might have something to say.
One of the keys to success in any business lies in the ability to generate a tremendous amount of ideas, because when it comes down to it, almost every organization is, at heart, in the idea business. This is not a revolutionary concept. However, what often is overlooked—or simply misunderstood—is that the generation of great ideas is a numbers game. Businesses ostensibly are always looking for killer ideas that will boost profits and cut costs; ideas that streamline processes and maximize investments; and ideas that will have significant impact in the marketplace. To get to those killers, though, a business may have to cough up a mess of ideas that are ridiculous, budget busting, unusable, or simply awful.
As an entrepreneur, you have to improvise and adapt quickly to survive and thrive in the face of the unpredictable challenges of the market. But this improvisation a not a comedy, although there are some distinct correlations, in relation to reacting, adapting, and communicating. In business and in comedy, you win most often with “Yes, and …” instead of “Yes, but ….”
2017 is opening with a stack of new and helpful books on technology, transformation, and the human and business challenges faced by creative leaders. Here is a list of 17 recommended titles.
Colleagues who make others laugh are seen as more 
You won’t find giggles in this script for mastering business improvisation by Second City alumnus Bob Kulhan. A skills-focused walkthrough to “allow serious people to accomplish serious business in the most effective way,” the book shows how improv draws on communication science like behavioral decision theory.
Bob Kulhan, a veteran improv comedian and instructor who also happens to be an adjunct professor at Duke and Columbia Universities, has built a thriving consultancy, 
