Bob Kulhan is President, CEO, and Founder of Business Improv, an innovative consultancy that specializes in experiential learning and serves an international roster of blue-chip firms. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School.
A performer with over 20 years of stage credits, he has trained with a long list of legendary talents, including Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. An actor and former core faculty member in Chicago’s famed Second City and a member of the former resident company at the iO Theater,
Kulhan is a co-founder of the critically acclaimed Baby Wants Candy improv troupe. His work has been featured by such outlets as Big Think, CNN, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, the Financial Times, NPR, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal. Read More
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.
Here are my seven favorite books this year and what you can learn from each:
2. “Yes, and …” can make your workplace more resilient.
Bob Kulhan, founder of Business Improv, is as much a master improviser as he is a skilled businessman and his book, Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv, makes for a colorful and insightful read into the dynamics of improving workforce resiliency. Based on Kulhan’s decades of experience teaching the tenets improv to business leaders, the book explains how acceptance and adaptability — two of the main tenets of improv — are essential to ensuring smoothness of day-to-day functioning within an organization and its teams. Teaching momentary situational analysis, snap decision making and workplace camaraderie makes this book an excellent read for any manager looking to build a great team.
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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
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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.”
This probably isn’t the first think Bob Kulhan had in mind when he wrote Getting to “Yes And”, but here’s my first response: this book demonstrates exactly what we have lost in the general education of America as we set aside the arts for budgetary concerns. Seriously, you are working through an entire book written by actor/comedian about how to apply the same tools from drama/comedy improv to your business and see how things change and improve. If we would have been teaching and encouraging arts all along, the need would be very different
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Office Hours with Jeff DeGraff is a video series where the Dean of Innovation interviews thought leaders on the broad subject of innovation. These thought leaders come from various background but all share insight from their personal and professional experience that can be adapted to foster innovation either in a business setting or in your personal lives.
In this episode, Jeff interviews Bob Kulhan, founder of Business Improv. Together, they discuss how improv can have huge benefits on everyday life, and how it helps spark creativity.
Utilizing improv techniques for business can help improve creativity, collaboration, and innovation. On today’s episode, we are here with Bob Kulhan. He’s an author, and he helps business thrive through the process of improv. He also talks about the cornerstone of improv and how it lets you connect and engage with people, which results in positive relationships and positive outcomes. Remember, Improvisation is a great tool for business people to use for a variety of different means. Read More
Author, professor and actor Bob Kulhan recently visited Fidelity Investments to lead an improvisation workshop as part of the Fidelity Labs Design Thinking Seminar Series. Bob is the founder, CEO and president of Business Improv, a corporate training and development company that helps cultivate leadership and communication skills through techniques used in improvisational acting.
Bob has written a new book, “Getting to ‘Yes And’ The Art of Business Improv,” and I had the pleasure to sit down with him to talk more about what “yes and” means and how it can be applied to business.
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One of the best decisions I ever made for my career was to take an improvisation comedy class. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up studying and graduating from The Second City school in Toronto. When I moved from Toronto to Ireland, I formed an improv troupe and provided improv for business training. Nowadays, I am thrilled to perform with Nashville Improv.
Whether you are attending a networking event or conference, presenting to your board of directors, pitching investors or new clients, or interacting with industry peers, there is something for every person in improv.
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