Mercado uses improv theater techniques to bring out leadership qualities and strengthen team spirit among employees. —LYN RILLON
So what’s a group of silly people doing in a corporate setting with 9 to 5 types?
Training them to be silly, of course!
But take note, “laughter is not the objective,” says Silly People Improv Theater (SPIT) founder Gabe Mercado who leads fellow SPIT members in corporate team-building exercises using the conventions of their onstage craft.
It’s not a new idea, acknowledges Mercado, who adds that using improv theater to bring out leadership qualities and strengthen team spirit among employees has been trending worldwide since 2005.
“Corporate culture has been changing,” he observes, with leadership becoming “more fluid and collaborative.” From the physically rigorous adventure camps of previous years with its emphasis on tribal or “survival” type competition, team-building exercises now stress risk-taking and thinking on one’s feet.
But when used to enhance corporate culture, improv theater doesn’t mean dropping one-liners or doing comedy routines, clarifies Mercado.
“In fact, we don’t want to call it comedy, a word that often implies making jokes at somebody’s expense,” he says.
SPIT corporate sessions, he adds, demonstrate how some constants in Improv Theater can be applied to workplace situations.
Constants
One constant is accepting and building, says Mercado. “Never say ‘no’ when your stage partner starts off with a line, or when your work colleague puts out an idea. Just let it run, don’t block it. Now when that idea is being implemented and you find flaws or limitations, that’s when you should speak out,” he says.
Such acceptance breeds encouragement, he adds.
Mercado further explains: “In a corporate setting, this means you should look for something positive, something you like in an idea and then you build on it. Contribute something. The creative process then becomes more collaborative and enjoyable because you integrate many ideas and contributions. Explore, accept, curate. Rank the ideas and choose. Sometimes even the dumbest member of the group can come up with a good idea.”
Another constant in improv theater: Don’t be afraid to be average.
Says Mercado: “Don’t be pressured to always be brilliant with each idea. The pyramids were built with average stones, a lot of average stones. Go for team work rather than being the lone genius.”
A third constant: Make your partner look good. “This is what sets apart improv from stand-up comedy, where you perform alone. Improv, on the other hand, is collaboration. You work as a team with a partner, so there should be respect.
Walang laglagan. (Don’t throw your partner under the bus). Work together so you’d both look good,” says Mercado.
SPITTING IT OUT. Silly People dishing it out every Thursday night at Commune Cafe in Poblacion, Makati
More spontaneity
For Robert Gonzales, who’s in charge of training at the Globe University, improvisation “presents a different point of view in developing a service personality.”
Gonzales met Mercado at the annual Globe Leader Summit in 2014.
As a resource person at the event, Mercado used improv exercises to illustrate how to build relationships, mindfulness and humility as part of the telecom company’s avowed goal of Service Excellence.
Says Gonzales: “[Instead of a] structured and scripted way of serving customers, improvisation encourages a more spontaneous, being-in-the-moment kind of service giver, those who are always on their toes to decipher how to effectively help a customer.”
In corporations, he adds, “we often use our left brain to solve problems. But by using improv, we also utilize our right brain to have a more wholistic thinking in dealing with the problem.”
The improv exercises that the SPIT group did “sent a strong message to our leaders and employees that when we do service, we are dealing with human beings, not just numbers or statistics. [Thus] we see our leaders and frontliners dealing with customers in a more relational manner,” says Gonzales.
Mercado, the face of the Yakult “Okay ka ba, tiyan?” TV commercials, started stage acting with PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association), where he was introduced to applied theater through workshop games and exercises.
His most memorable role, however, was as special assistant to the late broadcaster June Keithley at the guerrilla Radyo Bandido during the uncertain hours of what would become the Edsa People Power revolt of 1986.
Only 13 at the time, Mercado and older brother, Paulo, 15, were part of the volunteer network under Fr. James B. Reuter, who were tasked with collating political and military information from listeners monitoring the tense situation at Camp Crame where the prospect of being bombed by loyalist troops was a constant among the people massing up on Edsa.
Mercado, an Interdisciplinary Studies graduate at the Ateneo, also found that his background at Tanghalang Ateneo served him well.
“It was there that I learned that acting skills can be taught, but that it’s harder to find people who are open-minded and collaborative,” he says.
In 2002, he founded SPIT and has not looked back since.
The group has used the conventions of Improv Theater in social situations where crucial information needed to be communicated quickly and survival skills mastered posthaste.
Post-“Yolanda,” improv helped change attitudes and get survivors into a collaborative frame of mind, says Mercado.
Third World Improv
SPIT, a pool of 15 performers, has since put up a school, Third World Improv. Its 7 classes have a total of 64 students, from 14 to 50 years old.
A live performance in a public venue serves as the culminating event for students of the classes held three hours a week for eight weeks.
But does improv always work in a corporate setting?
“Like most metrics, we measure success by first having clear, realistic and time-bound objectives,” says the actor. “But the best measure is for the client to ask at the end of the session: Do I feel more confident and equipped [to cope with my job?]”
So far, says Mercado, the most receptive clients they’ve had are those from the engineering and manufacturing sectors, “people who do everything by the number,” and are pleasantly surprised that they can still be creative within a rigid structure.
On the other hand, the hardest clients to pull into the spirit of improv are those from very competitive professions, like banking and finance, says Mercado.
But Filipinos are quite the trooper, observes this single adoptive parent.
“When we do improv team building and training and the principals are foreigners, they demand a lot of analysis and processing of the experience. What’s the objective? How is this going to help? It’s about 90 percent exercises, with little actual performance,” he says.
With Filipino principals, however, there’s only one question asked: “Can we peform?”