<\/p>\n
We talked to Jennifer Longden, lead HR in a Fintech company as well as a Drama graduate. She talked to us about how improv changed her direction in life as well as how it\u2019s changed her perception of work.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I currently work as the lead HR in a Fintech company. These days I love my job but before I <\/span>started working in HR, I did a drama degree.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After my degree, I wondered what to do with myself. I didn\u2019t think I was good enough to be an actress as I didn\u2019t have the confidence, so for a while I played at being a producer. I set up a company with my friends and got arts council funding.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, in the background I was considering a job in HR. There was a recession and I needed a roof over my head. Before I knew it I was doing my CIPD.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I knew in my stomach I didn\u2019t want to do it. I was working against myself and that\u2019s the way it was for the best part of 10 years. Then I was made redundant.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve got to live my best life and it\u2019s got to happen now<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was really unhappy with who I was and what I was doing. I googled comedy and improv came up. I thought it looked like a bit of me, so a signed up to do a course. I\u2019d always loved playing characters, so my teacher recommended that I train to be a longform improviser so I could really focus on playing characters onstage. I tried it and I was hooked.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The night before my first longform performance, a friend of mine passed away. He was someone like me who spent a lot of time focused on his career and not focused on what he really enjoyed. He died at 47.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought to myself, I can\u2019t do the same thing. I\u2019ve got to live my best life and it\u2019s got to happen now.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The night of the performance, I was grieving a lot. My laughter during the warm-ups became tears. I shook myself up in the toilets before the show started and ended up having a killer performance. The emotions were so intense that I thought to myself: if improv can make you feel that good when you feel like crap, this is like magic.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I ended up saving up so I could train at one of the top improv schools in the world at iO in Chicago and continue my longform improv training.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Give them a gift<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just what improv brought to me onstage. I didn\u2019t realise just how much it was changing the way I felt and thought on a day to day basis.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My improv training ended up being great for building and establishing relationships in a workplace where nobody had time for you. The place was often like a rotating door and yet I was holding people\u2019s attention and people started to like me.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The seniors started coming in and talking to me about issues because they had started to trust me. The way I talked to them facilitated this. I would ask them questions like: \u201cHow are you and your people getting on? What can I do to make things better? What are you struggling with at the moment? I would directly build on what they were saying.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was able to solutionise <\/span>with<\/span><\/i> them, not for them. They would walk out of the room feeling that I wasn\u2019t a blocker. It\u2019s looking for those solutions all the time and that\u2019s the improv dialogue<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unfortunately (and incorrectly!) HR can be seen as a \u2018no\u2019 profession. This is often due to people coming from work backgrounds where the work culture is driven by risk aversion. The problem is that \u2018No\u2019 sometimes acts as a comfort blanket that stops you being future focused.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rather than saying no, I would say the better response to people\u2019s requests is \u2018What are you trying to achieve? This is what makes you a yes person. It starts building the bridge and leads to you being able to facilitate something. That\u2019s when people feel more comfortable working with you.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a servant-leadership type model, the more you can help people, the better and the more they will listen back in return. To quote improv: \u201cGive them a gift\u201d. That concept of giving your partner something that will delight them, they will meet you halfway. I think it\u2019s the same in business and improv.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A huge thank you to Jennifer Longden for her time!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a further resource on the will to change check out: <\/span>https:\/\/www.hooplabusiness.com\/resources\/2020\/6\/4\/on-the-grief-we-are-feeling-now-and-the-will-to-change<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n To look at how the lessons of improv can impact your work life, check out:\u00a0Hoopla who run\u00a0improv classes<\/a>,\u00a0shows<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0corporate training<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29005,"template":"","format":"standard","class_list":["post-29011","resource","type-resource","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n