The Unexpected Power of ‘Failure’ in Team Dynamics

Lessons learned from my Improv journey

We’ve all been there, at least I know I have: The fear of failing. We expect to do things almost perfectly. In many professional environments, the word failure is often treated like a curse word. It’s associated with bad performance reviews, missed goals, and going-out-of-business. But what if I tell you that intentionally accepting failure could be the most effective trigger for enhancing teamwork, fostering innovation, and, ultimately, being successful?

Over the last few years, I’ve been learning and practicing Improv as a hobby, and the more I learned about it, the more I believed I could apply its fundamental principles to all facets of my life -work included- to get better results.

The liberating force of failure is one of the most profound things I’ve learned from the improv stage: it is not perceived as a loss; but as a learning opportunity, a chance to experiment, an open door to new creative paths and a great tool for building strong, cohesive and highly collaborative ensembles -ehem! teams-.

Improv Principles on Failure and Experimenting

In traditional business settings, failure is often frowned upon. In improv, on the other hand, failure not only expected but also embraced. It’s often in the origin of the most imaginative, humorous, and captivating scenes.

Improv teaches that there are only opportunities, not mistakes. This simple mindset shift is the foundation of creating a team culture where risk-taking is encouraged, and experimentation is appreciated.

The Power of the Yes, And… principle: Every improv newbie learns the yes, and… as the cornerstone of the discipline. It is the rule of accepting any offer and augmenting it with a new one that builds on top of the original, making the story move forward.

This simple principle allows the group to build upon each other’s ideas, explore its potential, and often, discover new and unexpected possibilities. It’s the foundation of resilience and an open door for new opportunities.

Do-Not-Negate: In the spirit of building upon each other’s proposals, this is the counterpart of the yes, and… negating is seen as the blocker of exploring and develop new narratives, so it is discouraged to negate or dismiss the previously proposed ideas.

When a group is afraid of being judged or punished for making mistakes, they become risk averse, which hinders its flow and creativity. By discouraging the negation of one member’s ideas to impose another’s, psychological safety is reinforced.

Real-World Application: Cultivating a Culture of Experimentation

Consider the example of a software development team struggling with a new product launch. Instead of punishing the team for early bugs or negative user feedback, Martha, the team leader, embraced the principles of improv. She:

• Encouraged Open Communication: she created a safe space where team members felt comfortable sharing their concerns and suggestions.

• Re-framed Failure: She called early glitches “experiments” and invested time on investigating them and finding the learning opportunities from them to feed back into the backlog of future developments.

• Embraced Iteration: She tried to find a way to build features one step at a time and always building on top of what customers required –yes, and…?-, so she incorporated user feedback to make rapid adjustments and improvements as they go.

• Celebrated Growth: She recognized and rewarded the team’s resilience and willingness to learn from their mistakes.

The result? The team not only launched a successful product but also developed a more collaborative, innovative, and resilient culture.

Improv Exercises: Practical Tools for Embracing Failure

Here are some concrete improv exercises you can implement with your team to foster a culture of experimentation and resilience:

The basic “Yes, And…”:

Two people engage in a conversation where each statement must begin with “Yes, and…” before adding new information. This forces participants to accept what was said and build upon it rather than negating or redirecting.

This game encourages active listening, collaboration, and an open mindset for idea generation. It reinforces the habit of validating others’ contributions before adding your own.

In brainstorming sessions or meetings, adopt the Yes, and… approach to ensure ideas are expanded upon rather than immediately criticized. This fosters a culture of innovation and psychological safety.

“The Expert”:

Players take turns on the center of the stage acting as experts on a certain topic, the rest of the players will ask questions on the topic so they can be enlightened by the expert.

This game taps on two areas: one is developing people’s ability to ask for help and active listening and the other is the ability to formulate ideas with confidence and provide feedback. Also, by giving different people the opportunity to act as an expert, it may expose different or unexplored views on a subject.

This game could be helpful on discovery sessions or when trying to build personas that could be used to model the needs of a group of users for a given product.

“Conducted Story”

One person (the “conductor”) points to individuals in a group who must continue telling a story from where the last person left off. The goal is to have the players tell a story that moves seamlessly from one player to another.

This game develops adaptability, active listening skills, and the ability to quickly contribute to a shared narrative.

Use this game when co-creating presentations, project plans, or customer journeys. It ensures fluid team collaboration and helps everyone stay engaged in a shared objective.

“What’s Next?”

One person starts performing a simple action (e.g., writing an email). The next person says, “What’s next?” and the performer must add a new, logical next step (e.g., “I double-check the recipient”). This continues until the task is complete.

This game encourages process thinking, iteration, and structured improvisation.

This could be used for workflow mapping or process improvement sessions to break down complex projects into clear, actionable steps.

“Three Sentences Scene”

Players must build a scene that last no longer than three lines. At the conclusion of each the scene the basic elements should be present: who are the characters, what is their relationship and where they are located.

This game works on focus and conciseness, it helps the players to be specific and provide the required details in a short direct way so the others can complete with the missing information.

This game could be used to structure conversations where we need short, solid outcomes, for instance, when defining high-level goals.

The Path Forward: Cultivating Resilience & Innovation

Ready to lead a more resilient and innovative team? Start by:

• Reframing Your Mindset: Examine how you percieve failure. View mistakes as chances for learning and growth.

• Implementing Improv Exercises: Integrate the exercises above (or adapt them to suit your needs) into your team meetings and training sessions.

• Leading by Example: Set an example of the behavior you want to see in your team. Share your own mistakes and talk about what you learned from them.

• Creating a Safe Space: Encourage a culture of trust and psychological safety where team members feel comfortable freely expresing their ideas and taking risks.