Improv AtWork and AtLife

MBA Cocky

I picked up a copy of a hefty study just out called "Are They Really Ready to Work?" It lays out in detail what employers think of the next generation work force. Bottom line? They don't think much of the people entering the work force now and don't have much faith in the ones coming into the force over the next 10 years. Not only are these future workers considered deficient in basic skills like math and written and oral communication but they come up short in skills employers find vital to meet the demands of a knowledge based economy. Even 20 years ago, the value of a company was in brick and mortar - its buildings and inventory. Today, 80% of a company's value rests with the knowledge of its workers.

If you want to play on the "A" team in business now, you'd better be nimble. You'd better be quick. You'd better know a dozen ways to get over that candlestick. You should be able to play well with others. You've got to be a critical thinker, have a passion for lifelong learning and a strong sense of ethics. Don't have those skills? Then consider yourself benched.

And if you lack the key competency - an ability to innovate - you're dead in the water. Businesses don't want you. Today's leaders peg the ability to innovate as the single most important skill in maintaining U.S. competitiveness. In short, businesses are looking for people who are inventive and original. And they're not finding many, even among recent grads. So if you think you're prime meat for today's business market simply because you're armed with an MBA, don't be too cocky.

Ah Mistakes!

I spent time with family over the Thanksgiving holiday and frankly, I never look forward to those late afternoons laying around like a stuffed sausage watching no-neck bruisers ram into each other over a funny shaped ball. (It's hard to believe a sport that originally used an inflated pig's bladder as a ball caught on, but I digress.) I suggested we do something different this year. Something fun. Something like improvisation. I might just as well suggested we set ourselves on fire.

What's the hang up? All my relatives tried to beg off. They're not improvisers. They'll just make mistakes. So what? As Thomas Edison said: "I made more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patented most of them." If we're not making mistakes, we're not living life. If we're not making mistakes, we're taking the easy way out. If we're not making mistakes, we're not getting out of our comfort zones - we're not challenging our habitual ways of thinking and doing.

What's a mistake anyway? A mistake just means that something happened that we didn't count on. Mistakes give us an opportunity to focus on what is happening and make the best of it. I remember one time I was scheduled to give a presentation to 200 retired Boeing employees on how to create a wildlife sanctuary in your backyard. They invited me to have lunch with them before I spoke. After chowing down on a chicken salad sandwich and diet Coke, I took the stage. I got out 3 1/2 words - "Thank you for invit...." - and out came a belch. This was no ladylike 'scuse me belch. It was a sound barrier breaking man belch. But I didn't panic. Improvisation prepared me for moments like this. I made a sweeping gesture towards the kitchen: "My compliments to the chef!"

After a moment, folks started to laugh. They realized I was human. If I could be comfortable and recover from my mistake, so could they. I went on with my presentation and that belch was little more than a blip in the afternoon.

That's not to say that it's that easy to recover from every mistake we make. But the principle's the same - don't dwell on what happened and keep moving forward.

If you're wondering how the improv went on Thanksgiving, it didn't. Something came up - literally. One of my nephew's adorable mutts hawked up part of a Sony play station and we spent the next two hours trying to figure out where the rest of it was.

But I'm not giving up on improv for the family. Instead, I'm looking ahead - to Christmas. I'll let you know how it goes.