This study seeks to elucidate an alternative form of leadership training—that of improvisational theater—in which acting under conditions of uncertainty, accepting offers, crafting a disciplined imagination, suspending judgment, letting go, being present and enhancing awareness skills may become learnable components of leadership development. The question was whether improvisation can transform the thinking and orientation of individuals in such a way as to make them efficient leaders. And the study found that improvisation may encourage creativity, possibility, resourcefulness and an ability to manage uncertainty and ambiguity, provided that it is appropriately applied and practiced.

The primary research question of this study was as follows: when practiced by individuals, can improvisation transform the thinking and orientation of those individuals in such a way as to make them better or more equipped leaders? This study hoped to elucidate an alternative form of leadership training—that of improvisational theater—in which acting under conditions of uncertainty, accepting offers, crafting a disciplined imagination, suspending judgment, being present and enhancing awareness skills may become learnable components of leadership development. It sought to test whether a discipline such as that of improvisation could improve individuals’ psychological and interpersonal skills, in order to lead in more uncertain and unpredictable times.

Adler (2006) lists the following trends, which have caused businesses to turn to the arts for inspiration and guidance: (a) rapidly increasing global interconnectedness, (b) increasing domination of market forces, (c) an increasingly turbulent, complex, and chaotic environment, (d) advances in technology that have lowered the cost of experimentation, meaning organizations’ scarcest resource becomes their dreamers, not their testers, and (e) a yearning for significance, whereby success is no longer perceived as being enough. Whyte (1994) suggests that corporations now require more creativity, more commitment, and more innovation. While such trends are certainly in evidence today, the relevance of art to business is no new thing. Previously, artists have been utilized in business settings to bring “emotional truth to established principles”. Organizations in the business, education and mental health sectors have all previously used theatrical role-playing to gain understanding of, and find solutions to, underlying problems. Taylor and Hansen (2005) suggest at least four ways in which the arts can contribute to leadership development: (1) for understanding organizational action, (2) to display organizational practices, (3) to generate artistic content, and (4) to evoke the ‘feel’ of an organization.

Understanding Leadership Through the Arts