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In episode 024 of the workshops work Podcast, I talk to Grazyna Frackiewicz, a stand-up comedian, improv teacher and facilitator about hacks to overcome uncertainty. She will share what she has learned from her career in sales and marketing and how she uses these skills to design a process that helps her to stay in the moment. 

Grazyna now runs the Living Improv Academy to help facilitators and team leaders to find confidence in uncertainty by applying methods of improvisation theatre. 

You will learn how to prepare in a way that you will eventually even feel addicted to uncertainty when hosting a workshop.

My favourite part of the show happens when Grazyna and I discuss her favourite exercise “count to 20” and what we can learn from it about communication, collaboration, uncertainty and strategy.

Don’t miss the part when Grazyna explains how she “thinks on her feet” when she merges her stand-up, improv and theatre acting skills.  

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Questions and Answers

[1:29] If you were a Hashtag, what would you be?

[2:41] So what's your story? How did you get from sales/ marketing to acting to facilitating?

[6:15] what did you learn from your life as a sales and marketing person?

[7:49] Would you consider facilitation and communication as a “soft skill”?

[12:08] Given your background in improv theatre and your connection to yourself, how do you deal with uncertainty?

[14:39] To what extent is it about the facilitator him or herself to get out of the way?

[18:50] How much planning do you put into your workshops and how much room do you leave for improvisation and uncertainty?

[26:45] How do you help groups to deal with this discomfort of listening to their bodies in front of colleagues?

[29:11] There is a large difference with respect to the script between stand-up, improv and traditional theatre acting. Which skill do you refer to when it comes to facilitation?

[29:51] What do you mean by “thinking or feeling on your feet”? 

[31:18] How much “acting” do you apply in a workshop?

[33:07] What makes a workshop fail?

[35:30] What would you recommend to a facilitator on how to deal with uncertainty?

[38:56] What’s your favourite exercise to learn giving up control and being in the moment?

[40:35] Is this an intuition that gets us to speak at the right moment?

[42:36] Do you see differences between the way teams perform in this exercise as opposed to a group of strangers?

[46:23] What shall the audience remember from our conversation?

 Related links you may want to check out:

• Grazyna’s business page: www.livingimprovacademy.com 
• TED talk by Kelly McGonigal on relabeling stress 
• HBR Article on the correlation between speaking time and perceived value of meetings
• Kurt Lewin’s 3-step change model (unfreeze – change – freeze)
• Our sponsor

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