Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago’s storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises—like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment and fully listening.

The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like how to make data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma.

The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works.

The Policing Leadership Academy’s creators believe those skills can also help meet their goals to increase community engagement, improve officer morale and ultimately reduce violent crime.

Capt. Louis Higginson with the Philadelphia Police Department said the academy provided a much broader training than the two weeks of police job training he got before being promoted to captain a little more than a year ago.

“The big thing for me was thinking about the things we allow to happen because they’ve been that way before us,” he said. “And the ways we can change the culture of our district by changing the thinking around why we do things.”

Albuquerque Police Department Commander Ray Del Greco said he’s still thinking more about how he communicates weeks after the improv class.

“When people talk to you and come to have you help solve their issues, to be able to push your ego out and worry less about your own agenda and listen, that’s an understanding of leadership,” Del Greco said. “To me, that was the most valuable class we had.”

Academy leaders stressed the learning doesn't stop at graduation. They create communication channels so classmates can continue to support each other, they encourage captains to put on training with their departments, and participants are required to implement a capstone project that lasts well past the last day of class and addresses a real problem in their district or department.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.