#109: Patricia Ryan Madson — Author of “Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up,” Professor Emerita in Stanford Theater Department on How to Use Improv at Work

Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and Education

While there are specific skills that go into doing any job, being able to learn by doing and make it up as you go along, is a skill a lot of workers need to have in today's market. With 80% of Americans in a job where they’ve had little to no training for, a surprising skill is becoming more and more important for workers every day: the ability to improvise.

Patricia Ryan Madson is a longtime professor Emerita from Stanford University’s theater department. During her time at the university, she founded the Creative Initiative course and the Stanford Summer Improvisation School. She’s been a speaker, coach, and advisor for multiple tech giants in the Silicon Valley area, such as Adobe, Google, and Apple.

We wanted to catch up with Patricia to talk about her book “Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up,” and how theater skills like improvisation, empathy, and gratitude are imperative for business leaders in today's complicated workforce.

In a time when only 15% of workers are engaged, leaders need to find a way to do more with less, and the secrets to that may just lie in some of the oldest theater practices in the world.

This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!