5 Ways Applied Improvisation Improves Team Collaboration – An Interview with Michelle Clarke
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Michelle Clarke is a global leadership coach and applied improvisation practitioner known for helping teams and leaders build the skills necessary to thrive in uncertainty and change. By designing immersive, experiential learning spaces, Michelle creates environments where adaptability, collaboration, and innovation flourish in real-time.
In this interview, Michelle shares how applied improvisation can transform the way teams collaborate, why it’s more effective than traditional leadership training, and how leaders can embrace uncertainty to foster trust, creativity, and resilience within their teams.
Michelle Clarke, Global Leadership Coach & Facilitator
Who is Michelle Clarke and how would you describe the work you do?
I’m a global leadership coach, facilitator, and applied improvisation practitioner based in Santiago, Chile, although my work takes me into conversations and teams all over the world.
At the heart of my work is designing meaningful human experiences that build inner authority in leaders and their teams.
I design and host experiential learning spaces where teams and leaders get to practice, learn, and trust the kinds of skills modern organisations keep asking for – adaptability, listening, collaboration, innovation, psychological safety, and the ability to think on their feet. Over and over again, I have come to witness how adults learn best when they are engaged, moving, reflecting, laughing, experimenting, and building something together.
A lot of organisations talk about innovation and adaptability conceptually. My work is about helping people experience and consequently build the internal muscles for them.
I lean into the methodology of Applied improvisation as it has become a powerful vehicle for this work. Through carefully facilitated Applied Improv experiences, teams begin to explore how they respond to ideas, how they listen, how they build trust, and how they navigate uncertainty together.
What first drew you to applied improvisation, and what made you realise it could transform the way teams and leaders learn?
I experienced my first Improv theatre workshop over 2 decades ago. I was drawn to the energy and magic of a group of people (many, like myself, not trained actors) creating together in real time, especially when nobody knows exactly where things are going and yet something intelligent still emerges.
As a learning facilitator, what really hooked me was the transferability of the skills. I shifted my focus from Improv theatre to Applied Improvisation – using these same techniques with working teams.
The same things that make a great improviser also make a great leader or teammate: listening deeply, accepting offers, building on ideas, recovering quickly when things don’t go to plan, trusting the process, and helping other people succeed.
And then I started seeing what happened when teams actually practiced those skills together instead of just talking about them.
That changed everything for me.
What patterns do you notice in teams that are ready for this kind of work?
Interestingly, it’s often not the “broken” teams.
It’s the teams that care deeply about doing meaningful work, but can feel that something in their interactions is missing.
Sometimes people are holding back. Sometimes, ideas are being evaluated too quickly.
Almost always, everybody is talented, capable, intelligent and yet innovative conversations aren’t really building.
I often hear things like: “We want more innovation.” “We want people to contribute more.” “We want less silo thinking.” “We want better collaboration.” It would be fun to have fun while learning these.
Applied improvisation gives teams a way to practice those behaviours together in a low-risk, fun and highly experiential way.
How would you describe applied improvisation to someone hearing the term for the very first time?
Applied improvisation takes the principles of improvisational theatre and applies them to real-world leadership and team development. The mindsets, attitudes, and “rules” that allow Improv theatre to work really well allow working teams to work equally as well.
There is playfulness and spontaneity involved in Applied Improvisation, but the goal is not performance. The goal is learning.
Through simple but carefully structured games and exercises, teams get to practice things like listening, adaptability, collaboration, creative thinking, psychological safety, and responding in the moment.
One of the things I love most about it is that people don’t just intellectually understand the concepts – they experience them.
Once you’ve experienced something in your mind and your body, it’s much harder to unlearn.
What begins to shift when teams start practicing these improvisational skills together?
The first thing that shifts is usually energy. Then participation. Then people start listening differently.
You begin to notice less defensiveness and more curiosity. Ideas travel further before they are shut down. People become more willing to contribute something unfinished because the team has started to build a culture where ideas are treated as something to develop together rather than judge immediately.
In improvisation, we often say that our work is to “Make each other look good”. If I am making you look good, and you are making me look good, we’re all looking good together. That mindset alone can completely change the quality of collaboration inside a team.
What makes applied improvisation such a different experience from traditional leadership or team development programmes?
A lot of traditional leadership development happens in the realm of discussion and insight. People talk about communication, trust, adaptability, or innovation.
Applied improvisation invites people to experience those dynamics in real time.
That changes the learning completely.
Instead of analysing collaboration intellectually, teams get to notice what actually happens when somebody offers an idea, when uncertainty appears, when nobody knows the answer yet, or when a group has to build something together moment by moment.
There’s also something beautifully human about it. People laugh. They surprise themselves. They become more present. Hierarchies soften. And because the learning is embodied, the insights tend to stay with people long after the session is over.
Can you share a moment where you watched a team transform through applied improvisation?
I worked with a team recently in Mexico, where I invited the group into a very simple non-verbal applied improvisation exercise.
The challenge was low-risk on the surface, but fascinating underneath. The team had to achieve a result together without speaking, which meant they had to rely on observation, awareness, responsiveness, and paying close attention to one another.
The first attempt was tentative. People were careful. Measured. You could almost feel the group trying not to “get it wrong.”
As is common in applied improvisation, we paused for a debrief and reflected together on what might help the group move forward more successfully. One person suggested that perhaps the team needed to take a few more risks.
When we began again, something beautiful happened.
One participant stepped fully into that invitation. Non-verbally, they expressed themselves in a way that was clearly a little risky for them personally. It was bold, playful, and highly visible. And almost immediately, other people responded.
You could feel permission spreading through the group.
The energy shifted. Participation widened. More people began experimenting, contributing, and responding spontaneously to one another. And this time, the team achieved the outcome together.
During the final reflection, I asked what had changed the second time around.
The participant who had taken the first risk said something I’ll never forget. They explained that they were not naturally someone who takes risks unless they feel reasonably certain the risk will be well received. But hearing another team member explicitly invite risk-taking during the debrief gave them permission to step forward.
Once they did, others followed.
For me, that moment captured something deeply important about teams and leadership. Often, people are far more ready to contribute, experiment, and innovate than we realise. They are simply waiting for signals that it is safe to do so.
That is one of the things I love most about applied improvisation. It helps teams practice creating those conditions together in real time.
What is one interaction pattern you see repeatedly limiting innovation and collaboration inside teams?
Ideas get evaluated too quickly.
Somebody offers something tentative or unfinished, and almost immediately the group moves into analysis, refinement, defence, or problem-solving mode.
That can shut down creativity before it has had a chance to breathe.
In improvisation, we practice building before evaluating. We stay with the idea a little longer. We explore where it might go. We allow people to contribute imperfectly.
I think many teams underestimate how profoundly innovation depends on psychological safety and interaction patterns.
Innovation is not just about generating ideas. It’s about what happens to ideas once they enter the room.
How does improvisation help leaders become more adaptable, present, and confident in uncertainty?
Improvisation teaches people how to stay connected while they don’t yet know the answer.
That’s incredibly relevant for leadership today.
Many leaders have been rewarded for expertise, certainty, and having solutions. But modern leadership increasingly requires curiosity, adaptability, listening, and responsiveness in fast-changing environments.
Improvisation helps leaders become more comfortable with emergence. They learn that they do not need to control every moment in order to lead effectively.
Interestingly, confidence often grows not from having the perfect answer, but from learning that you can handle the moment even when things are uncertain.
What is one improvisation principle every leader should start practicing immediately?
“Bring a brick, not a cathedral.”
It’s one of my favourite improvisation ideas.
Too many people hold back because they think they need to arrive with a fully formed solution before contributing. But innovation is usually collaborative. It grows through interaction.
A small idea offered at the right moment can become something extraordinary when a team learns how to build together.
That principle also creates generosity inside teams. People stop competing to have the best idea and start contributing to the development of the shared idea.
How does the way a leader responds to ideas shape the culture and creative confidence of a team?
Leaders are constantly teaching teams what is safe.
Not through policies or posters on the wall, but through moment-to-moment responses.
If somebody offers an idea and the response is dismissive, overly critical, or rushed, people notice. Very quickly the team learns what kinds of contributions are welcome and which are risky.
But when leaders listen with curiosity, build on contributions, and allow space for unfinished thinking, something else happens. Participation widens. People become more willing to contribute. Creative confidence grows.
Culture is built interaction by interaction.
If someone is curious about applied improvisation but slightly skeptical, what would you want them to know?
Honestly, I think a little skepticism is healthy.
Many people hear the word “improvisation” and imagine performance, comedy, or being put on the spot. But applied improvisation is not about making people funny or theatrical.
It’s about helping humans practice being more adaptable, collaborative, responsive, and present together.
The beautiful thing is that people do not need to be performers to benefit from it. In fact, some of the most powerful moments happen when highly intelligent, capable professionals suddenly rediscover play, curiosity, and shared creativity in a completely new way.
Usually, by the end of a session, the skepticism has disappeared and people are saying, “Why don’t we learn like this more often?”
In closing:
If this conversation has sparked curiosity about what applied improvisation could unlock inside your team, I’d love to hear from you.
I’m especially interested in conversations with leaders, facilitators, HR professionals, and teams who sense that traditional approaches are no longer enough and are looking for more human, experiential, and adaptive ways of learning together.
Let’s start a conversation about what might be possible for your team now.
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