Effective collaboration is the key to success, and this African proverb sums it up succinctly: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." The challenges we are often faced with in the workplace are just too big and too complex for any single individual to have all of the necessary skills. And time. And energy. In practice, we often cannot go it alone, even though this may be our preferred choice.
For things to happen efficiently and effectively, we need to work together! I have been directly or tangentially involved in the challenges of medical product development for more than 20 years. I can certainly contribute to statistical and computational solutions (but not all of them), but there is a whole lot more expertise that is required to get a new medical product across the finish line. Collaboration is about effective communication – speaking, yes, but more so for LISTENING. It is about working together towards a common goal by sharing ideas and finding the best path forward. And to do this, we need to build TRUST with one another.
That is why it is important to DEVELOP and PRACTICE these skills! Applied Improvisation (AI) can help. Listening and building trust are at the foundation of AI. But it also happens to be a boat load of fun. So much so, we often need a bigger boat!
The good news is that you can start your journey at JSM! I hope you will join me for an introduction to Applied Improvisation with course CE21: Quick-Thinking, Confident, Communicative, and Collaborative: Fundamentals of Applied Improvisation for (Bio)statisticians and Data Scientists (Tues, Aug 5: 08:30-12:30). This course is not about performance or being funny (though that happens). It's about developing skills that are useful in any workplace. We will examine the parallels to every exercise we do. Space is limited to 20 individuals!
If you have questions, please reach out. I am happy to answer them.
Check out some thoughts on how applied improv can help with spontaneity.
Check out some thoughts on how applied improv can help with imposter syndrome.
Background on a pilot improvisation workshop.
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Richard C. Zink, Ph.D.
Principal Research Fellow
JMP Statistical Discovery LLC
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