Let's Play: The Use of Improv Games in Change Management Training: A Case Study

This paper is based on the concept of Improv games as a promising mechanism and design principle for enhancing an organization's capacity for learning and adaptability. The study explores how Improv games can be used to create a mindset conducive to change, facilitate ideation and guide discussions on bringing about systemic change. In the case study that forms the basis of the paper, Improv games were found to be particularly useful in helping participants to identify and confront their anxieties with respect to accepting and implementing change. Further, instead of being dismissed or criticized, their concerns could be creatively deployed in a realistic assessment of the action plans they had drawn up for implementing change. The paper demonstrates the technique of the games and how they can be integrated into change management programmes, and summarizes the benefits of the practice.