When Is Slowing Down A Power Move?

Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash‍ ‍

Recently, in our company rehearsals at The Mopco Improv Theatre, we’ve been working on going slow. One of the assumptions people make about improv is that it’s all about coming up with quick, funny responses. And sure, we do work on exercising our ability to trust our impulses and blurt without censoring. But to really be present and receive what our partners offer to create fulfilling, memorable scenes require deep presence. And often that means taking a pause, trusting silence, and relaxing into the moment without feeling the need to rush forward.

This can be especially hard to do in the context of a comedy show where performers can feel the pressure to deliver laughs to feed the beast (i.e. the audience.) Great improvisers are able to balance speed and stillness, doing and being.

Is speed overrated?

As with many of our onstage improv principles, the same applies to off-stage performance. Last week, I was invited by John Hibbs of Co-Efficient, to a master class with Timothy Wright of Leading Edge on "Peace as a Performance Enhancer". Tim articulated the need to balance pressure and peace to maximize performance in any context in a way that deepened my understanding of what we had been working on in rehearsal.

He asked: How many of us work best under pressure? Many of us raised our hands. And Tim confirmed that pressure can catalyze action. But he said, pressure also limits our focus and we can miss the larger picture. Peace, on the other hand, allows us to notice — internally and externally — and increases perspective.

Pressure increases action.

Peace increases perspective.

What a beautiful and simple way of capturing the polarity we surf as improvisers, and the tension I hear from my clients they are working to manage in their contexts — whether it’s a surgical team, a tech organization, or a global consultancy.

I’m so grateful to have been invited to this event, and so glad I took the time to slow down and attend — John did an amazing job of crafting space that allowed the perspective-taking Tim was discussing.

These are the questions I now carry with me in simple form:

👉 Where might I benefit from dialing up the pressure?

👉 Where do I need to create the possibility of peace?

The question to ask is, how about you? Do you carry a balance or lean more to one side? If you are the pressure type: see if the slow lane yields benefits.