Using Improvisation to Develop Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) is emerging as critical to success in today’s workplaces. Business schools must, therefore, equip students with techniques to develop their emotional intelligence. EI is learnable, and research indicates that active and experiential approaches are more effective in developing EI than lecture-based methods. We, therefore, suggest that the highly engaging style of improvisational theater can be used as an effective training technique to develop EI. Furthermore, improv’s foundational “yes-and” principle requires participants to listen nonjudgmentally and actively support each other. We present six improvisational exercises that will enable students to identify and develop some of the social skills relevant to EI, namely, empathy, collaboration, and understanding the emotional cues of others. Our detailed instructions to run and debrief the exercises ensure that instructors with no prior experience with improvisational theater can also easily use them in their classes.