Where Should I Hold My Improv Team Building Workshop?

A common question I get asked from my clients is, “Where should I hold my improv team building workshop?” The question normally comes up early in the event planning process when a company has already decided they want an improv team building workshop (or soft skill development workshop). And it comes with expectations.

Perhaps it is natural that when you consider improv for a workplace event, you imagine it occurring on a famous comedy stage or at least within a space that feels like comedy performances happen there on the reg. A place with stage lights and ashtrays and faux brick backdrops. And often there is excitement about travelling to an offsite location that feels exotic, which only makes the temptation of such comedic Shangri-La’s all the more potent. 

But such environments blunt the purpose of your event.

Let me explain why.

Improv workshops ask participants to step out of their comfort zone and to take risks. This requires bravery, which is easier to come by in comfortable surroundings. If you already feel intimidated and out of place before someone asks you to walk like a penguin, well suddenly that task seems far more difficult.

Counterintuitively, the best corporate improv workshop space is the office your employees come to every day. It is a space they know well and have probably taken risks in before (hopefully successfully). It is a space they feel they belong in because they do belong there!

That makes it a perfect space for them to experiment with improv games in. The more homey, the less impressive, the more every day-ish, the better. Because the activity they are about to engage in is anything but that.

It is better to learn how to juggle with rubber balls, rather than razor sharp daggers. 

But aren’t there certain physical attributes requisite for proper improv team building venues? Yes of course and if your office doesn’t have a space like that you may need to look elsewhere.

I’ve already described at length what sort of space you need and how best to prepare it for an improv workshop here. But very quickly, just in case you don’t feel like clicking a hyperlink, here are the bullet points. When asking where to host improv for employees, look for a space that:

• Is private (no giant fishbowl like rooms with windows for walls that people at cubicles can gawk through).

• Is quiet.

• Is flexible (no fixed tables or chairs) and large enough for you to arrange chairs in a circle for all the attendees to sit on with nothing in the center of that circle.

• Is clean.

• Is free of tripping and head banging hazards (no in use floor outlets or low hanging light fixtures).

• Is comfortable (think temperature, fixtures, flooring, etc).

It sounds easy enough and most modern offices do have a space like this. But due to the rise of giant and very heavy conference tables (the enemy of improv), your office’s perfect space for an improv workshop may not be in one of your standard meeting rooms. Maybe it is a break room, or lobby, or empty wing? 

Or maybe it is your standard meeting room.

Recently I visited The Omni Hotel in Richmond Virginia to lead a team building and communication skills workshop for a group of fifteen managers. The below photo shows you the unassuming surroundings the workshop was conducted in. But unassuming or no, the space supported the workshop perfectly, allowing everyone to move and play easily in a private and safe space without the anchor of expectations weighing us down.

Performing improv in this room is not as exciting as performing on a Broadway Stage, but that's a good thing.

If your office won’t work, there are more humble, more effective and less expensive options to consider before resorting to renting out a comedy club or local regional theater stage. My favorites, in this order, are dance studios, yoga studios, community centers and co-working meeting spaces. Spaces like these are plentiful, open to low rental fees and perfect for offsite improv activities.

Arranging workshops in such spaces is so easy, in fact, The Radical Agreement Project always offers to provide such spaces for free when you retain us for a workshop. The owners and managers at such venues are familiar with the needs of improvisers, maintain clean and professional spaces and provide professional staff to support the day’s activities.

I should note that if you are holding your workshop in an entertainment city (NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando, Branson) there is also likely to be professional theatre studios available to rent. This is even better than the other options as these spaces will most likely be familiar with the needs of improv and able to support the event at a higher level. In NYC my absolute favorite professional rehearsal space is Cre8ive Studios, designed originally by a professional comedian with beautiful floors, giant windows, fantastic staff and equipment.

Slightly less optimal are hotel meeting rooms. Because of such rooms' generally antiseptic and nondescript nature, they typically do not intimidate first time improvisers, that’s good. And the staff of hotels are well familiar with the needs of corporate improv workshops, allowing for easy preparation for the event. 

But they are owned and operated by for profit institutions that offer them for fees that are less than welcoming. Obviously if you are already hosting a summit at a hotel the fee concern disappears. Under such circumstances the hotel meeting space becomes an office proxy: a place your attendees feel familiar with; a space they feel they belong in.

Finally, if there are simply no dance, yoga or co-working spaces available, then you can look at renting out a stage. It will be expensive, somewhere between $500 to a couple thousand dollars and it may make the participants in your event a bit hesitant to fully participate. While this is true, I’ve overseen lots of events in exactly such spaces and if you have the right instructors you can still have a fantastic workshop while also gaining the offsite wow factor a theater provides.

Special note, if you have splurged and rented out Caroline’s (or possibly a less famous venue) be careful of the stage. The stage may seem wide or safe because it is only a few inches off the ground. That’s a false sense of security and participants can go sprawling if they lose awareness of where the stage ends. 

A good remedy is to limit how many people play on the stage in any given exercise or to use chairs and tables positioned near the stage's edge as warnings of the coming drop. These can serve as the ad hoc the dinghies of improv workshops on a stage. 

FAQ

How much space do you need for an improv workshop?

This depends on how many participants you have. Ideally that number should be between 6 to 16 participants for every 1 instructor. Under such circumstances, a regularly shaped rectangular or square room should have somewhere between 300 sqf (for 8 person workshops) to 600 sqf (for 16 person workshops). Having more space than that is fine as long as it isn’t so large hearing each other becomes an issue.

Sometimes a workshop will be for many more than 16 people, I’ve arranged workshops for as many as 200 simultaneous attendees all working with one instructor in one room. Obviously, when you have 200 attendees, the amount of  direct attention you receive from your instructor will be limited. You can combat that by adding more instructors, but that only helps so much.

For this reason, I relabel such events as Interactive Lectures as a way of acknowledging that what you are receiving is very different from a standard improv workshop. You’ll still be up on your feet a lot, laugh a lot and learn a lot, but it is different.

Interactive lectures can be held successfully in a variety of spaces. Hotel ballrooms, auditoriums and professional stages all work. You need to have areas that people can jump and play improv games in, but they can be in unorthodox gaps, like the empty space between 8 top tables that often live in large hotel spaces.

What about holding an improv workshop outside?

Not ideal. Yes the outdoors are described as grand, but wind, rain and excessive heat or cold can ruin an outdoor workshop. Tents can help, but if you are determined to host a workshop outside, your best practice is to have a back up indoor space prepared in case the weather isn’t being collaborative.

You can imagine students falling off this stage easily, or wind ruining the acoustics. Fortunately the RA instructor leading this workshop was fantastic and the event was a success.

Also, by its very nature, outdoor workshops tend to be less private than indoor ones. What you want to avoid is people feeling like they are taking risks while watched and judged by others who are not. An outdoor rooftop workshop can alleviate this concern some.

Can I hold an improv workshop for my employees in my home?

It is a little weird, but okay provided your space meets the ideal conditions for an improv workshop listed earlier.

What about acoustics?

Those are super important. The basic requirement for any improv workshop is that you be able to easily see and hear and move. If a space generates a lot of echoes, or if a space swallows up sound or is near something loud (like a construction site or boiler room), that is not ideal.