It's All a Bit Old-Hat!

Hello, creatives!

Who likes an old hat? I do! Mine is the colour of champions - boring beige. It’s sporty - faux baseball. It’s scruffy - read stylish. Well-loved - manky, even. It’s comfort, it’s character..

In business though, does the old-hat still cut it? Ever sat through a presentation thinking “this is so old-hat”. Or worse, delivered one like that yourself? Tediously familiar and perhaps out-dated. Defaulting into “this is how we’ve always done it” can feel safe - but it risks stifling fresh thinking. To think is also to open one’s mind to creative forces. And with creativity comes new thoughts, new ideas, new spins, new hats.

You’ve heard of IQ, and EQ too. What about AQ, the Adaptability Quotient?

AQ is to manage life creatively: the capacity to let go of outdated knowledge and solving problems with fresh ideas. In this fast-changing world, a high AQ matters more than ever.

It's All a Bit Old-Hat!

TRY IT OUT: 💘 Our weekly tip or trick - from applied improv to you. 

Hat Swap Story

The purpose is to reimagine the old ways.

In pairs, each player starts by describing a tired or familiar business scenario (ie. old-hat process, such as tired meeting rituals, jaded brainstorming, death by PowerPoint). Then Player A swaps to Player B, to take the ‘old-hat’ version and invent a new role, improvising a short scene or discussion to reinterpret that old-hat scenario in a completely new way (eg. imagine it as a swashbuckling hero film plot; a futuristic distopia; a zen well-being manual).

Use “Yes, and…” together to build the tired business ritual in into something fresh and surprising.What to reflect on: What changed when you swapped hats? What possibilities emerged when you stopped doing things ‘the usual way’? How could this mindset apply to a real-work situations?

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”  Stephen Hawking, physicist and cosmologist

Something undead…

This week, Paul’s improv troupe New Choice played their last show. Thirty-one lucky punters paid their fiver to come and see our final performance at The Farnham Maltings in a double-bill with improv comedy zombie apocalypse team Improv the Dead (a truly fantastic troupe).

New Choice has run its course. It served us as we set out into the world of theatrical improv and yet, it now feels… old-hat. Time to make a new choice. 🥴

It took a while to let go of our inaugurated name. In true improv fashion, we came up with 50+ new names. Some were truly rubbish. Some were so vague and meaningless. Some were just plain stupid. Fifteen made the shortlist.

“You can’t allow tradition to get in the way of innovation. Respect the past, but it’s a mistake to revere your past”  Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Corps

⚓ And rising majestically out of the mud came: The Mudlarkers. Mudlarkers comes from a mockumentary we ran many moons ago, and the joy it created is embedded in our self-styled folklore. This new name? We feel it.

💡 Mudlarkers are people who scavenge river mud for objects of value. The essence of improv and imagination: looking for the shiny things. Click here  you want to know more about The original Mudlarkers.

Hats off to our rebirth!

All the best,

Paul (and Vic)

#imaginationStation #AppliedImprovisation #YesAnd #PublicSpeakingSkills #PresentationSkills #FearofPublicSpeaking #BusinessSkills #PersonalGrowth #agilityinbusiness #freelanceambition #SmallBusiness #ImprovComedy