Improv, in a past life...

An online friend asked me to share some of my writing with her recently, and I've put it off, because I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to share that was posted online somewhere. It's been weeks now, and last night, I decided to see if I had a hard-copy of some writing I did for the Utah League of Credit Unions on their HR/Training Blog. So, here is a thing I wrote in a past life:

"A Jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting." --Chef Charlie Trotter 

Improvisation in cooking was something I grew up with.  

Dad's method: Out of milk and can't get to the store? Try Ranch dressing in the pancakes. Actually, don't... It wasn't very good. There were, however, improvisations that were delicious, I'm sure of it.  

Mom's method: Cooking for a crowd? Why make something tried and true, when you can experiment with something new? You'll never know if new things are great if you never try them! 

For some of us, being a trainer is like being a self-taught chef. We may bury ourselves deep in a pile of cookbooks, seeking out the perfect recipe for a great training, or we may dive in--creating a meal with the ingredients we have on hand. Neither method guarantees perfection, but both have merit.  

The cookbooks we read provide us with the terminology we need, and give us step-by-step instructions. We might try recipe after recipe and find that only some suit our tastes. Perhaps we prefer baking cookies and cakes to making beef bourguignon. In training, we might find that some styles or techniques are better suited to our needs or skills than others are.  

Creating something wonderful only with what we have on hand is sometimes difficult, but teaches us how to improvise and improve. A simple substitution might surprise your training taste-buds with a better meal than any written recipe can provide.  

When cooking up the perfect training, we have to consider not only our own tastes as trainers, but the desires of our diners. What are they hoping to consume (learn)? Do they need certain nutrients (lessons) more than others? What are their allergies (challenges)?
We also must consider what tools and ingredients are available to us. Do we have access to everything we need to make the meal we're planning? Or, do we need to work with what we have in place to create our masterpiece? Can we obtain the necessary ingredients by borrowing from our neighbors (co-workers)? These considerations are as important in training as they are in cooking.  

The ability to improvise, with or without a recipe in hand is something every trainer needs in their toolbox. Has your projector bulb burned out again, and there's no time to order a replacement? Is there a difficult employee in your class? Have you been asked to train on a topic with which you are unfamiliar? Improvise! Work with what you have. Look at your skills and determine which of them can serve multiple functions. Borrow the skills of your co-workers. Don't fear the unknown.  

I'm a Food Network junkie, and one of my favorite shows is all about improvising in the kitchen. Chopped follows four chefs who must create meals out of random basket ingredients that are usually strange pairings. They're given an assigned dish and must set out to make their dish the best version with the ingredients provided and their selections from the pantry. I love watching how each chef puts the dish together in their own way. I love their creative solutions. Every chef approaches the dish differently. Given the same ingredients, no four trainers would build exactly the same training. We work with what we're given, what we already know, and a pantry full of tools to create the best class we can. We might try a combination that doesn't work-- but that allows us to learn and improve in the next round.  

Maybe our meal will taste funny - those Ranch Pancakes weren't exactly tasty - but we'll learn how the ingredients interact, and we likely won't make the same mistake twice.  

On the other hand, perhaps we'll have a triumph - a delicious meal that others will want to share with their friends.  

Chef Charlie Trotter said cuisine is truly exciting when a chef can begin to improvise based on their knowledge of how things go together.  

When we as trainers understand how things go together, and know our topic well enough to improvise, that is when things truly become exciting. 

I feel like I wrote that a lifetime ago... but I still find that improvisation is a highly valuable skill in my day-to-day. When you're a mom, things rarely go as planned. Some of the happiest moments in my home lately have been improvised... A spontaneous movie night when the kids got pink-eye, a visit to a new park when our schedule allowed for some flexibility, games made of painter's tape when I was recovering from sinus surgery... Improvisation saves the day more often than I care to admit.