12. May 2010 by justdanika.

I read Improv Wisdom last summer by Patricia Madson. It was a revolutionary way to approach life that was so relevant during my hectic summer in my sling that was full of anger and complications. It has been a source of inspiration for me on many occasions and my sister also has found it as a resource during her current pregnancy and life to keep her calm and centered.

I decided to just show up to a class one of my fellow Stanford Improvisers teaches on Monday because he had asked us to at some point and I felt like I wanted to. Not only did I get to play with a young group of excited improvisers, I also got to play with Patricia Madson herself. She was the guest teacher for the day doing a class on shared control.

It was a treat to play with her, see her excitement at creating and telling stories with the group, enjoy her passion as a teacher and her smile every time anything different came up.

I now have another source of inspiration when sharing improv with people. I absolutely love my teacher Dan Klein and have learned so much from his guidance on how to do improv. He has a natural ability to understand peoples actions and creates a safe space to be different. Patricia is wonderfully compassionate and caring as an improv teacher. She is different as she coaches improv as a way of life, not a theater experience. Both are creative and help craft the way we think (or don’t think) about what we should say next.

I find myself feeling lucky to have met these great improvisers and people on my journey here at Stanford. If any of you are ever so lucky…please take a class and embrace the improv as a way of life.

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23. October 2009 by justdanika.

Studying collaboration for my master’s project is like studying the world.

Life is collaborative.

I’ve decided to focus on 3 areas of collaboration that I personally find interesting and important.

“meetings”

Those boring events that you constantly roll your eyes at, doodle during, feel unproductive at the end and the momemt you walk out you forget exactly what happened

innovative idea generation

Brainstorming, though a group activity, is not actually collaborative. You don’t actually encourage the diverse range of information to build off each other.

collaborative ownership and responsibility

Community spaces are often dirty, go unused or are not actually productive in anyway. Community collapses around shared space because people don’t share well and contribute often.

I want to tackle collaboration in these areas because it is important to me for people to get together, get something done. I care about my communities and I think everyone should.

Group Creating

Group Creation

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