One of the biggest rules in improvisation is that you must always say ‘Yes, and…’ to continue your scene. Anything else closes everything down and doesn’t allow for any creative play.
This is a good lesson to take into the real world, I think. When I’m talking to someone, and especially if they’ve asked me for advice, my heart sinks when I hear them say ‘Yes, but…’. What generally follows is a collection of reasons why something won’t work, why they don’t want to try a particular thing, it could be anything but it stops the discussion in its tracks.
I often wonder if the person saying ‘Yes, but…’ is scared of success. They’re so quick to cut off any practical suggestions and dismiss them out of hand. Implementing a new strategy could just mean different results, bigger results, better results, and if you’re not in the right mindset to embrace that, you just shut everything down.
Are you a ‘Yes, and…’, or are you a ‘Yes, but…’? If it’s the latter, maybe it’s time to take a deeper look at why that might be your go-to response. What are you really saying no to?
