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Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Police are turning to improv to improve leadership skills
Fast Company: Discomfort is common in leadership training, but it’s especially palpable when you walk into a room of police commanders and ask them to say “Yes, and…”
That’s the scene I step into regularly as part of my work with the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago Crime Lab.
I grew up working for a very tiny non-profit children's theatre. Something I learned while working for them was how to write grants and gain donors/sponsors. One of the most common things we talked about when reaching out to people is how powerful theatre can be for learning and developing life skills specifically for leaders. The artistic director often talked about how she was trying to raise change makers and not just theatre kids. I think this is a great example of that. I think improv is one of the most intimidating things but like this article talks about the payoff is huge. I like the idea of police officers using this as training. I can only imagine it is some really good team bonding but I would imagine it would also be beneficial to them and their service. I wish more companies did this but maybe this will be the start of a trend.
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