The Doctors Will See You Now….

Last September, I launched The Improv Evangelist initiative, offering free Applied Improv workshops to organisations anywhere in the UK, just because I believe in the incredible transformative power of Improv.

This week a group of GPs-in-training fromt the West Midlands Deanery were the latest to go through the experience.

Now remember, these are people who work in an environment where even a tiny error can have monumental consequences, and it becomes second nature to them to be careful, thoughtful, and risk-averse.  So I really wasn’t sure how they would respond to me spending a whole afteroon encouraging them to stop thinking, go with the flow, accept random choices, and make mistakes with joy and abandon.

The results were nothing short of delightful.  This room of serious, studious doctors played with glee and delight, and created some fabulous and inventive moments.  But more importantly, they absolutely got the connection between the games we played, and the skills of listening, attending, accepting, responding with awareness, and sensitive teamwork that would be so useful to them in clinical practice.

Two best quotes from the day – “As GPs we need to spend time listening more to patients, and responding and acting on their words, as opposed to using our own words” and “Lot’s of fun – did not stop smiling all afternoon.  Thank you!”