By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)
I like trying to conquer my fears. Anything that seems terrifying at first…like, public speaking.
I studied and performed improv in college with Theatre Strike Force, and a few of the fundamentals were some of the greatest lessons learned for business practices and everyday life. We performed “Whose Line Is It Anyway” short-form comedy games, and participated in workshops with Improv Olympic. I remember dreading the mandatory senior year presentation. But our team had been planning all semester, and this was a project I knew very well, so when it came time to presenting I was beyond comfortable with the idea, which was not the case for my classmates. I’d like to share these key learnings, with hopes they too will help your path towards {Borat voice} great success.
Here are 5 key improv principles:
Always make your partner look better than yourself. I love this principle. It 
basically guarantees that being generous and gracious will get you far in life.
Specific choices are committed choices. Bias for action is a common characteristic for leaders. This is because all active choices move things forward. The more specific the choice, the better. This helps teams respond and build momentum.
Shut up, and listen. A friend from class, Vincent, was a gifted journalist. The best journalists are the ones who really listen, and Vincent has insanely good memory. This naturally made him one of the best improv students. In an agency setting, it’s easy to be strung thin when working across multiple accounts. We have to remember to regroup. I’ll be the first to admit it’s sometimes the toughest part of the job. In realizing the multitasking nature of an agency, and the fact that many of us consume information by the tweet, all this has made it extremely challenging to stay focused. But when we listen, we trust, and with this comes true team unity. Group think is far more powerful than an individual mind.
Don’t block. A common misconception is that improv is similar to standup, when in fact, since the art is pure spontaneity, one of the quickest ways to destroy group mind is going for the joke or not listening, which is considered blocking a partner.
Yes, And… These are the two words of focus in improv. To move a scene forward, you must be in agreement, and then add a statement and action. It’s considered forbidden to create conflict within a scene—because this stops forward motion. The only “negative” domain that can really be entered is in creating irony. I love how this is so true in everyday life. You should build information to a discussion, not just recycle content.
CRT/tanaka participated in improv trainings in the Lumin Collaborative leadership summits, and Lumin partner Peppercom, was actually featured on a MSNBC segment about comedy in the workplace.
And on a side note, a few of the world’s greatest comedians are on Twitter, (when have we ever been able to hear their crazy thoughts by the second?) Be sure to check out @rainnwilson, @SteveMartinToGo, @ConanOBrien @StephenAtHome and @CraigyFerg .
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In an industry dominated by extroverts, confidence is one of many keys to success. Self-assurance and poise served each of us well during our application process. We were striking and unique candidates. However, as we navigated the first weeks and months of our program, it became clear that we were each still novices in our own right. Interns are chosen for potential, not perfection. No one would presume to be an expert in this field simply because they have a sense of how it works. Confidence in asking questions and looking for critiques ultimately made our work stronger and more polished. In a workplace of strong personalities, it is essential to value your time and work, to push back when you disagree and to take pride in the services you provide – even as an entry level associate.
In a bleak post-grad job market, landing that first job is exhilarating. As the new kid on the block, you want to prove yourself right off the bat and show that you are capable of producing polished work. But the truth is, we all need practice and guidance. Working in PR taught me to appreciate (and expect) constructive feedback from my co-workers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a hard pill to swallow when your work isn’t perfect the first time around. But to be successful in agency life, you have to develop thick skin. Don’t take it to heart if you have to make changes to your work or go back to the drawing board altogether. Whether it’s writing a news release, creating a presentation or developing key messages from scratch, you have to learn to put aside your feelings and understand that it’s not personal; it’s a team effort for the client.
Chances are high that you won’t be the only intern in your office. You might think that these other interns are your competition, but back-stabbing and constantly trying to one-up each other won’t get you hired. If anything, it will show your supervisors that you don’t play nicely with others. As much as we’d all like to think we’re going to revolutionize the PR world on our own, it’s important to remember that each account is worked by a team. The dynamics of a team directly impact the quality of work that team produces. So think about your intern group as a team: have each other’s backs and use your fellow interns as a resource. I learned that having my fellow interns edit my work before I sent it to my supervisor made us all look more polished and professional. If you can create a good “team intern” culture, no one will be afraid to take the time to pay it forward. Your supervisor will respect you and the rest of your intern class even more for your ability to set aside the urge to compete and work together instead.
As PR interns, part of our job is examining how our clients can leverage and capitalize on current trends. The ever-changing media landscape makes our jobs as PR professionals a greater challenge than ever before. Since interns are expected to be the young, fun and trendy associates in the office, I’ve made it my duty to stay on top of the latest trends. I stay current by subscribing to and analyzing key media relating to my clients, identifying their audiences, zoning in on consumer insights and staying up to date on the PR industry. We need to be on the forefront of what’s fresh and new, instead of jumping in mid-conversation.
When I was asked on my first day, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how social media-savvy are you?” I confidently replied, “eight.” I soon found out that I may have swiftly inserted my foot directly into my mouth. I learned—the hard way—that the complex world of social media is seriously overlooked in school. I avoided any additional foot-in-mouth scenarios and improved my social media-savvy score by tracking trends via social media-focused blogs, using an aggregator like Google Reader to read all new posts in one spot, experimenting with free social media monitoring tools, keeping track of how social media metrics are evolving and familiarizing myself with tweet-scheduling programs to keep tweets timely, no matter how busy the day is. Read, experiment and familiarize to ensure your score is always a 10.
I swear the next time, I see another brand asking me to “Like” or “Follow” them without giving me a reason to engage with them, I am going to actually take the time to email their social media contact and give them my two cents. If your digital agency is just responsible for daily tweets and Facebook updates, please stop and re-visit your social strategy. Wake up, look around and see the millions of brands now on social media pretty much saying the same thing as you. How are going to differentiate yourself and more importantly when do you stop begging your target audience to come join you on social channels? Instead, have you thought of putting together a quarterly content strategy that PULLS your audience into your conversation? And YES, 
strategy to educate Americans on the importance of diet, nutrition, exercise and responsible use of vitamins and supplements for their 
valuable small business marketing content to help companies stay on top of their online marketing efforts. As their PR agency, when we were asked to put together a launch plan for their 
McDonald’s recently rolled out the healthier menu for kids program to spread the word about downsizing the french fry portions and adding apples to every kids’ meal. Besides the usual suspects, Facebook, Twitter and traditional outlets, they 
Can’t believe its August already and 
So are you feeling pressured to start toying with Google+ and join the 10M users that are “circling,” “hanging-out” and “sparking” on Google+. My verdict is: definitely play around and identify engagement techniques for your brand but there is no need to shift from Facebook and Twitter just yet. As a social agency, 
Mashable calls “Hangouts” the killer functionality of G+. Facebook recently signed a contract with Skype to add a video/audio feature to their chat but this is still in the works and not sure if it enables group video-chat. G+ Hangouts is offering this for free and that’s freaking cool from a collaboration perspective. Just think of bringing in your clients, colleagues in different offices to now “hangout” versus an audio-only meeting. A great use of the Hangout feature from this Mashable post: 
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