Imagination and Fluid Leadership: A Powerful Concept for First Responders

On Tuesday, March 25th, our Heroic Improvisation team (Gabe, Dingdong, Ariel and I) did our first run of the Level 2 workshop -- focusing on Spontaneous Team building.

I have run the Level 2 workshop in the US with national service volunteers.  But this time, we had the privilege of running the workshop for seasoned firefighters and police officers in the Subic Bay area.  These emergency responders are well-known in the Philippines to be the best emergency rescuers in the country.


See more at: http://www.mysubicbay.com.ph/news/2013/10/21/sbma-rescue-team-wins-2013-gawad-kalasag

We wanted to give these well-trained first responders a different training experience.  So we engaged their imaginations right away.  We had them respond in 5 minutes to a fictional, unimaginable event - right out of a Hollywood script.

It was amazing to see two groups firefighters and police work together to shelter in place quickly.   I haven't seen a championship athletic team come together so quickly for a common purpose.

I knew that imagination was a good resource for disaster practice.  And I was still blown away at how powerful imagination was for experienced professionals.  Using their imaginations, the participants played hard and played for real.   Therefore, they were able to respond to an unimaginable experience right on the spot.

During the workshop, we put them through a more difficult improvisation exercises, since all of them had deep experiences in working as a team in crisis situations.  And still we could challenge them with the exercises.

The biggest insight that the first responders described for themselves was the idea of fluid leadership.  In the workshop, we demonstrate this with a mirroring exercise in pairs.  We have the participants face each other and alternate leading the movement.  They start with their eyes open, with one leader designated at a time.  Later, we have the partners alternate quickly, until there is no obvious leader or follower -- they are just in the flow.  The final part is for the participants to close their eyes.  The miracle is when the facilitators asks participants to stop and open their eyes -- most are exactly mirroring each other.  Those pairs that are not exactly mirroring have complementary movements.  It is a powerful demonstration of fluid leadership.

We challenged them with a more complex exercise.  All thirty were scattered in the room.  Then we gave them the instruction that only one person could walk.  When another person had the impulse to walk, the first walker stops.  Therefore, all have to have a hard focus on who is walking and a soft focus on who might move next.  It was amazing to see how smoothly it worked with this group.

Then we moved into two people moving.  The complexity increases dramatically with two walkers because there is double the amount of action to watch.  Eventually, the group gets into a rhythm that is responsive to the moment.  It is not a dance. Yet to watch this movement feels like the group practiced their moves well in advance of the moment.

Our workshop was so well received by the responders, that a high-level emergency responder leader said he was willing to devote his weekend to bring Heroic Improvisation to schools in the area.  This leader's interest in Heroic Improvisation is a true testament to the ability of the workshop to harness imagination to help people get ready for disaster!