Heroic Improv: Having fun while preparing for disaster in Philippines (Interview Transcript!)

Transcript: Mornings @ ANC

February 26, 2014

Heroic Improv: Having fun while preparing for disaster in Philippines

The concept of fun is hardly imaginable when calamity strikes. But some believe that it is just the key to make communities more resilient.  Following the recent disasters that hit the country, a collaboration was born to apply theater improvisation games to generate action for innovative disaster response. 

Now here to tell us more about their shared cause and their chosen medium are Gabe Mercado  - founder and artistic director of Silly People's Improv Theater company or SPIT  - and he is also a trainer with a decade of experience in human and organizational development.  And Dr. Mary Tyszkiewicz  - a disaster research professional from Washington DC and founder of the Heroic Improv Process.

Paulo:  Good morning

Gabe:  Good morning, thanks for having us.

Paulo:  The introduction I think really hit the nail on the head for me.  I mean -- disasters,  being funny, improv  -- but they do meet somewhere, don’t they.  How do they meet?

Mary:  Um the way they meet is.... Disasters often are unimaginable.  So how do you get people to be ready for something unimaginable? So we use theater to help citizens, emergency managers and elected officials to practice.

Paulo: Right

Gabe:  The key here is really is -- I have had lots of experience doing improvisation.  Which is basically, you mount the stage with nothing prepared in advance. Mary  - on the other hand - has had decades of experience too working in US government in the US Capital, Homeland Security Institute and FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency.   And our two lines of experience basically met.  And she said, ”In a lot of ways, improvisation and disaster are alike because things that you do not prepare for that you cannot imagine happen right there.”  And it is the process by which we adjust to unexpected and unimaginable that we take citizens through.

Paulo:  Right, OK.  When you explain it that way, it certainly makes a lot of sense.  How did you come upon this...how did you figure that out, Mary?

Mary: Inspired by Hurricane Katrina and the poor response, I was inspired to find a better way to get  Americans to practice for disaster.  And ..um...we did actually did a test with virtual reality and elected officials, and it turned out the secret sauce was getting them together and play for real.

And at the same time, my mother was doing community theater in the US.  And community theater is something that starts with hardly any professionals.  And two months later, they have a production and it’s beautiful.  And so I said: “Wow!  Can’t we harness that imagination to get people to prepare for disaster?”  And so, I found theater improvisation as a solution to a problem that I was seeking.

Paulo:  OK.  I mean - your first thought was  - yeah  - that this may be the way to get people a little more prepared. What --  did you experiment?  Who did you experiment on, with?  What was their reaction when you said -  you know what this is probably one of the best ways to prepare for disaster...  let’s makes some jokes about it.  Or not necessarily jokes but let’s use improv techniques to prepare.

Mary:  As the social scientist of the duo, I was actually surprised about the fun.  I actually went to improvisation because I know in the beginning of an improv scene, people don’t know where they are, they don’t know who they are with and they don’t know what is next.  And for a non-performer, that feels like a disaster.  And as an analyst who is not a performer, I took improv classes for a year to really explore the process.  So then when we developed the exercise, the surprise to me is that the participants said it was fun.  And it appears that the fun fuels the learning and gets it to stick.

Gabe: Yeah. One example -- actually Paulo -- yesterday we were at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.  And the SBMA Emergency Response Team last year -- 2013 -- won the award the best emergency response team in the country.  

And we ran them through scenarios which were a little bit off.

Paulo:  Unusual?

Gabe:  Unusual.  Because these are members of the fire department and law enforcement.  And we start cold with a scenario.  And because we knew they were highly drilled and the best in the country, the scenario we started them with was we gave them five minutes to secure the room for a Zombie invasion.  

Paulo:  It could happen.  Laughter

Gabe: And our point was.  It they really threw themselves at it and really prepared.  It was eerie.  There was silence and they were in defense position.

After we processed it out to, how many of our disaster locally were unimaginable to people who were there.  Let’s take Haiyan, for example.  There was information that there were 10-15 meter high storm surge. 

Paulo:  But we never experienced that.

Gabe:  People couldn’t imagine it.  So, perhaps their response was not as adequate, because it was unimaginable.

Paulo:  Right, OK.  So in terms of actual..... I mean.... you have been in the improv game for a very long time.  In terms of the actual exercises that sort of go into this,  and how are the learnings distilled and how to make those learnings concrete. What is the process?  How does a session like this work?

Gabe:  Well, first, we don’t label it as improv.  We take out all the jargon as much as possible.  And we go through a five-step process.

Mary:   Yeah - so the five step process....  um ...the first step is Alert.  And basically, that is to recognize there is a crisis.  Because many citizens...they freak out, freeze up, they are in denial.  So we get them to warm up their bodies and their intuition.  And to forget about the past.  Forget about the future.  Be here right now.

And then the second step is Ready.  So we try to get people to practice their awareness.  So, what is around them?  What could be useful?  And I know Filipinos are really good at finding other uses for things.  

So that is one of the things, instead of people being freaked out, we want them to be open.  And just like, wow I can use this flat screen TV to carry something or you know -- whatever.

And then the third step, is to connect up as a group.  That is one of the things we do in the simulation is we have people....  You need to keep the group safe together.  Because many times in a disaster people take just care of themselves.

And we know  -- I know -- because I seen it in Superstorm Sandy -- that innovative disaster response is done in a group.  It is only successfully done as a group.

So the third step is to connect up in a group.  And then once those things happen,  - Alert, Ready, Connect,  - then people will naturally know what the next right step is together, even though they never experienced this before.

Gabe:  We also take them through the fourth step -  which is giving and taking focus.  Because a key component of this is fluid leadership.  We have situations here where we do not move because the barangay captain did not tell us anything or the mayor did not tell us anything.  

And we take citizens through the experience of taking and giving leadership in a fluid manner.  And that you do not have to wait for another person to order you around, to take the moment.

And then the last  step of the five steps is moving quickly towards a solution.  And the whole thing  -- in our experience in our simulations --  can sometimes take less than two minutes.  All those steps and it just goes over and over again.  It is a spiral.

Mary:  Yes.  It is a spiral.

Paulo:  How to do you measure how the effective the technique has been or will be when it comes to preparing people to be a little more  - you know - Bruce Lee in their reaction to disaster?

Mary:  Bruce Lee together!

Gabe:  Sholin monks!

Gabe:  The way we design it is there are two simulations.  We have a whole database of disasters from the unlikeliest to the likeliest.  And we make sure....

Paulo:  Zombies apocalypse .... somewhere in the middle.

Gabe:  Yes.  And the other situation we ran yesterday to end the session was a vintage US nuclear warhead was found in Subic and it was leaking.  And that is a little likely.  We have a whole database of disasters. And we sandwich the program between them.  

So the first disaster simulation we get a base of how did they react?  Were they catatonic?  Did they just talk?

And with the last one.  After they go through the module and five-step process, we time them again with a totally different scenario.   And often we see the response is much, much faster.

Paulo:  Is quicker

Gabe:  Yeah....

Mary:  And in harmony as a group.

Paulo:  I mean....can you translate the way you ....I don’t know... problem solve........or tackle a particular problem in a light and sort of stress-free environment that you do when you do go through these simulations?  Is that supposed to be a model for how you are supposed to handle a situation for when things get real?

Gabe:  Well, just to put context about the whole thing we are doing....  We see what we are doing as part of an entire program of disaster preparedness programs that a community must go through.  And most training program move on the areas of increasing people’s knowledge.  Let’s say: What is an earthquake, what is a storm surge. etc.  Or increasing their skills:  How to do First Aid.  How to do CPR.  How to put out a fire.

We see this piece as concentrating completely on attitude.  What attitude should the civilian take?  And it is really directed towards civilians and citizens.  What attitude should we take when disaster hits unexpectedly?   And we feel it is a great foundational piece to learn knowledge and skills.  And it has been really effective for us that is it done in a spirit of fun.  Disasters are depressing enough.  

Paulo:  Right.  Like we said at the start, the last thing you connect to disasters is having fun.  But really being loose and being fluid and being able to roll with the punches seems be what being effective in a situation like this is all about.  What do from here? Now that we know that an approach like this can work,  how to we trickle this down to groups, to barangay, to communities?  How do we organize ourselves?

Gabe:  We have spent the past.... Has it just been two weeks? 

Mary:  Since Valentine’s Day.

Gabe:  We have been rolling the program out to as many communities as we can. We have gone to Laguna.  

Paulo:  Right .  OK, we have some clips of sessions that you had.

Gabe:  Yes.  From Laguna.  We are heading to Leyte this Friday.  And we are putting together all...Mary is an expert on research and writing grants and really taking the data and taking a look at it.  When she returns to Washington, we’re gonna take a look at all the data we have generated, fine tune it.  And we’re seeing a national-wide roll-out by April or May.  How exactly we are going to do this logistically, we are not their yet.

Mary:  We are going to improvise, though.

Paulo:  We are gonna see what happens.  We are going to see how what comes our way.  And we will react to that.  Right?

Gabe:  We see this really....we have volunteer facilitators who are willing and able to run this.  If we can get a partner.  JCI is already helping us -- the Junior Chamber International.  And with their help we want to roll this out - particularly the JCI Makati Princess Urduja Chapter.

Paulo:  All right.  Well good stuff.  All right.  We certainly applaud your efforts.  It is very interesting actually what we learned from you guys.  Well, thanks you very much Gabe and Doctor Mary for joining us this morning.  Best of luck and how the program goes farther, faster and quicker.  

Gabe:  To as many communities as we can manage.

Mary:  Thank you.

Paulo:  Thank you for joining us this morning. Next up is a sneak-peek at the Gonzilla re-make.

Gabe:  That is a great segue.

Paulo:  Yes.  How would you react to that?  Laughter.

Final Workshop for Disaster Survivors: A 10 year old Student Council President Blows the Roof Off Our Last Workshop in Tacloban

On Saturday afternoon, our final workshop was for 16 members of the JCI Tacloban Chapter.  We held the workshop at their former headquarters that was not too far from the sea.  The headquarters building was now a roofless shell of a building.  We were told that the place was looted after the storm. There was no electricity, so we needed to make sure we got the workshop done before the 6PM sundown.  You could see where walls were and some interior rooms.  There was a rickety series of 2 by 4 boards that were holding up an interior ceiling.  One good shove or wind would bring the whole thing down.  We stayed away from that space for the workshop.  Luckily, there was still a working toilet.  JCI Chapter members brought in a cooler for cold drinks and plastic chairs for the workshop.

I felt it was the perfect place to do the workshop.  It was like the workshop would reclaim the destroyed place for the 20-40 year old business entrepreneurs -- symbolizing a better future beyond Typhoon Haiyan.

It was a Saturday and some of the JCI members who had children brought them along to the workshop.  Kids were going to school on Saturday in the area to make up for the time they missed because of the typhoon.  We had two 10 year old girls who jumped right into our workshop next to their parents.  

One girl was really notable.  Gabi introduced herself to the group in perfect English as the third-grade class president.  She played each exercise to the hilt.

So when we came to the final exercise of workshop she jumped right in.  She improvised a scene with Gabe about a shared memory of traveling to Disneyland together.  All in English! The story started with all the fun they had, a scared Mickey Mouse and then Gabi using a taser to keep the knights who were scaring Mickey Mouse and chasing her and Gabe away.  Gabi brought the house down!

Unfortunately for the workshop, Gabi set the performance bar so high that it frightened the adults to try.  Luckily, Gabe, Dingdong and I tried our persuasive best to encourage the adults to improvise.  One brave woman improvised with me in English, which was is a feat for these people who speak three languages:  Wahri, Tagalong and English.

Gabe tried one more time to get others to improvise.  Gabe told our participants that the number one fear in America is public speaking.  The second is death.  Then Gabe asked Gabi about her public speaking abilities.  She said, “I have been speaking in public my whole life, especially as class president.”  And then Gabe said, “What about the rest of you adults?”.   He got a laugh and no more volunteers.  And we made our point:  You can feel the fear and move into action anyway or not.  At least after the workshop, you know you can have a choice.

After sundown, we were taken to a local home for a home-cooked meal.  Our visiting group of 12 were fed, along with JCI Chapter members.  It was a crowd fed by one of the members who was a caterer.

They did not have electricity, so electric lamps powered by solar cells illuminated the home.  Also, there was no electric fans.  The matriarch instead walked around the house and fanned us with her hand fan.  How hospitable!

I had my first sticky coconut dessert, wrapped in coconut leaves and served with coconut jam.  Yum!  Gabe and Celene loved it so much, they commissioned more to be made for us to take back to Manila.

After the meal, Gabi found me again.  She very formally asked me -- as the third grade president -- if I would come back to the Philippines and visit her school.  The whole dinner party was enchanted by her speech to me, and of course I said yes.  I guess I will be back to the Philippines, at minimum to visit Gabi’s school in Tacloban.

During our Heroic Improvisation workshop, we ask participants to pick one word to summarize what they learned. I took on that challenge myself to describe what I learned in the Super-Typhoon Haiyan locations of Tacloban and Tanauan. On that Saturday night, I failed...I was so overwhelmed with feelings that I couldn't put it into one word. 

Now, I have found the word. And it is a word from the local Warhi language: Tingdog! It means Rise Up! Although the destruction is epic -- even after 112 days after the typhoon -- the people's spirit is strong and resilient. So inspiring to see people moving on in the wake of tragedy with high spirits!

Second Workshop for Disaster Survivors: Local Barangay Citizens Survive Heroically During The Storm Surge

We had an early start Saturday morning, our plan was to get back to Tanauan II Central School by 8A.  Our van driver picked us up at the hotel.  Sander jumped out of the van to get us fresh baked rolls for breakfast at the closest bake shop, and then we were off for 10 km ride to the school.

We were met at the school by JCI Chapter Tanauan Former President Lanilo A. Macalla (known as “Macky”).  He organized some more breakfast for us (fried beef and rolls), and brought hot water for coffee.  He also set up a water cooler for breaks.  Drinkable water was still scarce in Tanauan and we were grateful for the largess of a water cooler.

Today, we were leading a smaller group of 16 citizens through the workshop.  This group size is ideal.  With a group size of 16 or less, we can guarantee a deeper experience as a small group.  With a group size of 16 or more, the small group experience is lessened for participants, yet we can still get the basic concepts across.

Gabe started this group with pair and share questions:

• What are you excited about?
• What are you afraid of?
• On scale from 1 - 10, how prepared are you for the next unimaginable event?

Gabe smartly de-briefed these questions and how they relate to disaster response.  It turns out the physiological effects of fear are just like excitement:

• Sweaty palms
• Quick breathing
• Rapid heartbeat

Through the workshop, we want to give people choice to use excitement to move into action and not be frozen in fear.  It seemed like his message hit home to these disaster survivors.

This group of 16 was very diverse.  The local barangay captain, her neighbors, and three teenage singers from the area called “The Singing Survivors” made up our group.  The barangay is the smallest of the elected administrative divisions of the Philippines. The local barangay captain told stories of how citizens came to her for guidance during the typhoon and storm surge and how she kept them focused on actions to survive.

One of the “Singing Survivors” told his survivor story very dramatically.  At the moment the typhoon was destroying him home, he described it as “Yolanda -- Right here in 3D!” with a lot of humor.

So Gabe challenged him to improvise a scene with me -- the American.   This expressive entertainer was terrified to go off of his script and improvise with the American.  He actually said in Tagalong that he would prefer to go through Typhoon Yolanda again than improvise with me.

This was another “ah ha” moment for me.  The fear of improvising in front of a group can at least equal the fear of confronting an unknown disaster.  I wanted to find a way to help people experience the fear of a disaster without anyone getting hurt and I found it!

After the workshop, we were taken by pedicab (my first trip!) to downtown Tanauan for a lovely lunch in a home front cafe.  The food was good and the vibe relaxed.  So relaxed that when there was a lull in customers, wait staff would nap on the couch in front.

First Workshop with Disaster Survivors: Example of Fluid Leadership During the Storm Surge

Throughout the workshop, we helped the teachers see their Typhoon experience through the lens of the Heroic Improvisation workshop exercises:  1.  Alert, 2. Ready, 3. Connect, 4. Focus, 5. Move.  And the bonus was we generated fun and laughs along the way.

In Step 4, Focus,  we guide the participants to experience fluid leadership.  The concept is leadership passes around the group depending on the action needed.  One teacher told the group that her shy, silent son arose as the leader of her family’s survival during the storm surge.  He kept the family calm and came up with solutions like hanging onto cables and use large water containers as floation devices.  She used him as an example of fluid leadership.  In regular life, the teacher was the leader of her family.  But during the storm surge, her quiet son helped her family focus on the actions necessary to survive.

At the end of the day, we travelled back to Tacloban.  Our JCI hosts organized a meal for all of us at the best fish restaurant in the area.  You come into the restaurant -- pick out some fresh fish from the selection on ice -- and then they cook it for you.  Per usual, we ate family style, so our host picked out great fish made broiled and in soup. Yum!

First Workshop with Disaster Survivors: From “Ready to Die” to “Equipped for the Next Event”

Our first workshop was in the Tanauan II Central School, site of one of the disaster tent cities.  For Americans, think of school as a very large picnic shelter.  It was made of concrete slabs and walls.  Parts of the roof was blown off and repaired with metal signs.  The windows were open to the air with grates over them.  We were lucky that there was a serious breeze going through the space.

We usually start our workshops with a disaster simulation.  We knew we couldn’t do that with recent disaster survivors.  We could not take the risk of re-traumatizing them.

Gabe started this large session of 24 teachers simply: Pair up with an unfamiliar partner and tell your experience of the first five minutes of the Super-Typhoon Haiyan.  Take care of your partner as they tell their story and really listen.  Then, rate yourself on a scale from 1 - 10 on how ready you are for the next disaster.

One teacher participant shared that she rated herself a “3” and ready to die.  Her typhoon experience was so overwhelming she couldn’t fathom doing anything that again and would prefer to die.  That was a sobering comment for us all to hear.

And then we went on with the workshop.  Our workshop takes participants through a series of “up and moving” theater improvisation games.  We generated more laughter through our games than we did in our previous workshops.  Dingdong observed: “Perhaps our participants were looking for something to laugh about.”  And I was glad we could bring the gift of laughter to a group that had serious challenges ahead of it.

At the end of the first workshop in Tanauan, that same teacher rated herself an “8” as ready for the next unimagined disaster.  She now said, “At the beginning of the workshop, I said I was a “3” and ready to die.  Through this workshop, I rate myself an “8” because this workshop gave me weapons to be ready for the next one.  Bring it on, I’m ready”.

This teacher made my trip to the Philippines worthwhile.  I thought this workshop could help prepare citizens for disaster.  And now a recent disaster survivor could see her own experience from a new point of view and as a way to be see herself equipped for the next one.

What I learned from this pilot phase was that the human imagination is a powerful tool to help citizens, emergency managers and elected officials ready for disaster.  Hooray!

First Look at the Super-Typhoon Haiyan Disaster Site: Tacloban and Tanauan

Gabe Mercado and our teammates -- Bing, Celene, Dingdong, Sander and I -- left for the Manila airport at 1:45A on Friday, February 28, 2014.  Bing was an important part of team, because he spoke the local language - Wahri.  There are at least 120 languages in the Philippines.  Filipino is the official language, which is the Tagalong language spoken in Manila.  English is another official language.  Many Manila citizens use English no problem.  Outside of Manila, my experience is more people understand English than can speak it.

Cebu Pacific Air donated six airline tickets for our Heroic Improvisation team.  There were no direct flights to the affected area.  We flew to Cebu from Manila and then transfered to Tacloban flight, which took us to the island and province of Leyte, Philippines. 

Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the island of Leyte.  We were to do three workshops with over 50 disaster survivors in Tacloban and Tanauan over two days.

Our team mostly slept in the airport and on the plane, so we would be ready for our first workshop in at an elementary school in Tanauan - 10 km north of Tacloban. Our JCI Makati Princess Urduja Chapter Coordinators - a team of 5 young women entrepreneurs from Manila - picked us up from the Tacloban airport in a van with a driver.  That airport still looks like a disaster zone.  There is a roof and the rest of the terminal has been blown out.  There are blue tarps as walls now.  This keeps the dust flying onto waiting passengers when jets take off.  There is a significant military presence at the airport and lots of ruins of cars, shanties, water towers, etc.

We went directly to a breakfast buffet at the nicest hotel left in Tacloban  - Hotel Alejandro.  It also serves as the informal headquarters of the UN effort here.  http://alejandro.tacloban.biz/  We cooled down in air conditioning while we had our breakfast.  At 9AM, we were off in the van again for the 10 km drive to Tanauan.  Our first stop was the Tanauan Mayor’s office to be officially greeted.  We received Certificates of Appreciation signed by the Mayor and ribbon necklace with a sunflower and seal of the city from uniformed staff.  More about Tanauan here:  http://www.tanauancity.gov.ph/

Then we got to the local school (Tanauan II Central School), where we were greeted by about 120 school children, grades K - 6.  The single story school building was damaged by the storm.  There were no windows and the roof was recently repaired.  Three school children drowned in the building during the storm surge from the Super-Typhoon.

Most of the children were living with their parents in a tent city on the school grounds.  The tents were white UN tents with side ventilation and they sure did seem hot.  The tent city residents were using the water from the school for cooking and washing.  It was a quiet orderly place.  Someone already planted some flowers, so the place looked pretty.  Since the school had good drinking water, the kids’ had their labelled toothbrushes there.  A bittersweet image.  All the kids were clean, well-dressed and well-behaved.  I was impressed because there was over 150 school kids and they were sitting quietly in the school in the heat.

Our JCI partners presented the students with backpacks of simple school supplies:  paper, pens, notebooks.  These kids lost everything, so the supplies were welcome.  The parents take turns cooking lunch for the kids, mostly rice and vegetables.

As guests, we were treated to the best food available.  This part of the Philippines is famous for roast pig, so we got that....still on the spit.  The only time I saw Filipinos agressive was tearing into the pigskin to eat it.  Plus, there was a special noodle dish only served for special occasions, like birthdays.  We actually sang “Happy Birthday” to no one in particular, because it felt like a party with the food so special.

Here is All You Need to Know About the Philippines and Disaster: They Call the Super-Typhoon Yolanda

In the Philippines, Super-Typhoon Haiyan is known as Super-Typhoon Yolanda.  The South East Asia regional naming convention called it Haiyan.  However, the local Philippines naming convention called it Yolanda.  (More here:  http://firstperson.oxfamamerica.org/2013/11/typhoon-who-how-yolanda-became-haiyan/)

Think about that for a minute.  The Philippines had so many typhoon in the 2013 season that they almost ran out of the alphabet, since they were already at the letter “Y”.

The Philippines is very disaster-prone:  typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and landslides.  The Filipino people are experienced and resilient in the face of all these natural hazards.

Amazingly, the Philippines is the perfect place to pilot the Heroic Improvisation process to the variety of communities here.  I wonder if the Philippines can be a good testing ground for other new disaster response techniques and technologies?

Inspired by a 21st Century Politician: Meeting with the Youngest Filipino Senator - Bam Aquino

Gabe Mercado was fascinated with my former work with FEMA Corps -- the American national service program for 18-24 year olds  -- devoted to disaster survivors.  Inspired by the FEMA Corps example, Gabe sent an email to the Philippines newest and youngest Senator - Bam Aquino  - and requested a meeting for us to talk about youth service to disaster survivors.  

On Thursday afternoon, February 27, 2014, Sen. Aqunio agreed to meet with Gabe, Katy Mixner and I to discuss youth initiatives in disaster response and preparedness at his satellite office in Manila.  It is a former art gallery and looks it.  Large windows, open floor plan, captain’s stairway to the upper loft floor -- it is a cool space for a cool dude.

At 36 years old, Sen. Aqunio is right out of central casting as a young, hip, grounded, accessible legislator.  If this is what the next generation politician looks like, we are all in for a bright future!  Sen. Aquino has been a youth entrepreneur his whole life.  

For more info, go to: Bam Aquino Official Senate Website

Sen. Aqunio also told stories of Super-Typhoon Haiyan survivors that he witness after visiting the area.  He reported that Tacolban’s market was up and running after 4 weeks.  This is in comparison to markets returning in 18 weeks after the Aceh tsunami and 3 months after the Haiti earthquake.

He was amazed that the market had pork for sale.  (Pork is beloved in Filipino cuisine, especially in this region.)  The senator asked:  “How did you get pork to sell so quickly?”  The seller simply explained, “Pigs swim.” 

Sen. Aqunio told us inspiring stories of youth groups helping their communities get prepared for disaster.  One group took on teaching all young people in their community how to swim.  A simple idea with life-saving impacts.  Another group met with each small town in their region to discuss disaster preparedness.  A third group did emergency response themselves in their rural region.  They used an old-fashioned two-way radio and purchased their own vehicle and equipment to respond to first aid requests and fires.   

Sen. Aqunio was interested in the FEMA Corps concept and how service work can lead to innovation in a disaster.  He also told us of a youth in disaster response summit that his staff is planning for Fall 2014.  Heroic Improvisation would be a perfect fit for the training portion of the summit, so stay tuned for that. Sweet!

216 Filipino Citizens Ready for the Unimaginable thanks to the Heroic Improvisation Pilot!

Enabled by our sponsors from the Applied Improvisation Network, theater artists in the Philippines and other generous international donors, our Heroic Improvisation team in the Philippines has done mighty work to bring this workshop to Filipino citizens and emergency responders.  

In just over two weeks, our team has piloted this workshop with 12 groups in four regions of the Philippines.   We have had 216 Filipino participants complete the training, ranging in age from 10 to 70 years old.  After testing the workshop with 3 groups of trainers and improvisors, we have taken it to:

• 4 groups of employees (airline, conference center, and school), 
• 3 groups of disaster survivors 
• 1 group of emergency responders and 
• 1 indiginious tribe.

Our team of four facilitators and two facilitators-in-training have validated the Heroic Improvisation process by delivering the workshop in English, Tagalog and Wahri.  We have tested 4 different versions of the workshop for:

• Citizens
• Staff teams
• Disaster survivors (groups less than 16 people) and
• Disaster survivors (groups more than 16 people).

To run the pilot process, we used the principles of the Heroic Improvisation process: Alert, Ready, Connect, Focus, Move.  Because we did 12 runs in 15 days, the workshop improved quickly as we rapidly prototyped it.  Each run was fresh because Gabe Mercado and Dingdong Rosales would adapt our delivery depending on the needs of the Filipino participants in the room.  

The ability of the Heroic Improvisation team to adapt was put to good use when we brought our workshop to Typhoon Haiyan survivors in Tanauan and Tacolban in the Leyte region of the Philippines.  After just over 100 days since the November 2013 landfall of Typhoon Haiyan, the disaster was fresh in the minds of participants when we started the workshops in February 28 - March 1, 2014.  The workshop focused on how to view their recent experience through a heroic lens and self-assess how ready they would be for the next disaster.  At the start of the workshop, participants rated themselves as not very ready for the next one.  At the end of the workshop, participants were amazed at how they transformed their perception of readiness from low to very high.  They also felt empowered to be a leader and follower to respond to the next disaster together.

Q: What Do You Do in the First 5 Minutes of Disaster? A: Heroic Improvisation has the Answer!

For the first time, Gabe and I did two workshops in one day.  We did two employee groups of a regional Filipino airline.  (They also donated six airline tickets for our team to go to the Super-Typhoon Haiyan disaster site February 28 - March 2.)

The morning group was mixed group of senior leaders and front-line staff.  This airline has a safety culture and is used to having protocols for every situation.  We needed to shake it up a bit for them.  Therefore, Gabe emphasized our workshop focused on responding to the first five minutes of an unimaginable event that was outside of protocols or  “off-script”.

The group was uncomfortable with the “off-script” concept, which was perfect for the goals of our workshop.  We need to take people out of their comfort zones to use their imaginations powerfully.

We had the group rate its response to our opening scenario on a scale from 1low - 10 high.   They rated themselves low for surviving the scenario and a little higher for working as a group.  Our workshop demonstrated that standing around brainstorming is not the best response for an unimaginable situation.   During the opening scenario, the group shared feelings like:  being silly, scared, and waiting for a leader.  Towards the end of the workshop, the group got better at moving into action despite feeling uncomfortable and practicing fluid leadership -- regardless of current work assignment.

Then we went to lunch, where were joined by one of the airline’s senior leader and our newest Heroic Improvisation facilitator recruit.  Katy Mixter is a American who has come to the Philippines to volunteer in community building and disaster preparedness.  She is working on a variety of projects during her three-month stint, which ends April 30th.  Katy is working with Galwad Kalinga http://www.gk1world.com/.  Along with facilitating the Heroic Improvisation workshop, Katy will help me develop and edit the facilitator guides.

The afternoon group from the airlines was different than the morning group.  This group had the emergency response team and front-line staff.  Their natural action orientation got them up and moving quickly, so their experience of the workshop flowed more easily.  They did well in our opening scenario and also improved their response as a group in our closing scenario.

I learned that an ingrained team culture can be a vice when responding to an unimaginable event together.  The legacies of the team and established hierarchies can limit a creative response.  By using the power of imagination, we were able to give these employee groups a fresh view of how they can work together in the moment instead of relying on stale protocols that don’t apply to a unique disaster situation.

Chatting about Heroic Improvisation on National Filipino TV!

On Wednesday, February 26, Gabe Mercado got us a spot on the top morning show in the Philippines:  Mornings @ ANC.  It is in English and it is live TV.

Gabe was so low-key about it, that I thought this segment would be taped and would be possibly not be aired.  I found out it was live while we were at breakfast in advance of the show.

Why be nervous now?  I was with Gabe who has done this hundreds of times (he has a TV show here) and we are talking about something we love.

This is our hook:  In a world of unimaginable events, we use theater improvisation to get citizens to practice for disaster.  And it is fun!  I used this as a mantra and a prayer as I was getting my hair and makeup done...whew!

We had a 15-minute slot with the morning host Pablo.  During the commercial break, the host joked about my name and then was very seriously interested in what we were doing.

Gabe had some great images and videos of our training at Forest Club that were run during the spot.  And we had a great conversation about the project.  The time went very fast.

Right after, Gabe went on national radio (in the same building) to talk about Heroic Improvisation in Tagalog.  I was able to sit in on the interview with the female and male host team.  Of course, there was a snack to share at the commercial break.  Filipinos are constantly feeding me!

I haven’t been able to get the video on-line yet.  When I find it, I will post it!

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!

It Takes a Village to Bring Heroic Improvisation to a Native Village

My Filipino Heroic Improvisation partners are amazing.  Gabe Mercado is deep observer of human nature, organizer of innovation and funny.  He has attracted fellow Silly People’s Improv Theater members - Dingdong Roseles and Ariel Diccion -- to work as Heroic Improvisation facilitators in Tagalong and other regional Filipino languages.  They are experienced improvisors, great actors and have a heart for the work.  It is amazing to witness my ideas in a different language and see people make connections.  Although I haven’t studied Tagalong, I am learning to understand it.  It is a musical language spoken by expressive people, so I’m getting the gist and even some of the humor.  Amazing!

A friend and colleague of Gabe was able to create two opportunities for us to take Heroic Improvisation workshop in the Subic Bay area.  Americans might remember that Subic Bay, Philippines was an important American Naval Base during the Cold War.  In the early 1990s and in the wake of the volcano eruption of the Mount Pintabo, the Americans left the base and transferred ownership to the Philippines.  Since that time, the area is now known as Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, which is a national economic zone.

After leaving Manila at dawn on Monday 2/24, Gabe drove us (Dingdong, Ariel and me) to Subic Bay.  It was a fun ride to see the countryside.  The remains of the volcano destruction of the 1990s look like a barren moonscape -- gray and lifeless.  Still dramatic and humbling to see Mother Nature's destruction after all these decades.  

After lunch, we brought the Heroic Improvisation workshop to a small village of an indigenous Filipino tribe on the former Subic Bay property.  This area is a pristine rainforest.  We had 24 participants, from senior citizen women to teenage boys.  English comprehension was low, so I had only small speaking parts that were translated.  

It was so fun to see Ariel facilitate the workshop in Tagalong.  Ariel’s day job is a Filipino literature professor, so he can express the concepts simply and clearly.  Seeing the connection arise between Ariel and the participants validated my choice to use performers and improvisors to deliver the workshop.  When the connections are made, it is powerful.

Also, some older villigers shared their volcano erunption stories, which informed the vilage and the visitors about the viliage’s disaster history.  Many of our games are non-verbal, so I was able to participate with the villagers and they got a kick out of me playing the games also.

I teared up a little when I told them how happy I was to bring the workshop to them.  One came up to me and gave me a hug and said “Thank you Mama Mary.”  The villagers also played the games with a lot of commitment, which I was grateful for.  

We lost participation after the afternoon break.  We delivered the workshop in a shelter without windows, so the afternoon heat was a factor.  Plus participants had afternoon chores to do and some had long bus trips back home, so they were anxious about the time.  Therefore, we need to come up with strategies to amelierate the effect of afternoon heat on the activities and groups greater than sixteen.

However, the 16 hardy participants stayed to the very end.  I believe we planted some seeds that all citizens can be a leader, if we work together in a crisis.  There was a brief ceremony when we finished and I got an official Certificate of Appreciation from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.  And no Filipino event can be complete before there are some pictures taken.  So fun and gratifying!

To celebrate, our team and our Subic Bay host and his wife had a meal together during sundown on the West Philippine Sea at Gerry’s Seafood outside on the sand.  So fun, so relaxing, and so unlike my regular Februarys in the US.

Go Slow to be Fast: The Joy of Repetition in Improvisation

So I have been in the Philippines for a week plus. What a week it has been! We have done four runs of the workshop: 2 pilots with improvisors and trainers; 1 run with a eco-resort staff in Tagalog and 1 run with a special needs school staff in Tagalog and English. Whew! I feel like I'm in a benevolent greenhouse called the Philippines and everything is ripening quickly. What a joy it is for me to devote myself fully to this labor of love. 

Just like in improv, our Heroic Improvisation team started out slow to speed up later.  Now the Heroic Improvisation workshop development is clicking away at warp speed!  Many repetitions can improve action, when done to serve improvement.

The ability to do 4 repetitions of the workshop -- with trainers, with eco-resort staff and special education staff in a week  -- has helped up to tune-up the workshop delivery.  The workshop is setting participants up to use their imagination to practice disaster response together.

The Sunday, 2/23 workshop was a mixed group of 13 educated folks from Manila, including another trainer and an American relief worker.  Another participant had limited sight.  However, if he didn’t disclose that I would not have noticed.  His awareness in the  room was keen and limited sight did not affect his level of play or interaction with the group.  With our tuned-up workshop, this group was able to play in the workshop at a high-level.  This group played together and very creatively.  I was impressed!

Here is their one-word summary of what they learned: play, communication, fluid, trust, preparation, connection and perspective.

The workshop is exceeding my expectations!  Hooray!

Create Theater or Live Melodrama! Implications of Large Groups for Experiential Workshops.

(This observations have a caveat of an American and first-time visitor to the Philippines.  I could be misinterpreting or missing cultural cues.  These are exploratory observations and open to revision!)

My Cabin John neighbor -- Caroline Casey -- says:  "Create theater or live melodrama!"  When we are in melodrama, we are passive and driven by outside forces.  When we creating theater, we are active and moving in harmony with interior and exterior forces.

Creating theater instead of living melodrama is the core of the Heroic Improvisation workshop.  Participants create their own moves to disaster instead of being driven by fear or passivity.

We completed our largest Filipino workshop yet:  24 people in a special needs school.  We went over our maximum workshop participation of 16 by 8 people.

These extra eight people made a difference in the quality of the experience we could create with the Heroic Improvisation workshop.  It appeared to me that because the intensity of the experience was diluted with the larger group, that participants could have been more passive during the worskhop.  The larger group slowed:

• developing trust in the group
• sharing of feelings and
• building momentum towards group action in the workshop.

Our ending exercise was an unimaginable, dramatic event in the school.  The participants' feedback stated that they wanted more drama associated with simulation.  We were holding back our theater special effects because we didn't want to freak anyone out. 

I'm wondering if participants wanted more drama because the size of the group lent to passive participation.  That in the larger group people feel the need for more MELODRAMA, because the participants did NOT create their own THEATER in the workshop.

Just an exploratory observation...would love your thoughts here or dr.marytysz@ymail.com

Heroic Improvisation in the Philippines - Frequently Asked Questions!

My collaborator -- Gabe Mercado -- pasted these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Facebook.  This is how much progress we have made in 7 days....whew!

Our fast prototyping of Mary's Heroic Improv program is exhilarating. We are learning so much as we roll out and rapidly fine tune the program.

We are doing 4 runs to various communities over the next 4 days, with 8 more runs scheduled in the days after that directly to the Haiyan hit communities.

Here's a FAQ I prepared regarding the program

FAQs about HEROIC IMPROVISATION

1. What is Heroic Improvisation all about?

It's a process that was created to help citizen groups prepare for unpredictable and unimaginable disaster and emergency situations by learning group improvisation skills.

The workshop invites the participants to know the steps of the Heroic Improvisation process and allows them to experience the dynamics of fluid leadership, quick decision making and moving efficiently as a group through improvisational theater exercises and disaster simulations.

2. Who developed the Heroic Improvisation process?

Dr. Mary Tyszkiewicz, a disaster research professional based in Washington DC developed the process. Her many years of experience working with FEMA, the Homeland Security Institute and the US Congress and her recent work with Hurricane Sandy and the FEMA Corps resulted in the creation of the Heroic Improvisation process.

Gabe Mercado is her partner in the Philippines. Gabe is the founder and Artistic Director of SPIT, the premiere improvisational theater company in Manila and is a trainer with over a decade of experience in human and organizational development.

Mary and Gabe met through the Applied Improvisation Network and are working very closely to fast prototype the process with different citizen groups throughout the country.

3. Will it help communities with emotional debriefing, stress release and trauma release?

No. In fact we highly recommend that only communities that have gone through some process of healing take this workshop.

It may in fact produce more trauma and emotional distress because realistic disaster simulation is an integral part of our process.

4. Do I need to be an improviser for this program to work?

No. We made sure that the process will work even if you have never even heard of improv before and have been very careful to simplify the language so that it contains very little theater or disaster research related jargon.

5. Who is the program for?

We've designed this program that we are rolling out in the Philippines specifically for citizen groups, preferably on the barangay level.

It's not designed for decision makers or policy makers although they may very well benefit from the experience.

Any community, in fact, that wants to actively prepare for any disaster could benefit from taking this program as part of their overall DRRM plan.

6. I want my community to experience your workshop, how do I get you here?

Mary and Gabe will do as many runs of the program as they can until she returns to Washington DC on March 5.

Gabe and the rest of SPIT and other volunteer trainers will be rolling out the program throughout the country after that.

JCI Princess Urduja Makati will process your request and handle the logistics of getting us there through sponsorships and sponsorships that we have in place for the Heroic Improvisation program.

We should be ready for a massive rollout of the program by the summer of 2014.

7. How do you pronounce TYSZKIEWICZ?

Say TIZ - KEV - ITCH

8. How do you pronounce GABE?

Certainly not as GAB-EH

2/19 Improvisation Wkshop in the native Filapino language

On the morning of 2/19, we did our 1st Heroic Improvisation Workshop in the native Filapino language.  The participants were staff from Forest Club in Laguna Province, 2 hours south of Manila towards the mountains. More at www.theforestclub.com

Our participants were a diverse group in age from 20-somethings to 60-somethings.  The staff here run team-building courses for company retreats, and feed and house the visitors.  All the staff had personal experience with typhoons, so were very interested in the workshop.

My improv collaborator ran the games in the Filipino language.  I did the disaster part in English, which many can understand better than they can speak it.

It was really gratifying to see my workshop launched in a different culture.  It was a bittersweet moment for me...I have launched something that now has a life of its own.

The highlight of the workshop was the end.  We put the staff through an imagined fire drill and they got the fire house, first aid kit and many buckets of water in 3 minutes flat.  (No exaggeration!)  This workshop works!

Rapid Prototyping Heroic Improvisation Workshop with Social Science Instincts!

My theater improv collaborator  -- Gabe Mercado -- has a hidden talent!  He has good social science instincts.  This has been a boon to our collaboration to rapidly prototype the Heroic Improvisation Workshop.

First, as a disaster-prone country of earthquakes, typhoons, floods, landslide and vocanic eruptions, Filapinos bring a true desire to help fellow citizens in these situations.  It has been inspiring to see the passion and committment my collaborators have brought to this work.

Second,  he made sure that our pilot workshops had six experienced, best-practice trainers attend as participants and observers.  (Some came twice!)  Since the Philippines is the 3rd largest English speaking country (!), there are a lot of call centers here and the need for training is high.  And these trainers are good!  The trainers in the room helped us rapidly prototype the workshop.  The major tune-up was to connect the exercises directly to disaster attitudes.

Third, Gabe has sought out diverse participants (age, performance experience, gender) for each of our workshop runs.  

Fourth, Gabe is seeking diverse groups to experience the workshop.  We will roll the workshop to emergency workers, airline crews, special education teachers, along with the recent survivors of Typhoon Haiyan at the end of the month.  

Here are the ahas! we found so far:

Heroic Improvisation Process Works:  All participants have experience the concepts through the theater improvisation games.  The joy is the heroic improvisation process works and is validated in the US and Philippines.

Fun Together Fuels the Learning:  Disasters are intense experiences.  Learning about disaster response through fun motivates that learning.  Although experiencing uncertainity, participants learn they can "make things up as they go along".  This is a powerful experience.  It seems to open other possibilities and choices for participants when they think of themselves individually and working in a group during a crisis.

Disaster Simulation is the Text:  Each group and individual find their own lessons and learning through being in the imagined crisis situation as individuals and a group.  Just 5 minutes of an imagined crisis is a rich experience to explore over the three-hour workshop.

Responding to the Unimaginable with Action:  The workshops meet a critical gap for what citizens worry about when thinking about disaster -- How will I respond?  Disaster knowledge and skills are only useful if the person is not too freaked out to move into action.  Since the workshop gives us the experience of   chaos and confusion, the participants learn to work though fear together and practice quick action.

Working Together Can Help Us Be Heroic Together:  Our human instinct is our individual "survival of the fittest".  The workshop pushes participants to work together and they like what they learn and see together.