Kelly Leonard

While many businesses talk about the importance of culture, few actually provide any sort of scaffolding upon which culture can be built and maintained. Kelly Leonard uses his experience leading the world famous Second City Theatre and draws from his best-selling book “Yes, And,” to provide a compelling and interactive keynote on how improvisation practices can help embed the kind of behaviors that promote the culture you want: a culture that is fearless, caring and adaptable.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Specific exercises and practices to enact within your organization
• Demystification of “culture,” “creativity” and “innovation”
• An exploration of how a greater knowledge of the principles of comedy can improve your work culture

People are not pre-ordained to be good at working within groups. Second City’s roots lay in the improvisation games developed by a social worker in the 20’s and 30’s – games that promote collaboration, empathy, focus and listening. Kelly Leonard combines his years leading Second City’s stages with his own collaborations in the behavioral science community, to provide insights and actions that individuals and groups can take to work better with one another at work.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Specific exercises and practices to enact within your organization
• Insights on how to get the best out of your teams
• Promoting a workplace that is fearless and change-ready

Collaborate with Kelly & Second City experts to create a workshop that sharply focuses on philosophies of “Yes, And” as it relates directly to your team. After the Keynote facilitators walk attendees through 3-5 improv exercises & practices that focus on organizational improvement.

• Ideal for 50 people – if more than 50, cost goes up and attendees will need to break into different groups.
• Up to three hours long.

Kelly Leonard says that “improvisation is yoga for your social skills.” In this talk, he draws on his years hiring and producing hundreds of shows with such stars as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Keegan Michael Key. While improvisation opens the door to greater creativity, comedy is a device that can wield great power – for good or bad. This interactive keynote provides some amazing backstage stories and relevant insights that transfer from the stage to the boardroom.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Specific exercises and practices to enact within your organization
• Rich storytelling of first hand experiences working with Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Keegan Michael Key, Seth Meyers and others.

The truth is, we are not very good at learning. But the good news is, we can get better at it. Kelly Leonard draws on his many years leading The Second City theatre in Chicago as well as his collaborations with the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago to provide a rich conversation around improvisation, behavioral science and creating an unfixed mindset that sets the stage for lifelong learning and endless creativity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Specific exercises and practices to enact within your organization
• Insights into the learning modules of the world famous Second City Theatre
• Applied improvisational techniques that can be used in team-building and to foster innovation

Creativity appears to be elusive or the province of a select talented few. This is a myth – a myth that is perpetuated by those who make a lot of money by telling other people they are more special than them. Kelly Leonard helmed the world famous Second City for two decades – working with such talent as Tina Fey,  Stephen Colbert and Keegan Michael Key. His work with the behavioral science community and thought leaders from a variety of disciplines gives him a unique insight into a kind of creativity that is available to all of us at any time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Specific exercises and practices to enact within your organization
• Insights based on behavioral science, neuroscience and positive psychology
• Specific examples based on the speakers work with such talent as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers and more.