- Experience how YES, AND improv principles directly enhance creative thinking and collaborative design
- Build the listening, presence, and generative mindset needed for high-quality design sprint work
- Explore key components of design theory and design thinking practices
- Define the Current State and Future State of a shared challenge or creative opportunity
- Use Design Sprint methodology to ideate, prototype, and develop creative, implementable action plans
IMPROVing Project Design
Integrating Improvisation
and Design Theory
The best design thinking sessions do not start with a whiteboard and a list of constraints. They start with the kind of open, generative, build-on-everything energy that improvisation creates. When teams learn to say YES, AND before they say YES, BUT, the quality of ideas that emerge in a design sprint changes dramatically. This workshop brings those two powerful methodologies together into a single, cohesive creative experience.
This improv and design thinking workshop combines the collaborative, in-the-moment energy of improv-based team building with the structured creative process of a Design Sprint. Participants begin with hands-on improv exercises that activate YES, AND thinking, deep listening, and spontaneous creativity, establishing the mindset and group dynamic needed for truly generative design work. From there, the session transitions into design theory, using the energy and openness cultivated in the improv phase to fuel ideation, prototyping, and the development of creative, implementable solutions. Teams leave with both a stronger collaborative foundation and a concrete set of action plans built through genuine creative momentum.
What You'll Learn
During this improv and design thinking workshop, participants will:
Leadership Behaviors You'll Develop
As a result of this session, participants will be able to enhance their leadership capabilities through the following behaviors:
- Embracing a YES, AND mentality as the foundation for creative collaboration and innovative thinking
- Thinking on your feet and staying present during rapidly evolving creative and design processes
- Challenging the status quo and generating outside-the-box solutions through structured ideation
- Setting others up for success when executing a shared creative vision
- Reframing challenges as opportunities for innovative, possibility-forward action and design
Who Is This Workshop For?
This workshop is ideal for project teams, cross-functional groups, and innovation-focused organizations looking to bring more creative energy and collaborative depth to their design and problem-solving processes. It is especially powerful for teams who have found traditional brainstorming sessions to be flat or unproductive and are ready for a fundamentally more energizing and generative approach.
Related Workshops
Learning Objectives:
- Define the concepts of positive psychology, trust, and resilience, and explore the building blocks that allow this to prosper in an individual level and within a team environment
- Explore the five common traps where individuals get stuck, and practice the escape route strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- Design a team environment where trust can thrive, and open dialogue is encouraged
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Adaptability
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Experiment with interactive exercises to enhance active listening, setting others up for success, challenging the status-quo, and confidently stepping outside of our comfort zones
- Embrace the concept of “YES, AND” to build upon the ideas of others in an effort to strengthen interpersonal, team, and organizational relationships
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Collaboration + Trust
- Effective Communication
- Openness to Change + Innovation
Learning Objectives:
- Define the concepts of positive psychology, trust, and resilience, and explore the building blocks that allow this to prosper in an individual level and within a team environment
- Explore the five common traps where individuals get stuck, and practice the escape route strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- Design a team environment where trust can thrive, and open dialogue is encouraged
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Adaptability
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Experiment with interactive exercises to enhance active listening, setting others up for success, challenging the status-quo, and confidently stepping outside of our comfort zones
- Embrace the concept of “YES, AND” to build upon the ideas of others in an effort to strengthen interpersonal, team, and organizational relationships
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Collaboration + Trust
- Effective Communication
- Openness to Change + Innovation
Learning Objectives:
- Clarify leadership and communication preferences, and develop a “user’s manual” to articulate our findings
- Discover the attributes, behaviors and common blind-spots of natural preferences, and explore and understand the same attributes and behaviors of opposing types
- Highlight specific actions we can take when working with someone who leverages opposing preferences, and develop a plan to adjust our styles with at least one current colleague
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Effective Communication
- Collaboration + Trust
- Openness + Awareness
Learning Objectives:
- Define the CURRENT STATE and FUTURE STATE of the team’s collective goals and objectives
- Experiment with design thinking methodology to begin ideation of creative, implementable action plans to fully realize your team’s ideal future state
- Leverage positive psychology to create future-focused, behavior-based outcomes
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Strategic Thinking + Goal Setting
- Creativity + Innovation
- Positive Psychology & Growth Mindset
Learning Objectives:
- Clarify leadership and communication preferences, and develop a “user’s manual” to articulate our findings
- Discover the attributes, behaviors and common blind-spots of natural preferences, and explore and understand the same attributes and behaviors of opposing types
- Highlight specific actions we can take when working with someone who leverages opposing preferences, and develop a plan to adjust our styles with at least one current colleague
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Effective Communication
- Collaboration + Trust
- Openness + Awareness
Learning Objectives:
- Define the CURRENT STATE and FUTURE STATE of the team’s collective goals and objectives
- Experiment with design thinking methodology to begin ideation of creative, implementable action plans to fully realize your team’s ideal future state
- Leverage positive psychology to create future-focused, behavior-based outcomes
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Strategic Thinking + Goal Setting
- Creativity + Innovation
- Positive Psychology & Growth Mindset
View More Workshops
View More Workshops
Frequently Asked Questions
How does improv prepare a team for design thinking and Design Sprint work?
Improv activates the exact mindset that design thinking requires: openness to new ideas, willingness to build on what others offer, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to stay fully present. Teams that begin a design sprint with an improv warm-up consistently generate more creative, unexpected, and usable ideas because the YES, AND foundation makes the generative phase of the sprint genuinely generative.
Do participants need any improv or design thinking experience for this workshop?
Neither is required. Both methodologies are introduced accessibly and experientially, with participants learning by doing throughout both phases. The workshop is effective for teams at any level of familiarity with improvisation or design theory.
How does YES, AND thinking change the quality of a design sprint?
YES, AND thinking creates the conditions where no idea gets shut down before it has a chance to develop. In a design sprint context, that means more unexpected connections, more generative ideation, and a richer pool of concepts to prototype from. The improv phase is not just a warmup. It is a deliberate investment in the creative quality of everything that follows.
What does the Design Sprint phase of this workshop produce?
Teams leave with a set of prototyped, creative action plans built around a specific challenge or opportunity. The improv phase ensures those ideas are generated from a place of genuine openness and collaborative energy rather than the usual dynamics of who speaks loudest or most confidently in the room.
Is this workshop appropriate for teams working on a specific project or real organizational challenge?
Yes, and it works especially well in that context. The design sprint component can be oriented around a real challenge the team is currently navigating, making the output immediately applicable to the work they return to after the session ends.
Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is the founder of The Leadership Laboratory, and leverages his experiences in education, the performing arts, and corporate learning & leadership development to his work. As a performer, Jacob has sung as a backup vocalist for musical artists such as Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Patti LuPone, as a recording artist for Netflix series Sense8, and at venues including The United Center, The Chicago Theater, and Chicago Symphony Center. In the education space, Jacob has served as an educator for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and has been a Guest Lecturer at Northwestern University since 2016. As a Learning & Leadership Development Consultant, Jacob has worked as a one-on-one coach and group workshop facilitator to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries, including technology, healthcare, non-profit, and fashion/apparel. Jacob holds a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s of Science in Communication from Northwestern University.
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