Wavelength: Using Humor to Motivate Working Professionals

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jim Winter from Wavelength, a comedy ensemble that uses humor, laughter and improvisation to train, motivate and inspire working professionals.

The New York Times has saluted Wavelength for “using humor to get corporate America to laugh at itself,” while USA Today reported that a Wavelength audience “roars with a knowing laughter“ because Wavelength is “the link between laughter and learning,”

Jim began his career as an educator and worked in the corporate world as a writer and trainer with Arthur Andersen.  He formed Wavelength after extensive training at Chicago’s famed Second City which led him to see the connection between good teachers and good improvisers.

Jim and his colleagues decided to call their improv troupe Wavelength because they realized the most effective comedy centered around understanding where the employees were coming from…literally getting on their wavelength.

Wavelength has performed for over 2000 organizations, including numerous Fortune 500 companies, always creating original material based on the climate, culture, concerns and challenges facing their clients.

“One of our key skills is our ability to listen.  When we come into a corporation for our preliminary meeting we ask about the company’s goals, what a frustrating day is like, what a good day looks like, and who are the key personalities within the company that we can have a little fun with.”

With this information, Jim says his writing team then sets about creating both scripted sketches and improvisational performance structures that can both celebrate and satirize what goes on within the company.  Clients are always provided a review process to help edit and tweak the material to make sure it’s accurate and appropriate for the company’s culture.

A corporate meeting that uses Wavelength is a memorable event.   “Typically we might be the first thing out of the box, kicking-off with a four to six-minute scene to get people laughing, connected and on our ‘wavelength’ (pun intended). Then, we might return before a coffee break or lunch to perform an improvisation that involves volunteers from the audience.  Our goal is to keep the attitudes high and positive.  We often return later in the day and often at the end of the meeting to reinforce messages and remind everyone that groups that have fun together are more creative and more effective.”

Jim also mentioned that sometimes the ensemble is asked to present up to a forty-five minute show for an awards event or evening meal function.

Having the opportunity to express key points through humor develops an unforgettable shared experience for the audience. Morale is increased and a stronger chemistry is developed.   In fact, abundant recent research about humor confirms that organizations that value humor are more productive, suffer less turn-over and are generally more successful.

In fact, recent neuroscientific studies reveal that humor and appropriate comedy light up the brain and enhance both learning and retention.  Additionally, the Wavelength ensemble’s ability to improvise models great team working skills.

“Improv is all about supporting the other guy,” says Jim.  “We have to have great skills in communication, collaboration, conflict-bridging and creativity.  In fact, in addition to performing funny and insightful comedic material, we offer break-out training sessions that get clients on their feet to learn how to work together by getting them to use improvisation and theatre exercises to relate to each other.”

Indeed, Investor’s Daily commented that Wavelength’s workshops “devised specifically for business people…ranked as the year’s most popular and effective training sessions.”

When I asked Jim why he enjoys being a part of the meeting business he simply told me a story. One of Wavelength’s distinctive a cappella singing improvisations is called Madrigal.

“We get the audience to suggest a company executive’s name, a competitor’s product and an in-house slogan or some words of wisdom.  Then we begin singing those suggestions and juxtaposing the lyrics.  The results are invariably hilarious, but sometimes they hit on an even deeper level.  I remember performing Madrigal for an Esprit client in Florida and we really hit the mark.  So much so, that rather that the usual cascade of applause we typically get, this audience literally roared their approval.  There was a visceral connection that transcended the usual performer/audience relationship.

My fellow actors and I still talk about it to this day, and when we do we still get goose bumps.  That’s what makes doing this work worthwhile.  That, and getting to work with Ron Springer, which I’m contractually obligated to say,” cracked Jim.

You can make your next meeting memorably funny and effective by contacting Wavelength via Esprit Productions.