Cathy Salit, Create Performance Breakthroughs in Business and in Life – InnovaBuzz 272
Cathy Salit, Performance of a Lifetime
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Cathy Salit, Co-founder and CEO Emerita of Performance of a Lifetime, and author of Performance Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to Success at Work, in which she presents POAL’s revolutionary approach to learning, growing and change. The book explores the Becoming Principle® methodology and features real-life case studies, as well as tips, techniques, and exercises for readers to create performance breakthroughs in their everyday lives.
In our discussion, Cathy and I talked about:
- How you ARE BOTH who you are AND who you are becoming
- How improvisation can be applied to performance, to business, and to life
- Why you should be comfortable with not knowing the answers and how to ask curious questions
Sheila Heen in episode 248 introduced us to Cathy.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
When you are only who you are, you are not who you are and who you are becoming. @CathySalit on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To TweetShow Notes from this episode with Cathy Salit, Co-founder and CEO Emerita of Performance of a Lifetime
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Improvisation is making something up together based on what everybody has brought to the table.
- Perform before you know how. Perform who you are becoming. When you perform it, you become it.
- Playing, performing, and improvising, help us imagine and experience another part of our humanity.
- Create an environment for creativity and innovation. Create the space for people to hear each other, to say things that they haven’t been able to say, and to listen in a new way.
- Improvisation allows us to perform both who we are and who we’re not. It allows us to perform in way that is unnatural for us and it shows us that we have some new choices.
- The reason Meryl Streep and other fabulous actors can do what they do is because they are human and not because they are fabulous. Performing is an innate ability that we humans have.
- When you are only who you are, you are not who you are and who you are becoming.
- Be curious. Ask questions.
- Focus on what you can create and do together rather than on what you can do to get someone do what you want them to do. Innovation is much more able to occur when you have people who are on the same side.
- Get help from other people. It is not a solo act. Start talking to your colleagues and people you trust and ask them about the situation you’re in. Ask them about the things you are struggling with and what they think you can do to change it. Keep learning and keep being curious.
- When having conversations with someone that you don’t agree with, remember that many things can be true at the same time so it doesn’t always have to be either this or that.
- Performative Psychology reveals that the way we think, the way we talk, our language and culture, are all socially created. Social constructionism is understanding that all that we are currently doing is created by us and we can consequently create what it means to interact. And so, the way to grow and learn is not just to create new alternatives but to break and create new rules and to let it become a constant human evolutionary activity. That is the core of innovation.
- Innovation is constantly iterating what has come before and investing in the discovery of new things that can be both in the development of products and science. It can also be in the area of humanity and in how human beings live, work, and grow together.
- Think about how you can communicate with people that you are working with in a way that they will feel empowered. You need to think about how you can get them involved not because you want to make them feel that they are a part of it but because they are a part of it.
- Performing the World Conference is a global gathering of “performance activists” where they celebrate performance as a catalyst for human and community development. Performance activists from all over the world come together to learn new best practices to create a network. build communities, and share their work with each other. This year’s conference will be held on September 30 – October 3, 2020 in New York City.
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Cathy’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Learn how to improvise. Take Improv classes.
- Best thing for new ideas – Improvise. Look for situations with your clients where you can try out new things, test them, and not be worried about failing.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Improvisation. Say “YES – AND” instead of “YES – BUT”. YES – AND is an incredible tool for innovation and improving productivity.
- Keep project / client on track – Hire someone to take care of that for you. Always assume that more communication is better than less. Make sure that everybody is on the same page.
- Differentiate – Be a great listener and ask great questions. Create the performance of yourself. Be the kind of performer where people feel they are being heard and will want to be with you.
To Be a Leader
Be open to not knowing. Don’t rush to have an answer. If you only reach for the answers and don’t live in the unknown, you can’t discover and innovate.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Cathy through their website and on LinkedIn.
Suggested Guest
Cathy suggested I interview Phil Terry of Collaborative Gain, Jacqueline Salit, political innovator and advocate for the rights of independent voters and Tom Andrews of TJA. So Phil, Jacqueline, and Tom, keep an eye on your inboxes for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Cathy Salit.
Links
Through performance and play people can bring new possibilities into existence. Register now for Performing the World 2020: Creating a Heart in a Havenless World
Book
Cool things about Cathy
- She’s a jazz singer.
- She’s a troupe member of the resident musical improv comedy ensemble at The Castillo Theatre in NYC.
- She likes to kickbox.