The Crazy One

Ep 78 Teamwork: How improv can make your team more creative

May 19, 2019 Stephen Gates Episode 78
The Crazy One
Ep 78 Teamwork: How improv can make your team more creative
Show Notes Transcript

At its best, creativity is about spontaneity, creativity, and collaboration. There are few places where we can all of these on display more easily than with improvisational comedy groups but what can they show us about how to improve our creative process and our teams? In this episode, we will look at what happens with improv that lets the creativity flow, what everyone can learn from it and how it can help your team and its culture.

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Stephen Gates :

What's going on everybody, and welcome to the 78th episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is the show where we talk about creativity, leadership, design, and everything else that helps to empower creative people. Now, be sure to subscribe to the show. So you get the latest episodes whenever those come out. And whenever you're there, and you're your favorite podcast platform, do me a favor, take just a couple seconds and be sure to leave a review to let people know and me what you think about the show. As always, you can listen to all the shows, get all the show notes, and way more, just head over to the crazy one. That's the words the crazy and the number one.com. Here we are again, and it has been. I feel like every time I start these shows, it's like It's been too long since I've been able to do one of these in it every because it feels like it has been I've discovered that there is a limit to how much content I can produce. I didn't think that was possible. But man I tell you what, at between traveling around and working with customers for envision doing public speaking events at how I did a big keynote there did a big session. And I'll be sure to be bringing that keynote to a future episode here. I got talks coming up, but I got to at 15 seconds in Austria, I got one at Tech open air in Berlin, I got so much great stuff going on. But yeah, there's just sort of a limit to how much content you can put through the pipe. But more the shows are in the works. And I'm so glad to be able to sit down and to be able to do this one. The inspiration for the show, I think, came from a little bit of an interesting place. And it came from a TV show, and it was a TV show that I think I'd forgotten about for quite a while and discovered it and kind of started to binge watch it again the other weekend, which was Whose Line Is It Anyway? It's one of my favorite TV Shows of All Time. I mean, it was hysterical. And it was always amazing to see how people like Robin Williams and Wayne Brady, like, man, they could think so fast. They could react so quick. And they could just be so funny when they did it because it was just pure improv. But the interesting thing is that the show has been, it's been on for so long, and that you know, it's interesting because as my career's evolved I've continued to watch it, I've started to see it in a totally different way. Because what I think at first I saw is just something that was funny at first something that I just saw, you know, as entertainment and sort of a different, you know, way to sort of be entertained, when it came to really appreciate was, the spontaneity of it, when it came to come to really appreciate is that it is just raw creativity on display. And that's the thing is, like, when I first saw it funny, you know, really, you start to really see that these are people who are in complete control of their creative process, and they've refined it to the point where they can summon that creativity on demand with lightning quickness, and to be able to just put out ideas and comedy. I don't know why, like it's a fire hose. Like it's just this never ending font of inspiration and creativity. And it's sort of interesting, because even as I've looked back over my career, I think I've started to really appreciate the role that improv is played in my career for a few different reasons. Because I think, you know, I it's something I I became fascinated with. And I've actually gone and I've taken improv classes. And I've been amazed at how it helped my creative process and even how it helped my public speaking for a lot of those different reasons, because even since then, you know, I've sent multiple people from multiple different teams and multiple different companies that I've been on to improv class. I've sent them there for everything from helping them to become a better leader, become a better presenter become a more active and a bigger voice on the team. But it's sort of become this sort of interesting red thread for me as I've gone back and look through my career. So in this episode, I want to look at why I think improv is so important to creativity. What what are some of the lessons that I think everybody can learn from it, and how it can help you and your team's culture was some of really what I think are some of the most critical barriers that are keeping us from really being able to break through. Now, when you break it down, and I think when you study it, improv Which is improvisation, which is just again, the ability to make up something on the spot. It's all about the these three core things that I think are so critical to what any creative person does. spontaneity, spontaneity, creativity, and collaboration. Because like those three things, when you think about it, that's what the best work comes out of. That's what the best teams are made up of. That's what the products and the things we get so inspired by they come out of those things and those skills are just so desperately needed by leaders and teams for every creative project that is out there. Now I'm so like, my job right now is kind of design evangelist with envision is so interesting, because it lets me go in to coach to teach to sort of bring thought leadership with a lot of different creative teams all over the world. And that's sort of been my journey over the last year is that as I've been able to travel the world mainly to work with these these teams that I've idolized, be able to work with companies of all different sizes have all different levels of design maturity, the thing that you start to see is that even through all of that diversity of people and industries and things like that, you see the same problems over and over and over again. You see such common things like leaders don't listen, they executives don't trust their teams, whenever they're involved in the creative process, they tend to just come in and dominate conversations. And sometimes whether they know it or not, they shut down a lot of creativity, they shut down a lot of other people's ideas. You see teams that feel repressed afraid, or just I think in some cases, you know what, they're just either too bored or like disengaged, to really contribute any new ideas to really give any feedback on that work and in all these things that is just so desperately needed. And so I think that's one of the things that I've learned is that in many cases, if you're able to look at a problem if you're able to look at a dynamic in a different way, or be able to use a different metaphor, be able to use a different example. Sometimes the comparison between that Your team, your work your life, makes it a little bit clearer about what's different about what needs to change. And you know, sometimes I'll use sports psychology or sports teams and people will get it that way. But in this case, I think, you know, improv is so important because it's concepts are so needed. Because at its core, it welcomes and values, everybody's contributions. It's never done alone, right? Like a participants, you have to collaborate, you have to support each other, you have to work towards a common goal. And you know, like, that style of work is critical. And it's what so many because that's the thing I've said it on here before and I'm sure I'm sure. I'm gonna say it again. What is holding any creative person back is not their ability to make better looking designs to write prettier words to do like whatever the medium and whatever the execution takes. So often, it's not their ability to just be able to be better at their craft alone. So often the majority of the problems is their ability to how do they deal with everything that surrounds that craft? How do they deal with the politics and collaboration and teamwork and all that other stuff, right? And that's the external part. But then we've also talked before about things like design imposter syndrome and how, in many cases, our internal dialogue, we can stop ourselves. And that's why I think even something like improv, you know, it might even be more critical because it can help with things like design imposter syndrome, because whenever we feel that others value our contribution, we're going to be more likely to engage more likely to trust and and honestly more likely to really share ideas and lean in and I know that that like phrases like lean in I've just gotten so beat up for so many different reasons because of books and other stuff like that. But But for me, like I said, just maybe you think this is out of left field, maybe you're not sure why the hell this has anything to do with you, but just roll with me for the next maybe I don't know what, 20 minutes 25 minutes to hear me out on this because I think there's a lot that we all can learn from improv and I think I would highly recommend that sound that it is these sound like challenges that you're up against. So these sounds like things where it's like, Look, you want to be a better leader, you want to be better in meetings, you want to figure out how to be a better collaborator, you want to be a better public speaker, please take the time and either pay for it yourself or look, go to your company, find out what they will do for continuing education, find out how they will find these things, find out what they're going to be able to do, and find an improv class near you. I will guarantee you that no matter where you live, you can always find something or something close to this, like a local theater, a local college, it is so worth the investment. And you know, most of the time, maybe it's a one day class, maybe it's a half a day class, maybe it's a couple nights, right. But whatever that investment is, it's worth it. But essentially listen to the show right now, you know, you're not going to be able to do that right this second. So what I want to do is sort of pull out what I think are four key concepts that make improv so powerful on improving creativity, right, because I think these are the four tenants that I think whenever you go into this, maybe you're not going to be conscious of it at first but these are the four things That are really going to get to kind of make a big difference. The first one, I think what is the most powerful one is active listening. Because I want you to think about your last meeting. And I've spoken about this before in other ways, but but as people are talking as you're sort of sitting there in that meeting, maybe it's a meeting, maybe it maybe it's a brainstorm, maybe you're having a one on one with somebody, maybe it's anything like that. Were you actually truly listening to what the other person was saying? Were you taking it in? Were you considering it? Or were you just getting ready to talk about your idea, or your feedback? But this idea of active listening, this idea of being present in our add age of social media and cell phones and all these different distractions, is really sort of damaged us? I mean, I read a thing not long ago that people now officially have a shorter attention span than goldfish. goldfish have a segment seven second attention span people know how six second attention span. I mean for the fact that like, if you would actually think about it and say, Look, I would have a better chance and be probably be more successful sitting in a meeting talking to a goldfish than a person. That is really fucked up. But there is this idea of how do you actively listen to somebody? Right? Because we all know the answer to what I just asked you right? in that last meeting? The answer was that the vast majority people if they're being again, really honest, we're just getting ready to say what they wanted to say. And this is one of the important things that I think improv can teach you. Because in improv, like paying careful attention to what other people are saying is a core principle. It's a necessity, like if you want to participate, you have to be very present in the moment you have to listen fully to them and not speak until they're finished. Because the goal isn't to plan what you'll say next. Right. The goal in improv is to respond in the moment to what other people say. And if this is something you haven't seen an action of you haven't watched improv again. go out and find like an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway, watch that through and to be able to kind of see how that works. Because in many cases, it is a series of people who are doing something. And then it's a story told in parts and each person, maybe they tell a part of the story or they react or they do something different. But again, it's really something that's only possible if you're actively listening in tune into the emotions and the rhythms of what other people are giving you. And I think that's a really key part of all this because I think in so often, we get so caught up in ourselves, we get so caught up in what it is that we want and what we want to say and what our opinion is because that damn it, that's what being in charges. That's how I get ahead. That's how I do these things. And many of our companies set us up to fall into this trap. Because what do we do? Like at the end of the year, like we talked about, you know, we want to we want to innovate and we want to do this stuff. But then at the end of the year, what do we have? We have big five goals, I have big five goals, I have to end my quarter, my six months my year by saying a lot of sentences that start with the word I and that's a trap. So again, a lot of the stuff is hard wired into what it is we're doing. But the ability to actively listen is only possible. If you are really tuned in on those things. And you have to wait until somebody is finished speaking, really helps you be fully present and absorbed in what they're saying. I think this was why if you go all the way back to Episode 18, then that was an episode where I talked about the rules for brainstorming. There are seven rules that I think every team should be able to use. Whenever you're doing a brainstorm. A lot of those are built out of cognitive biases. We've talked about that very recently. But it's also talked about out of things like this. That's why one of the seven rules if you remember that is build on the ideas of others. Because what it's trying to get people to do in that moment is to fight this phenomenon. It's trying to get people to actively listen. It's to be able to say yes, and it's the ability to to build on what somebody else said as opposed to just simply disregarding it and moving on to your own idea. Because a lot of this stuff is also it's not just about you. It is about how How do you make other people feel of having an awareness to what is your process? And what is what are you bringing to the table inside of a creative process. And a lot of cases, like I said before, improv is done through games. And those games will sort of challenge participants in different ways. It's going to tell you to tell stories in different ways. It's going to tell you to use props that are different things like that. And I think there are some games that they've done that have been specifically created to help those people become better listeners. I think one of the best is called last word response. And it's a game where you respond to your partner by using the last word that they said. So if I said something like I was thinking yesterday about why why has an interstate highway, and then I would pass it on to you, you would then need to start that next sentence with the word highway. I would also bet that you maybe just had a quick moment of panic because you weren't truly listening to what I said. Because maybe you're driving to work, maybe you're doing something else. And again, you're not true. President listening. So even in that case, you probably needed me to be able to say the word highway for you to even for this part of it to even think about what you were going to need to do. And again, I think that a lot of this stuff manifests itself all the time in all these little ways. But the game teaches people to listen fully instead of jumping in, instead of silently planning their response. And instead of like, you know, thinking about something else, you've got to be actively listening, you've got to be present, and you can't go to your part until your partner is done speaking. And I think you've been tried a version of this game with your team. Because a lot of these cases it can be it can be altered, it can be adapted. So here's what I want you to try. is next time you're in a meeting next time, we're going to brainstorm one on one, whatever it is, after somebody finishes speaking, what I want everybody to do is that the next person should begin their response with that person's final word or even if you don't want to be that literal, they need to be able to take whatever it was they were talking about. They need to take whatever it was idea that they were pitching. They need to take away whatever it was that that person was talking about it and build on it. So again, I think that's a really important thing. And I think you know, the other part of this that I'll often say, and it always holds true, and it's always amazing how much it falls apart is that if you're a leader, if you're an executive, you need to follow these rules to these apply to you too, because in so many cases, leaders screw up so much ideation, so much of this stuff, whether knowingly or not, but what I want you to do, right is I want you to say yes, and because here again, it means listening to what somebody says and building on it. And this can be such an important thing. It can be used in any conversation at any moment. And it's important because it teaches people to strengthen each other. But I think also because in so many businesses and so many teams know is just such an easy word. Right? Like bad news is easy, like putting something down is easy. But saying yes and the ability to just even getting used to the word of saying yes I think you're gonna find that once you start doing this, how weird it feels, how strange it is how maybe you start to realize how little you actually say the word Yes, during the day. This is why so often I find it fascinating. Whenever you have a leader do an assessment of what their style is, and you have their team do an assessment, what their style is, things like this. So the reason why they never match, because maybe you feel like you're being positive. Maybe you feel like, Oh, yeah, no, I'm doing that. But maybe are you just saying no all the time, but maybe you're just not using that word. Maybe you're not using yes enough or deliberately enough to be able to do that. And it's important because you don't get the luxury in improv of just sitting back and overthinking it, like right, like you have to be able to, for better or worse, put an idea out there. And I think that that yes, and forces you into the moment a little bit more, it forces you to ideate a little bit more and forces you to use those creative muscles a little bit more. And all of that is going to build confidence in the process in yourself in your team and isn't all of that the heart of great work, as opposed to just a bunch of individual opinions that are running around doing their own thing? The ability to actually show up and look and devalue people? Because at the end of the day, like, Look, I talked to teams all the time. Do you value your co workers? Yes, absolutely. Actions speak louder. People. I can tell if you're listening to me or not, I can tell if you're tuned in or not. I can tell if you're like on a call and checking your email, I can tell actions speak louder, and we can say the words and do all those things all we want. But guys should go out and prove it. Now, a couple episodes ago in Episode 76, and I referenced a little bit before we talked about cognitive bias, right. And we talked about something called the anchoring effect. And this was where once people have an idea they like, moving away from that idea is really hard for them. Even if all the evidence of all the research everything suggests that that initial idea or that insight was wrong. And this means that in many cases for pretty much everybody. It's hard to stay open minded. You want to have an answer you want to run to an execution, you want to like anytime if you've ever done design thinking if you've done design sprints, if you've ever run a brainstorm, what is the number one biggest thing you're struggling with? You're struggling to keep the team from running to an answer. You're struggling to keep them from falling in love with one thing, and then only focusing on just that. Well, here again, I think, you know, the improv approach is really important because in improv, it's really a foundational mechanic, that everything is a team effort. Right? If you think about it, multiple people contribute, and they can take the narrative in a lot of different directions. So in that case, yes, I've got to read and respond to what's going on. I've got to be present in the moment. But I also just really have to sort of play whatever is in front of me. And I have to be comfortable enough to be able to do that. Because no, I'm not always going to have this really well planned, well manicured way of going about things. I may not always have everything super buttoned up. But I think that that's one of the things again that I see so many teams struggle with is that They're having too many presentations and not enough conversations. Because instead of being vulnerable being in that moment reading, responding to what other people do, we get blinded by what we like. We want control over everything. And we want to be right. I've talked about this ad nauseam, because I see it all the time. But we can't get too caught up in the past. Because as creative as we all do this right, we all pined for the ideas that didn't work. We want the possibilities that just aren't possible. And we've had a hard time of letting this stuff go. And I think more than anything, and again, I think what improv can teach you and what's really good, is we have a hard time not having all the answers. We are the creators. We are the people that are putting this stuff together. We are the ones that are supposed to be able to say this is what it is. But creativity doesn't speak in whole sentences. It doesn't it isn't about having all the answers and this concept of creating in the present moment with what's going Going around you is key so that you can read and react to reality. So that you can actually be able to latch on to where the team is going to what actually is possible to, to be able to see with a little bit more innovation and be able to do those sorts of things. Because I think this idea of not having all the answers, this is what defeats pretty much all innovation. Because people somehow want to be innovative, but they want to do it in a way where they can have all the answers. Those two things don't ever exist together. You don't ever say hey, I want to go do something completely new. I want to go break a barrier do something super creative. Oh, by the way, like everybody needs to like me, I need to have all the answers I need to be able to prove out the entire time I'm doing right like most innovation is only innovation in hindsight. But the ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable becomes incredibly important. And I think that then sort of ladders on to the next part of this is that another huge problem is that too many teams when they work on new ideas, the people they work with and even the people on their own team shoot down Everything immediately. It happens for a lot of different reasons. I think in people like safety, they like comfort, they like knowing that they're going to be successful. They like doing a lot of those things. But but here again, if we go back to Episode 18, and again, the seven rules for having a brainstorm one of the rules and there was deferred judgment. And the reason why and again, I think this is something that really comes up in improv it and it shows really well. Is that an improv You're so in the moment? You're working with your team? You're trying to make the best of what's going on? You don't have time to judge what's going on. If somebody says something you don't stop the whole game and kind of go you know, hey, Dave, Dave, Hey, sorry, that wasn't funny. This doesn't work. Yeah, I didn't want to do that. This wasn't the road we wanted to go down. So yeah, I'm gonna need you to like kind of back up and can you give me a different line? Like if you think about it in those terms, it's amazing how selfish that seems. It's amazing how destructive that is. But it's also amazing how that happens. Every single meeting and every single company on every single team every single day because an improv what's happening. You trust each other, you trust the process and you trust that you're going to figure it out. And it's that word of trust, not judgment, where you said, Look, and because I think that's the part that and I've said this, again, I think a lot of these episodes maybe trying to blur together, maybe just for me, because I've done them all. But when you look at high functioning companies, you look at the apples, the Nikes, the Googles, whatever the company is that you fetishize, you think, Oh, damn, but they do really great design. I guarantee you that there is trust there, and that that's what makes that possible. I think that for us, this is why we need to, we need this approach. We need this thinking we need it more in our companies. And we need it more as a part of our teams, where whenever somebody says something, it isn't just this firing squad, everybody wants to run around and sort of judge what everybody else does. It isn't one of those things where we just, you know, immediately just figure out what's wrong with it. And that's why for me the ability to actually listen to be able to say yes, and the ability to defer judgment. All of those are going towards something that I think is the real root the real heart of what makes improv so great. So fun, so funny. So imaginative in such a way like creativity, but as making companies such a vacuum of creativity and innovation, because I think finally and maybe most importantly, is that improv, there is an unspoken support system that makes all of those things possible. You're expected to try new things. You're expected to push boundaries are expected to fail to work with each other, and to be selfless in the way that you create. Now, let's pause and let's let's go back and look at that again. Right, like let's let's break that sentence down. I want you to think about it. In terms of you, your team and your work. Are you expected to show up and try new things? Is that something is actually encouraged. Are you expected to show up and push boundaries? Are you allowed to fail or I would probably say you Instead, are you allowed to learn, right? Are you really expected to work with each other and to do that in a selfless way, not just working with each other in terms of I'm going to throw my idea, your idea. And we're just keep throwing ideas back at each other. But really being selfless about that about trying to support someone else supporting and rallying behind someone else's ideas, not just your own. And I suspect, maybe I know you maybe I don't. But I go out here on a limb. And I would say that the answer to the majority of those questions was probably no. And if you're a leader, and if you're an executive, you have got to change that. Because the ability to trust and to set up these support systems to actually like, Look, you've gone through this whole whole process of hiring smart people. You brought them in, you brought them there for a reason, because they were the best that you could find. But you have to feel psychologically safe, they have to feel psychologically safe to be able to do these things. Because if not, then they just start going through a process where they're checking boxes. isn't taking a paycheck, and all that passion, all that creativity and all the possibility that could be falls away. Because it falls away in the face of process, it falls away in the face of political politics. I don't know why I decided to use that word twice. But look, this is an unedited show. So we're just gonna roll with it. But I think, you know, it's one of these things where you need to understand the rules. You need to understand the expectations and you need to make sure that the right mindsets are in place to do this sort of thing. Why Why don't we do this with our teams and our companies? Why do we let politics and personal agendas screw all this up? Because it's like I said, whenever you look at this stuff through comedy, whenever you look at it through improv, whenever you look at those things for you, everyone says, man goes, man, that's so amazing. And that's so incredible. Now, I know that some people may argue and say, Well, look, Steve, like whenever it comes to improv, there's not business results. There's not a stock price. There aren't investors there aren't. And I get it, right. The two are not apples to apples. I'm not gonna sit here pretend like they are. But I do think that the underlying reasons for what allows one to be so successful, the underlying reasons of why it gets the output that it does, absolutely will yield the same results in business because that's the thing is the best work that I've ever done the best teams that I'm around, they're doing creative improv. They're doing creative jazz, right? Because what are they doing? They're actively listening to each other. They are really going in and hearing what other people say. They're showing up to those meetings. Yes, they have opinions that yes, they have a point of view. But they're not showing up feeling like they have to have all the answers. They're not letting their egos trampled the work, that whenever somebody is trying to do something new, and again, if you're actively listening to it, then there's a thing around that where they're not immediately judging it. They're not immediately saying why this can't be done. And out of all of those things, come psychological safety because trust is not something that is given trust is something that is earned and the ability to feel like I can contribute The ability for me to be able to do these things, and to feel like it's gonna go somewhere that I really want to put my heart on there that I want to be able to do those things that I have the confidence, and I have the ability to share that. And you don't do it with everybody, right? You're not gonna have this or like everybody sharing with everybody. That's not a really realistic expectation. But you do have to be able to have it inside of relationships you need to have inside of teams, because only whenever people feel like they can do this, are the things really going to start to come to life? Are you going to see people start to take those risks to be more creative, to be able to do that thing? Because that's because whenever we think about this, right, like if we really applied these sort of improper techniques, if we did it in our teams, if leaders really stepped into this and be able to help everyone have more fun, they'd be able to encourage them to have more ideas, to be able to understand that these are more of the real barriers, right? Like our tooling is not our major barrier that our you know, our briefs maybe are somewhat of a barrier. It's a lot of these psychological issues that sit underneath the surface. That's why I keep doing shows about cognitive bias and design imposter syndrome. And a lot of these sorts of things. Because look, the world is full of like application tutorials, the world is full of people who can tell you like the right way to build a design system. But if we are not going out, and we are not dealing with these underlying foundational issues, these are the things that are going to continue to derail this work. Because all we want is to feel heard. We want to believe that we're working on a team. And in that we're doing that on the team that what we're doing is better than if we were going it alone. And the ability to give that structure, the ability to be able to call these things out. And so I think that would be my challenge for you coming out of this show. And once again, don't feel like you need to have all the answers. But be able to sit down and have an honest conversation with your team, with your partner with with the team that you lead, like whatever that is, and have an honest conversation about Look, whenever we're in these meetings, are we really taking the time to listen to each other? How are we really showing up to these meetings? Are we having some level of vulnerability to what it is we're doing and feeling like we can show up? without all the answers? How often are we just rushing to judgment? And there are times whenever we're gonna need to do that. But what are the moments? When are we willing to defer that judgment? And what are the times whenever, again, we want to be able to diverged and be able to kind of hammer in on that a little bit more to understand what the best ideas are? Because knowing that, how do we start to construct for our team for our company, because this is why it's so hard. It's not a magic bullet. There's always going to be variables, there's always going to be different things that come up, where all of a sudden, you know, for your instance, for your case for your company. Yeah, it's gonna be a little bit different. But having that conversation, putting it out there starting to work on this, that's where it starts. That's where you can start making a difference and figuring this stuff out. So do me a favor, go back and watch one of those episodes of Hulu on Whose Line is it Anyway, I'm sure if you have any sort of cable package, if you've had Apple TV, you know, fire whatever, right? You can find one of these, spend $1 or two and just watch it, but watch it through the lens of this show. And then go back and watch your work and watch your team and see how close is that? Is there the same level of joy? Is there the same level of creativity? And if there's not start to think about how do you have a conversation about what are we going to do differently, to start to take on some of these issues, and know that it's gonna be difficult, it's gonna be uncomfortable, you're going to have muscle memory that's going to try to pull you back to the old ways of doing things, but isn't so much what we talked about is your determinations, your ability to break through that and to become freer with it. And you know what, maybe, maybe you start thinking about how do you start saving up that budget so that next year, whenever you've got that team off site, next year, whenever there's that leadership retreat next year, whenever you have some of that and there's little bit of extra money laying around, maybe bring in somebody that can actually teach everybody improv and that you can show them why this is so important. No matter what they think it really can make a huge difference in your work. So as always, I hope you find these shows helpful. If you do, I'm always incredibly grateful. If you take just a minute, head over to your favorite podcast, podcast platform, click on the stars, write a couple words, leave a review. While you're there, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a new episode whenever those come out. As always, you can find out more about the podcast about this show. You can get shownotes all kinds of stuff, listen to other shows. Head over to the crazy one calm. That's the words the crazy and the number one.com. Follow me on social media, like the show on Facebook. I do updates I do posts. If you've got questions, reach out to any over those social media channels. I'm always on Twitter, I'm on LinkedIn, like any of the Instagram, you know, reach out find me there. And finally everybody in legal always wants me to remind you that the views here are just my own. They don't represent any of my current or former employers. These are just my own thoughts. And finally, I say it every time because I mean it every time but thank you for your time. I know the time is Truly the only real commodity that any of us have was incredibly humbled. You want to spend any of it listening to me. So go out there, do some improv, try some things differently. Get to the emotional center of what your problems are. And all the while while you do it. Stay crazy.