In 1994, a 20-tonne city bus strapped with an armed bomb was launched off the Interstate 110. It flew across a 50 ft gap before landing safely on the other side.
That jump, along with killer performance from Keanu Reeves, is why audiences flock to the movie Speed.
Now thriller movies aside:
How do you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be?
That was the focus of a recent session by Matthew Seely at the Applied Improvisation Network Virtual Conference I had the pleasure to attend.
The Applied Improvisation Network aims to show how improv skills can be useful in real life. This year, the conference looked at sustainability.
Now here’s the problem
Many CEOs aim to make a positive impact.
They believe their company should help the environment, so they make sustainability a top priority. They start programs, hire new leaders, and invest a lot of money and time.
But most of these efforts don’t succeed. Research from Bain & Company shows only 2% of corporate sustainability programs reach their goals.
A goal can only be accomplished if you have a clear path of actionable steps to get there. So how do we get from A to B?
We bring in gap analysis.
What is gap analysis
Gap analysis is a systematic approach to assess the difference between where you are now and where you want to be.
It involves four main steps:
- Figure out where you are: Take stock of how things are working right now.
- Decide where you want to go: Think about where you want to be in the future.
- Plan how to get there: Look at the differences between where you are now and where you want to be. Then, develop strategies to bridge the gap.
There’s an improv game that beautifully illustrates the essence of gap analysis – ‘First line, last line’. Here’s how it works.
Improv exercise for gap analysis: ‘First line, last line’
In this exercise, you and your group are tasked with creating a story on the spot.
The catch is you are given the first line of the story and the last line of the story. What’s missing is the middle – the story part.
You work together, one sentence at a time, to fill in the steps between your first line and your last line.
Let’s break it down.
Step 1: First line
The exercise begins with the first line. For example:
“Adrian was a fisherman who lived by the lake. “
This is where you start. The first line gives context to your story.
For an organisation, this is your current state – the place you are now. Your starting position gives crucial context on how you get to where you need to go.
Step 2: Final line
A final line is set as an end point. It’s the place we want the story to go. For example:
“Now he gets his dinner from the local burger shack.”
For an organisation, this is your final state – where you want to be at the end. It should represent a significant improvement on the current state.
Step 3: Bridge the gap
This is the middle of the story; the bulk of the exercise.
This is where you take turns in your group delivering a line at a time. The goal is to get from the starting line to the ending line.
Through the improv principle of Yes, And each player listens to the previous line, and adds the next part of the story. Each line should add to the previous ideas.
For example: a gap analysis story
Player A: Adrian was a fisherman who lived by the lake. (FIRST)
Player B: Yes, and one day he sailed into the lake to catch a fish for dinner.
Player C: Yes, and he grabbed his fishing pole and slung it out into the water.
Player A: Yes, and the line went tight, and Adrian pulled with all his might.
Player B: Yes, and a huge fish launched up in the air and smashed the boat.
Player C: Yes, and Adrian swam back to shore.
Player A: Yes, and now he gets his dinner from the local burger shack. (LAST)
As the narrative progresses, the exercise mimics the larger strategic planning process of gap analysis.
In strategic planning, you must make decisions that connect the first line (your current state) and the last line (your future state).
For example: a gap analysis strategy
We start from “We generate a significant amount of paper waste in our office” and want to move to “make our company more green“.
Player A: We generate a significant amount of paper waste in our office.
Player B: Yes, and we can get everyone to use digital documents.
Player C: Yes, and we will save lots of money on storage.
Player A: Yes, and this can be reinvested into solar panels.
Player B: Yes, and this will make our company more green.
Each step of the exercise adds to the previous steps, and works from the current state to the future state.
Note: these are illustrative goals. Ideally, your current state, middle steps, and final state will be more specific – which helps make them more achievable.
Why improv works for gap analysis
This improv exercise is a great way to approach gap analysis, because it reveals the diverse strategies available to get from point A to B.
If you run this exercise with different groups, each group will come up with a different approach to reach the same goal.
And yet, they might equally be viable. There might be lots of great ways to bridge the gap.
Let’s look back at cinema.
Sure, the bridge jump in Speed was spectacular. But it’s not the only way:
- In Smokey and the Bandit, they fly across a broken bridge to escape the law.
- In 2 Fast 2 Furious, they jump a huge drawbridge in a Honda S2000.
- In The Man with the Golden Gun, James Bond launches a car across a wooden bridge with a full 360-degree twist.
Improv is a powerful tool, and the ‘first line, last line’ exercise demonstrates its strength in organisational strategy. By being open and creative, your organisation can close the gap and get to where you need to go.
But whatever you do, don’t let the bus drop below 50mph!
