Is it perhaps a greater capacity for experience?
Transcript of this video:
The theatre director and improv guru, Viola Spolin, once said something like,
what if talent is simply a greater individual capacity for experience?
Which I think is a very exciting definition and I’d stretch it from individuals to groups.
I like the idea that talent isn’t this finite thing embedded in us, but is actually connected to our capacity to experience, to experience more, our greater openness to emotional experience, our willingness to sit sometimes with challenging feelings.
And it makes sense to me cos I think groups that can do that will actually become more able and alive and will become more talented.
And it also connects to my enthusiasm for experiential learning ather than trying to sort of shortcut that experience by simply giving peoplethe five steps.
You know, I think that’s probably an okay way to do conventional things, but if you want your team to be versatile and open and flexible and able to improvise, which I think the modern world requires of us, then perhaps we need to follow Viola Spolin’s advice and think about talent that way.
Photo by Drew Dizzy Graham on Unsplash
