Wonderosity

This podcast is our second in the series of interviews with presenters for the upcoming applied improv network conference in Chicago.  I had a blast interviewing “Dr. Thiagi“, he was so easy and enjoyable to speak with. In the interview we cover all kinds of topics, including:

• The difference between ‘engagement’ and ‘fun’ when teaching/facilitating groups
• How to keep authentic/engaged as a leader when, frankly, you’re having a crap day
• How to not take oneself too seriously
• The dangers of Exptertism
• Seeing the genius in others
• Work that Thiagi is currently doing and passionate about
• I challenge the term ‘performance technologist’ and Thiagi explains

Here’s a basic bio of Thiagi from his website:

Dr. Sivasailam “Thiagi”Thiagarajan is the Resident Mad Scientist at The ThiagiGroup, an organization with the mission of helping people improvetheir performance effectively and enjoyably.Thiagi’s long-term clients include AT&T, Arthur Andersen,Bank of Montreal, Cadence Design Systems, Chevron, IBM, Intel,Intelsat, United Airlines, and Liberty Mutual. On a short-termbasis, Thiagi has worked with more than 50 differentorganizations in high-tech, financial services, and managementconsulting areas. For these clients, Thiagi has consulted andconducted training in such areas as rightsizing, diversity,creativity, teamwork, customer satisfaction, human performancetechnology, and organizational learning.Thiagi has published 40 books, 120 games and simulations, andmore than 200 articles. He wrote the definitive chapters onsimulations and games for ISPI’s Handbook of HumanPerformance Technology, ASTD’s Training &Development Handbook, and the American ManagementAssociation’s Human Resources Management and DevelopmentHandbook.Thiagi currently writes a monthly online newsletter,Thiagi GameLetter. This newsletter, now in itsfifth year, features Thiagi’s training games and other creativeinterventions that deliver results quickly and effectively. Heserved as the editor of NSPI Journal andPerformance & Improvement for more than 10years. He currently edits the simulation/game section in SagePublication’s journal, Simulation & Gaming. Heis also a contributing editor of the monthly journal,Educational Technology.Thiagi has made hundreds of presentations and keynote speechesat professional conferences. At ISPI, Thiagi holds the “records”for making the most presentations, conducting the mostpreconference workshops, and being invited to make the mostEncore presentations. Thiagi is also a regular presenter atLakewood’s TRAINING Conferences and the annualconferences of American Society for Training and Development(ASTD) and North American Simulation and Gaming Association(NASAGA).Thiagi has been the president of the North American Simulationand Gaming Associating (NASAGA), International Society forPerformance Improvement (ISPI), and Association for SpecialEducation Technology (ASET). He has received 17 different awardsand Presidential Citations from ISPI, including the society’shighest award, Honorary Life Member. He alsoreceived an Honorary Life Member award fromNASAGA as well as its highest award, Ifill-RaynoldsAward.Internationally recognized as an expert in multinationalcollaboration and active learning in organizations, Thiagi haslived in three different countries and has consulted in 21others.

As part of the previously announced series of interviews with speakers for the upcoming Chicago Applied Improv Conference, I interviewed Charna Halpern of the Improv Olympics theater. Unfortunately, within weeks of our interview, Charna found she had a schedule conflict and had to cancel as a preconference speaker. However, I’ve decided to still post the interview as the content is just as interesting and relevant, and I’m sure many of you will enjoy it. I apologize in advance for some of the audio levels.

For those of you unfamiliar with Charna, here is her Wikipedia entry:
Charna Halpern was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. She is a co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as The iO. The theater has locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and (the now defunct iO South) in North Carolina. In 1981 iO Chicago opened and then in 1984 with partner Del Close she began teaching The Harold to many students in the Chicago theatre community. She and Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy:The Manual of Improvisation with editor Kim “Howard” Johnson in 1994. In 1996 the iO Celebrated it’s 15th Anniversary at the Vic Theater. iO West Opened in 1997 and is now under the direction of James Grace. Close passed away in 1999 and had Halpern bequeath his skull to the Goodman Theater. 2005 saw the iO 25th anniversary at The Chicago Theater. She also penned Art by Committee in that year and later in 2006 it was revealed that the skull purchased on line due to a Mortician’s refusal to remove Close’s head. Halpern studied acting and worked in radio before propelling long form and improvisational theater forward, making it in to the art form it is recognized as today. Variety Magazine called her one of the top ten women to watch in entertainment. Mike Myers named her the Uta Hagen of Comedy.

Enjoy the show, and look for an interview with the amazing ‘Thiagi‘ within the week! (I’ve already interviewed Thiagi, which was one of the best conversations I’ve had in a while, I just need to find time for some editing.)

Hi folks. I hope to get a more detailed post and/or ‘life-cast’ out sometime soon, but here are some quick updates of things happening in my life right now:

• I’m excited to say that I’ve started working for Biznik part time. You’ve heard me talk a lot about them out of genuine fandom, now I get to work for Biznik as their “Community Catalyst”. You can read an interview about it on the Biznik Blog, or checkout my biznik thread for more details.
• We’re scheduled to facilitate another ‘Soul Tech’ workshop in Vancouver BC on October 4th. If you missed the Seattle Soul Tech workshop, covered by the Today Show, and you have a goal of having a more balanced life with technology, then come join us!
• My daughter Zinnia is starting Kindergarten and I’m just so dang proud of her. She says she “love love love love loves it.” I wish I could constantly walk in rememberance and thankfulness for what an amazing daughter and wife I have. Anna & Zinnia, I love you!
• I’ll be traveling out east much of this October for a couple of trainings -the Applied Improv conference in Chicago(10/23-10/26), and the NASAGA conference in Indianapolis (10/15-10/18). They are both going to be amazing conferences, so if you’re interested in the world of experiential education, interactive/engaging training and facilitation, etc. then come and join me!
• Attached, and in your wonderosity podcast feed, is a little audio experiment called “Fly” –it’s my first ‘techno mix’ song. The idea came while I was jogging at the Y recently, and wishing I had music that had a few ‘life keys’ that are important to me woven into the song. Hope you like it
• Speaking of podcasts, I will finally be getting back into podcasting -yay! The first few, which you should seen in 1-3 days, will be a serious of interviews with international recognized facilitators, trainers and artists –each who has some connection to the world of ‘applied improvisation’ and who will be speaking at the aforementioned conference. So stay tuned!
• I’m this week in Banff, Alberta at the Banff centre. I was flown up last minute to perform in a preconference play called “Death by Powerpoint” by Paul Levy, for the ‘Art of Management’ conference. It’s a conf that is right up my alley but that, unfortunately, I’ll only get to attend the first day of.
• Speaking of that play, I need to get back to rehearsal –bye!