COM 66 — Think on Your Feet: An Improviser’s Guide to Business and Communication
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Debra Schifrin, Daniel Schifrin
Date(s): Jul 27—Jul 28
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday and Sunday
Class Meeting Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $440
Refund Deadline: Jul 20
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 28
Status: Closed
Quarter: Summer
Day: Saturday and Sunday
Duration: 2 days
Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jul 27—Jul 28
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $440
Refund Deadline: Jul 20
Instructor(s): Debra Schifrin, Daniel Schifrin
Enrollment Limit: 28
Recording Available: No
Status: Closed
The skill of thinking on your feet is no longer optional in the workplace; it is mandatory. In this interactive, improvisation-based communication course, you will learn and practice skills for handling the unexpected with calm, grace, inclusiveness, and humor. You will increase your agility, grow your confidence in unpredictable situations, and learn critical new skills and mindsets. These include being more present and open to surprising ideas; cultivating a mindset of curiosity; and engaging with your audience with energy, commitment, and delight. Whether you are in front of an audience of one or 800, you will learn how to prevent missteps and imperfections from derailing you. The course will reveal the ways spontaneity and thinking on your feet can be joyful and how play and humor can be game changers in creating an authentic and positive connection with your audience. The course will include a blend of interactive activities in pairs and small groups, targeted debriefs, group discussions, and mini-lectures. By taking time to practice these techniques in a supportive and encouraging environment, you will come out of this course a stronger and more intuitive communicator.
This course is not a theater-performance course; no theater or improv experience is necessary.
DEBRA SCHIFRIN
Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Debra Schifrin is a corporate consultant and lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She co-created the school’s first and only improv-based MBA management course, "Spontaneous Management." She is the founder of Debra Schifrin Consulting. As a consultant, she designs and leads innovative, improv-based training sessions for businesses on leadership, communications, collaboration, and storytelling. Her clients come from multiple sectors, including high tech, consulting, medicine, educational technology, consumer goods, and finance. Clients include Bain & Company, Box, DoorDash, Yelp, and Kaiser Permanente. She is an experienced improv teacher and performer. Before Stanford, she spent a decade as a reporter, director, and producer for National Public Radio and Marketplace, where she reported her stories and commentaries on-air for millions of listeners nationwide. DANIEL SCHIFRIN
Founder, StoryForward
Daniel Schifrin, through his consulting firm StoryForward, has worked with numerous teams across the corporate and organizational landscape to sharpen and amplify their message. In addition to teaching two Stanford Continuing Studies courses, “Think on your Feet” and “Speakeasy: The Pleasure of Writing Good Dialogue,” he has taught at UC Berkeley’s School of Environmental Design and SF State’s Department of Creative Writing. Schifrin has also written for The Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle and is an award-winning fiction writer and playwright. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.