Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in Business
This MIT Sloan School of Management course applies theater improvisation training to leadership development. The first two weeks cover the fundamentals of performing improvisation, working through introductory and advanced exercises used to train actors in listening, spontaneity, and collaborative scene-building. The remaining four weeks shift to business contexts, applying those same tools to leadership situations such as running meetings, responding to unexpected challenges, and building trust within teams. Materials include the course syllabus, exercise instructions, and assignments used in the original MIT classroom sessions, published through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license. There is no certificate and no cost to access any part of the material. The course treats improv not as performance training for its own sake but as a practical method for building adaptive, responsive leadership behavior under uncertainty.