Jason Moore on Startups, Introverts Improvising, and Pixar’s Point on Improv

This week's episode features Jason Moore…

Jason Moore is an entrepreneur in health tech, currently the Founder and CEO of Spren. He has spent over a decade building sensor and data systems to make people's lives easier, safer, and more productive. Globally recognized HRV expert — health and performance consultant to pro sports teams, first responders, and medical research teams, he is really fascinated about why humans make the decisions they make, and if we can help them make better ones.

During this episode we discuss…

• His first exposure to improv and why he started improvising
• The book Creativity Inc by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull, the Pixar co-founder that shares that the most impactful thing their team did was taking an improv class together
• Improv at his company’s retreat
• Introverts and improv
• How improv will help you tell the coolest stories to a 3 year old
• Uncertainty in life, as a parent, as a founder, and a partner
• That there’s not always a “right” or “wrong” thing to say
• Being a founder and the parallels between startups and improvising
• Plans
• The one skill his resume highlighted very early in his career
• The most impactful skill improv trains for him as a leader and for his team
• Being adaptable to being adaptable
• How to accept gifts and be adaptable and also being able to hold onto what is important to you and true to you
• Flow
• Element of safety that comes to their team from doing improv exercises, and how safety allows you to be more collaborative
• The improv exercise known as ‘follow the follower’
• How to foster safety among a team and the improv show ritual that fosters safety and trust among an ensemble, that you can use with other groups and teams to foster safety
• His superpower
• “Isolate. Integrate. Improvise”

From Jason, when asked how improv has improved his life offstage, “It was hugely educational for myself and our whole company about how nuanced the practice of listening and communicating can be. As a company, we did a bunch of what are probably standard improv exercises, and we were all caught off guard at moments when we were making assumptions or getting too "in our own head" to respond correctly in the game (or even realize that maybe "correct" isn't even the right way to think about things sometimes!).”

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn and check out his company Spren online

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