I'm a developer with 12 years of experience, an improviser (> 11 years), an improv teacher (4 years), and the founder of Alligator Improv and Self Expression. I take my experience in tech and my love of improv and organizational psychology and use them to make software teams happier, safer, and more supportive places to work.

Harvard psychologists and business researchers have confirmed that psychological safety is not something that needs to come from the top down in an organization. Feeling psychologically safe means that developers can speak up, ask a question, admit a mistake, or offer a different perspective, without fear of embarrassment or punishment. That means problems get resolved faster, and fewer unrealistic deadlines from management go un-discussed or un-addressed.

Psychological safety does not require sharing personal information with your co-workers or "bringing your whole self to work". I will NEVER ask you to share personal information with colleagues in my workshops.

The work we do as developers can be rewarding, but it can also be isolating. And that isolation can hurt performance. Things like parallel programming and swarming on difficult issues can help, but there's nothing that helps a team help eachother more than being able to have hard conversations.

One thing improv is great for is getting us to stop overthinking or over-executive-functioning. To turn down the part of you that over-thinks how others see you. Improv teaches us, in moments that we all feel like afraid naked babies who don't know what we're doing or what to say, to listen and support each other. If you have 6 different bugs in your pull request, it helps to have that humility and compassion for yourself, and doubly so if your teammates have that too.

All workshops are 4 hours long with periodic breaks. Mornings are not available for bookings.

Money-back guarantee: If this workshop is for a software team that has been working together for at least 6 months with an established velocity from at least 6 months of data, I guarantee an increase in velocity of 10% over your next two sprints or your money back.

To book your workshop, purchase here, and you will be sent a booking link. Or you can reach out to admin@alligatorimprov.com to book.

If you're not sure if this workshop is right for your team, reach out to admin@alligatorimprov.com to ask specific questions or to schedule a 15-minute consultation call.

Improv Team Building for Software Teams (in person)