I've known about the yes, and rule in improv for years. The concept is to accept whatever your partner gives you and build upon it. That approach ensures the story keeps moving foward. If your improv partner says, "Aliens have landed on the roof," you don't reply with "Those aren't aliens, they're just crows." That shuts down the scene.
Instead you accept their idea and add to it. I've understood the accepting part, but it wasn't until I took a recent improve class that I understood the importance of AND - building more. In our alien example, "Oh, my what are we going to do" accepts your partner's direction, but doesn't add to it. "Yes, and there are reports that it's happening all over town" does.
In the class, we played a sketch called Panel of Experts that illustrated for me both the importance of adding on and the skill of how to do it. The panel of experts answered questions from the other improv students. The first expert answered, and the other two experts followed up with "Yes, and..." and had to add something to the answer before them. Challenging, yet hilarious.
My daughter is taking virtual college classes, and a regular requirement is participation on a discussion board. One of her frustrations is the lack of value on the threads. She finds many students simply rephrase previous statments. There's little added value.
In meetings, I often hear someone ask another participant directly, "Would you add anything to that?" I can't believe how many times the answer is "No, I would agree with..." and then they go on to repeat what was already said.
My challenge for myself, and for you if you accept it, is to yes, and when those opportunities appear. In improv, you can make stuff up (and the points don't matter), but in meetings the challenge will be to add some real value.
