Comedy and crime fighting join forces for police learning leadership skills

Three dozen police captains pair off in a Chicago conference room to play a game: They must start a sentence with the last word their partner used.

- by Claudia Lauer Associated Press

Many exchanges are nonsensical, full of one-upmanship using difficult words and laughter. But the improvisation game eventually makes sense.

"What we are trying to do is get you to listen to the end of the sentence," says Kelly Leonard, wrapping up the improvisational exercise. "If my arm was a sentence, when do most people stop listening? Always the elbow! But then you're missing everything that goes after... and sometimes that's critical information."

The police captains who have flown in from departments across the country nod. "I definitely do that," some call out.

Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago's storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment, and fully listening.

The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like making data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma.

Improving social skills

"We call it yoga for social skills," said Leonard, the vice president of Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at The Second City.

The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works.

The creation of improv and The Second City is rooted in social work. Both trace their beginnings to Viola Spolin, who created some of the exercises still used in improv while she was a resettlement worker in the 1920s, helping immigrant children and local Chicago children connect. Spolin was also the mother of Second City cofounder Paul Sills.