I built a SWOT Matrix for improvisation to help coaches identify and articulate beneficial behaviors and suboptimal characteristics of improvised performance. The elements are defined as follows:
- Strengths: characteristics that play to the improviser’s advantage
- Weaknesses: characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage
- Opportunities: outcomes possible when Strengths are executed
- Threats: outcomes risked by the existence of Weaknesses
For each Strength there is a corresponding Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. Identify a Weakness? The matrix aims to help coaches steer improvisers to the Opportunity of the corresponding Strength and to avoid the Threat of the identified Weakness. Each set has its own page with instructive text and related links.
View List of Weaknesses
View List of Strengths
Or search for the skill set you’re focused on in the search box at the bottom of this page, just add “swot” to your search. For example, search “emotion swot.”
SWOT Gallery
Here are the list of Weaknesses – ordered to track with an improviser’s growth from novice to artist – linking to the relevant piece of the matrix:
- Player is afraid to share personal, emotional depth (Vulnerable Confidence)
- Player is too vague in defining scene elements (The Details)
- Player hesitates to endow character and environment traits (Bold Choices)
- Player initiations dictate behavior, denying others the freedom of choice (Self Contained Initiations)
- Player indicates emotion without feeling it and/or avoids emotion entirely (Emotional Perspective)
- Player tells instead of shows, explains rather than exhibits (Committed Mime)
- Player denies, negotiates or argues (Agreement to What Is)
- Player is not affected by scene elements (Reacting)
- Player focuses on elements off-stage and/or events in the past or future (Active Endowments)
- Player acts randomly and reacts erratically (Patterns of Emotional Behavior)
- Player’s contributions remain flat or are scatter-shot (Pattern Progression)
- Player runs games into the ground (Capping Patterns)
- Players’ connections disengage audience (Crafting Beautiful Trajectories)
- Players’ choices become tired, lose impact and/or kill momentum (Enabling Sustainable Scenes)
- Player joins scene with selfish and/or insensitive intent that does not serve the scene (Tertiary Additions)
- Player fails to leverage earlier scenes in initiating later scenes in a long form (Beat Structure Rhythm)
- Team flails without rigidly structured formats (Playing with Flexible Formats)
- Player is resistant to continued learning (Confident Vulnerability)