I’m so excited to share a podcast interview that really inspired me. At the time of our discussion, I’d been following Galen Emanuele’s career for quite a while. We’ve crossed paths on LinkedIn and we run in some of the same circles in the Portland area. Galen is a keynote speaker and a thought leader in the areas of culture and team leadership. For anyone who has seen one of his videos or heard him speak, it’s easy to understand why I walked away feeling so encouraged and inspired.
From the Stage to the Workplace
We started by diving into Galen’s background. Business-wise, Galen was always in sales and marketing, but he was also curious about humans and why they interact the way 
that they do. Back in 2004, he started taking improv classes, and on day one, Galen said he was hooked. He recalled, “I’m home here. All my weirdness fits in here.” This led to Galen working in sales and marketing while continuing to do improv for several years. At one point, he even became the marketing and sales director for the improv theater where he would also perform.
“I’m just an entrepreneur in my blood. That’s my DNA,” Galen said. And the more he taught and performed improv, the more he realized that there was “so much crossover in terms of how people communicate, how they interact, how they impact each other. In the improv and business worlds, I could see similarities in perception, mindset, and the entire human condition. I just saw a lot of opportunity there.”
That’s when Galen started teaching classes, putting on workshops, developing curriculum and working with teams to see what worked and what didn’t. He brought the improv concepts and ideas into the world of business, particularly with leadership, and saw an immediate impact. Eventually, he ventured into speaking engagements and team training, and “it really kind of morphed into what I saw as the biggest value: engagement, leadership, culture, and performance,” and how these concepts work together to make a successful team.
Being in the Moment
I was interested in learning more about Galen’s experience with improv and how it gave him insight into the dynamics of the business world. In improv, you’re operating on the fly, communicating with people, and building off what they’re saying. And that’s what it’s all about, right? You might run into an unexpected situation and have to be able to respond appropriately to the situation using your emotional intelligence. I could see the parallels, but I wanted to hear how Galen was able to incorporate this knowledge and turn it into a successful career.
Galen began by clearing up misconceptions about improv. Many assume that improv is the same as stand-up comedy — containing a curated set of jokes and stringing them together with clever transitions. Galen said, “But it’s not about telling your jokes. You’re on stage with somebody else and creating scenes in the moment with no script. The people on stage haven’t planned anything. It’s so spontaneous and there’s this magic that happens. But a lot of people also have this misconception that you have to be a good improviser to do improv — that you have to be quick on your feet and funny. However, that’s actually not true.” Instead, Galen explained that improv is really about being in the moment. It’s about listening. “It’s about being generous and making other people look good.”
Improv is centered around the core concept idea of “yes.” Galen went on to explain: “Put simply, everything that your partner does on stage is considered an offer. And your job, as an improviser, is to say yes, accept that person’s offer, fully embrace it, and then add to it to make it better. It’s really about reading people.”
When you put it that way, it actually translates to the workplace pretty well. In fact, Galen’s website is shiftyes.com which builds on the idea of the “yes” concept of improving communication. But we all know that the business world presents opportunities that don’t always deserve a “yes.” So, what about that?
Galen responded, “There are terrible ideas out there — lots of stuff to say no to. So if you share an idea with me and I hate it, instead of trampling on that idea, I ask myself if there is anything about the idea that I love. Is there anything about that idea that could work? Is there any way to say “yes” to this at all? And instead of pointing out all the reasons that it won’t work, we unpack the motivation behind the idea. I don’t say no. Instead, I get to the root objective and try to add to it. Together, we create an idea that will really work for the business as well as the employees who work there.”
Intentional Culture: The 3 Cs
One of the things that Galen is most passionate about is taking the elusive, complex idea of creating culture, making it a strategic priority, and translating it into a simple, tangible, step-by-step process. According to Galen, to create culture in an organization, it takes 3 Cs: clarity, commitment, and consistency.
For clarity, Galen focuses on the ground rules, or the set of behaviors and expectations for each employee in terms of how they approach their jobs, do their actual jobs, and “how they show up as human beings and impact other people on the team.” When we get clarity around the ground rules — our behaviors, our mindsets, and our approach — we can begin to build a team culture.
Of course, the team must stay committed to these expectations, and there has to be very real consequences for violating them. That’s how, according to Galen, our values translate into behaviors. When we know that the standard is high, we will meet it.
And the last one is consistency. Galen said, “It’s not about printing those things on a poster and putting them on the wall. Instead, we need to take a look at whether we’re living the culture every day? And how do we integrate that into systems and processes when we’re hiring? How does it inform the way we give feedback or coach our employees?”
Galen walks teams through this process, guiding them on what questions to ask, what decisions to make, how to do that in a way that’s really effective so that they can actually architect, design, build and live the culture that they want. “We determine what perfect looks like, and then we strive towards that every single day,” Galen said.
For More Info
This interview was so exciting that I didn’t want it to end. If you found Galen’s insights useful for your team, you won’t regret listening to the full podcast interview HERE. Some of the topics from our conversation that I didn’t cover in this article: how to keep your team members engaged, what to do with unproductive employees, and a cool role-play scenario about how to deal with an employee’s suggestion even when you don’t think it’s a great idea.
Also, to learn more about Galen and how he can help you and your team, check him out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or head over to his website, shiftyes.com and sign up for his newsletter.
Listen to the full episode 👇