Age of No Retirement

During the last week of April, I spent two fascinating days at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, contributing to an amazing event discussing age diversity and the challenges faced by society due to an ageing population.

On Day 1, I enjoyed a day participating and sharing my thoughts on twitter. The lovely Rachel has created a storify highlighting some of the best tweets from each day of the event, which you can find here: Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3. Continue Reading…

10 Reasons to Learn through Improv

This post was originally found on my business blog and has been reposted here in May 2015.

Recently I blogged over on my personal blog about my journey into the world of improvised comedy.

Since writing that post, I’ve been thinking about all the reasons why I think learning through improv is great. Here are ten of those reasons.

1. “Yes, and…” is a great mantra

Anyone that knows anything about improv, will know that the fundamental principle is “Yes, and”. In practice, this means you have to listen and observe what has happened, accept it and build upon it.

Although simple in theory, this can be a challenge for some people. You have to resist the urge to forge ahead with your own idea or to shout down your partner. Instead you must think about how you can take their idea and improve upon it. Accepting other’s ideas and building upon them is an important lesson in business. No one wants to work with the negative person that ignores or criticises every idea someone else puts forward. They want to work with people they can collaborate with to build something great. Continue Reading…

Applying improv to life and business…

Over the past two years I have been introduced to the wonderful world of improv comedy. It all started when my partner signed up for an 8 week Foundation in Improv course with ComedySportz UK Manchester back in autumn 2012. He’s always been fairly shy and thought improv would be a great way to step out of his comfort zone, improve his confidence and have some fun. Soon enough he was addicted and trying to encourage me to get involved. I started watching lots of improv shows and once I had also got to know most of the ComedySportz UK crew, I was being roped into signing up for the classes as well. Continue Reading…

Introducing Content

So my site is up and running again and I’ve finally written something on the ‘About Me’ page. You can also learn about my name and why I became known as ‘Lellie’.

I haven’t quite worked out what I am going to ramble about on here, as opposed to over on my business blog, but I am sure I will find something soon enough. Expect future posts to cover anything from the perils of writing a master’s dissertation through to the joy of improvised comedy, perhaps via a detour into the frustrations of knitting mistakes and the adventures of my dog, Nikki. You can spot her in my gravatar.

For now, please excuse the bare walls and do come back for more of my rambles soon.