Leadership Expert Candy Campbell's New Book Shows How to Create the Workplace Nobody Wants to Leave

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Apr 24, 2023, 08:38 ET

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Candy Campbell, award-winning actor, author, filmmaker, and nurse consultant, released Improv to Improve Your Leadership Team today, the second book in the four-part series.

"To increase engagement and retention and find future leaders, business leaders need to create an environment where an individual would want to develop --- as a person. The employee may not even realize there is a potential for leadership within them. The best leaders know how to recognize those traits and nurture them. That makes it a place where everybody wants to work, and nobody wants to leave," said Campbell.

"Inclusion is about relationships," she says, "and that's what the 12 principles of applied improv I've outlined provide." They include:

Accept all offers.
Risk being imperfect.
Avoid Yes/No questions.
Be helpful.
Silence the Inner Editor.
Be adventurous.
Be thankful; you have what you need.
Actions speak louder than words.
Look and listen to understand, not respond.
Focus on your partner.
Follow the Story Spine and be changed.
Treat others like you want to be treated.

"When you create a culture where everyone feels known, where the bosses don't hide behind closed doors all the time, and where the managers go out of their way to find people doing things well, they are visible and know the people they work with. That sort of atmosphere invokes an inclusive culture that invites innovation, retains employees, and keeps profits up," she said.

"Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' That goes for solving ALL sorts of problems. If you can't come up with a new twist on an old problem, you'll be stuck with the problem ad infinitum. The experiential nature of the applied improvisational method from the arts is a solution with research to back up the ROI," she said.

Campbell completed her doctoral work with an interprofessional group of healthcare clinicians at Stanford's Lucille Packard Children's Hospital by facilitating an applied improv workshop with longitudinal test-of-change results over a decade ago.

"But this method is certainly not just for healthcare," says Campbell. "My first applied improv groups were Silicon Valley start-ups. As Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage!' Since no one wakes up with a script of how the day will go, life is improv, and we should flex accordingly."

The pandemic influenced the decision to continue the work on improvisation.

"I originally thought of a four-part series on improv because the applications are so vast. For instance, as a speech coach, I use the method 1:1 with executive coaching clients to get them out of their linear thinking habit and help them see the possibilities of how to relate when they know they must address their group onstage. That was going to be the focus of the next book. However, while we were all locked down, there was so much grief over employee disengagement and dissatisfaction with the work environment that I knew I had to add to the conversation to help leaders. The culture change results I've seen have been so remarkable."

About Candy Campbell

Candace (Candy) Campbell is an international speaker, award-winning actor, author, filmmaker, and nurse consultant.

In 1993, she co-founded a stand-up and improv comedy company, The Barely Insane Players, with three friends in the San Francisco area and started teaching applied improv to businesses in 1995.

Dr. Campbell's books, Improv to Improve Healthcare and Improv to Improve Your Leadership Team, are direct results of her doctoral work and experience as an applied improv facilitator.

As an actor, credits include her third solo show, An Evening With Florence Nightingale (recently off-Broadway), based on Nightingale's 200 books, articles, and thousands of letters extant. Campbell's book, Channeling Florence Nightingale: Integrity, Insight, Innovation, expands Nightingale's history and adds the story of her influence on the author's personal and professional life.

Her awards include:

1997 San Francisco Fringe Festival – "Full-Frontal Nursing" – rated "One of 10 Best to Watch"
WYSIWYG 2004 Film Fest-Supporting actor, "The Calling," role of Mama – "Most inspirational moment"
San Francisco Bay Area Critics Award 2005 – Supporting Actress – "Funny Girl," role of Mrs. Brice (Fanny's mom)
International Medical Media award for the documentary film, "Micropremature Babies: How Low Can You Go?"

For information, go to https://www.candycampbell.com

Contact:
Candy Campbell
202-519-1311
[email protected]

SOURCE Candy Campbell