In general semantics, you will hear championed “a process orientation.”\u00a0 It struck me recently what kind of orientation might contrast a process orientation.\u00a0 If you haven’t guessed by the title of this entry, it could be\u00a0the goal orientation.<\/p>\n
In my recent life, and less clearly in the last decade, I’ve been focused on the topic of goals.\u00a0 In my work in long-form improv, I’ve long talked about wants.\u00a0 Really, I was talking about goals.\u00a0 I’ve learned over the course that, hey, I’m a goal-oriented person.\u00a0 By being oriented to goals, I’m able to get so much done in my life and get it done pretty swiftly.\u00a0 In fact, I regard my goal orientation as one of the secrets\u00a0to my success.<\/p>\n
What does it mean to be “goal-oriented”?\u00a0 For me, it means I live life ultimately relative to my goals<\/em>.\u00a0 I’m not a goal robot by any means, but I focus a lot on my goals and I measure my life and activities against them.\u00a0 I evaluate my time and other influences on my life relative to my goals.\u00a0 My value system is hinged upon my goals.\u00a0 When I change my goals, my values shift.\u00a0 How I organize my life is hinged upon my goals.\u00a0 How I organize life shifts when I shift\u00a0my goals.\u00a0 I measure people and their influences relative to my goals.\u00a0 I measure technological devices and their influence relative to my goals.\u00a0 Ultimately, I am asking the question, “How will this help me achieve my goals?”\u00a0 I also ask, “Is this interfering with the achievement of my goals?”\u00a0 I ask, “Should I cut this influence out in light of my goals?” I even ask, “Given my insistence on having this in my life, what does this say about my unconscious goals?”\u00a0 For me, it\u00a0often comes back to goals.<\/p>\n Only recently, through the wonderful power of hindsight, have I realized that I’ve applied this goal orientation to long-form\u00a0improv.\u00a0 I’ve identified unstated goals in long-form improv, and by identifying them, I’ve made\u00a0them clear.\u00a0 By making them clear, I’ve made\u00a0them more achievable.\u00a0 I’ve made\u00a0it so that there is something specific to pursue when\u00a0performners improvise.\u00a0 I’ve clarified the pursuit.\u00a0 So, when improvisers get on stage, their performance is not random and their success is not accidental.\u00a0 Instead, their performance is organized and their success is regular, and if not regular, it can get more regular with practice.<\/p>\n My goal orientation to long-form improv is largely in contrast to the process orientation that infects long-form\u00a0improv performance.\u00a0 Process orientation is definitely of value.\u00a0 It is of value in the classroom<\/em>.\u00a0 In the classroom, you explore your abilities\u00a0and you avoid judgment.\u00a0 You see what you’re capable of and experiment with different techniques.\u00a0 There is no such thing as failure when operating under a process orientation because, note, there is no goal.\u00a0 You are focused more on the journey than on the apex.<\/p>\n But for the sake of improvisation, a process orientation is not<\/em> of value in the performance setting.\u00a0 When you are in an improv group who is up for performance, achieving goals becomes important.\u00a0 An audience does not come to see process (except maybe in a rare case of an audience of\u00a0improv connoisseurs).\u00a0 Instead, they have paid money, even risked money, to see a well-done show.\u00a0 They generally do not pay money hoping for a show that does not entertain them.\u00a0 They pay money to see a show that guarantees entertainment.\u00a0 Their time is important to them, and they don’t want you to waste their time.<\/p>\n In my opinion, the process orientation often developed in improv classes carries over into many improvisers’ performances.\u00a0 As a result, improv gets a bad name because improv performance diminishes its entertainment value and irritates its audience.\u00a0 Improv gets a reputation of being “occasionally funny,” or even “rarely funny,” unless a group has a decent reputation.\u00a0 But even if there are groups with good reputations, the greater whole of improv is frowned upon.\u00a0 And this is largely the result of an inappropriate emphasis on process when it comes to improv performance.<\/p>\n When we talk about goals and process, we start to get into the realm of meaning.\u00a0 We call something “meaningful” if it influences the achievement of a goal.\u00a0 If something has no influence on the achievement of a goal, we call it “meaningless.”<\/p>\n More specifically, we call something “meaningful” if it\u00a0benefits<\/em> the achievement of a goal.\u00a0 That is, if something is seen as meaningful, generally it is not seen as something that obstructs the achievement of a goal.\u00a0 A minotaur in the maze is meaningful in that it can obstruct the achievement of your goal to exit the maze, but it is not considered meaningful in that it gets in your way.\u00a0 A doting god would be considered meaningful in that case, especially if that god could get you out of the maze.<\/p>\n With this understanding, what we call “a meaningful life” is really just a life filled with factors\u00a0that benefit\u00a0to the achievement of our goals.\u00a0 Oftentimes a brush with death can trigger the pursuit of a meaningful life.\u00a0 When we have a brush with death, we start to appreciate the brief amount of time we have in our lives, and decide that we shouldn’t waste that time, and a waste of time would be spending time on things that do not aid in the achievement of our goals.<\/p>\n But what is meaningful to you is not necessarily meaningful to everyone else.\u00a0 What is meaningful is relative to your goals.<\/em>\u00a0 It is not absolute.\u00a0 When you have a goal, say, to take a shower, particular objects in your life become meaningful to you.\u00a0 Soap becomes meaningful.\u00a0 Shampoo becomes meaningful.\u00a0 A towel becomes meaningful.\u00a0 But when you change your goal, these objects are not necessarily meaningful.\u00a0 If your goal is, say, to type this blog entry, soap, shampoo, and a towel become relatively meaningless.\u00a0 Instead, a computer becomes meaningful.\u00a0 A keyboard.\u00a0 Fingers …<\/p>\n Having a goal in improv performance may sound antithetical to the notion of improv.\u00a0 It may sound as if it makes\u00a0improv performance planned.\u00a0 However, it\u00a0does not.\u00a0 It\u00a0makes improv performance\u00a0no more planned than planning to get on a stage, planning to play characters, planning to do a Harold or play an improv game, planning to address the audience for a suggestion, etc.\u00a0 This is to say that having goals in improv performance is not any more planned than conventionally accepted\u00a0planning done for an improv performance.\u00a0 In fact, having goals in improv performance makes for more meaningful improvising.\u00a0 Having goals when performing does not mean scripting a scene beforehand, or determining a character beforehand.\u00a0 Having goals just gives set directions to go in when improvising in a performance.\u00a0 It forces improvisers to make their improv more meaningful, to evaluate their actions relative to their goals.\u00a0\u00a0Having goals in improv performance\u00a0is contrasted with not<\/em> having goals–i.e., revering process.\u00a0 In such an approach, improvisers usually create improv that lacks a lot of meaning, or when it does become meaningful, it was a rather accidental, “magical” happening.<\/p>\n It should be noted that the need for a goal orientation in improv performance comes from the appreciation that you don’t have all day to perform improv.\u00a0 You usually have a set amount of time.\u00a0 And in that set amount of time, you want to engage the audience from beginning to end.\u00a0 You need meaningful improv, and you need to know how to create it, and you don’t<\/em> need to be slave to chance.<\/p>\n You wow the audience when your improv is rife with meaning.\u00a0 If the audience sees a meaningless show–a show that seems to have no respect for any goals–an aimless, drifting show<\/em>–the audience will want to leave.\u00a0 Get some goals when you’re out of the classroom and in a performance, make as much as you can do meaningful relative to those goals, and the audience will want to know how you did such a surprisingly successful show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In general semantics, you will hear championed “a process orientation.”\u00a0 It struck me recently what kind of orientation might contrast a process orientation.\u00a0 If you haven’t guessed by the title of this entry, it 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