Ep. 84 - Antonio Ocampo-Guzman: Designing Improv Classes for Business & Computer Science Students

Welcome to Change Your Mindset (formerly known as Improv Is No Joke) where it is all about believing that strong communication skills are the best way in delivering your technical accounting knowledge and growing your business. The way of building stronger communication skills is by embracing the principles of applied improvisation. Your host is Peter Margaritis, CPA a.k.a. The Accidental Accountant, will interview financial professionals and business leaders to find their secret in building stronger relationships with their clients, customers, associates, and peers, all the while, growing their businesses.

Ep. 84 – Antonio Ocampo-Guzman: Designing Improv Classes for Business & Computer Science Students

I’m really excited to introduce you all to Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, an actor, director, author, and theater teacher originally from Bogotá, Colombia. He is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University, where he teaches all levels of acting, voice, and improvisation – but not just to theater students.

Antonio has developed a number of courses for non-theater students to help people develop their “soft skills,” or interpersonal communication skills – but, as listeners to this podcast know, those skills can be very hard to comprehend and practice.

“When you bring people back to playfulness in theater, they rediscover a childlike sense of innocence, playfulness, winningest, and generosity – which makes life much easier.”

Antonio designed the first one of these courses about five years ago, for the business school. Shortly thereafter, Dean Carla Brodley asked him to design a similar course for the computer science program.

After a short pilot period, it became a required class for every single undergraduate student majoring in Computer and Information Science at Northeastern.

“You’re only alive and compelling when there’s a disruption. The status quo only perpetuates injustices and inequalities… and Improv is all a disruption.”

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