Have Their Backs

“Break a leg.” “Break a leg.” “Got your back.” “Got your back.”

With this coda, Second City’s brightest stars went on stage to dazzle an audience of hundreds.

But I sat backstage, stunned. “Break a leg,” I’d heard a thousand times. But “Got your back”?

“Oh yeah,” Kelly said, when I asked the team about it after the session was over. Kelly Leonard is Second City’s Executive Director of Applied Improvisation, and co-author of the fantastic Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, but" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration.“We say that before every performance. And we make a point to physically touch each others’ backs so that we actually feel that sense of support.”

What a profound difference that sense of team makes. It’s one thing to wish someone well. But, “Break a leg!” can be a cast-off remark, while under our breath we know, “It’s no skin off my back if you don’t!”

We aren’t invested in each others’ success.

What “Break a leg. Got your back” says is, “I’m invested in your success. And if it doesn’t go well, I’m personally taking responsibility for doing whatever I can to turn things around.”

And the physical touch isn’t insignificant, either. Kelly told me how Kevin Garnett, a perennial MVP candidate throughout his career, in his Finals-winning season with Boston Celtics, clocked more such encouraging “Got your back” style touches to his teammates than any other player in the NBA.

“It’s a physical manifestation of the psychological reality: we are in this together.”

It’s made me wonder: on how many teams is there that sense — and perhaps a perpetual reminder — “these folks have my back”? And just as important: “… and I’ve got theirs.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve been inspired by Kelly and his team at Second City. For another fabulous lesson he taught me, see Generate Bad Ideas.

Related: Create Psychological Safety
Related: Pay A Compliment

Click here to subscribe to Paint & Pipette, the weekly digest of these daily posts.