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This Just In: Second City Communications is Renamed Second City Works!
Feb 3, 2015
Description
The New Name for the Business Arm of the Improvisation Powerhouse, The Second City, Signals What Hundreds of Global Companies Already Know: Improv Methods Work for Skilling Up Workforces, Engaging Employees, and Winning Customers
(Chicago - February 3, 2015) – The business arm of The Second City, Inc. - Second City Communications - has been renamed Second City Works, in an announcement today by Andrew Alexander, CEO/Executive Producer of The Second City, Inc., and Tom Yorton, CEO of Second City Works.
Second City Works uses comedy, improvisation, and digital content to help hundreds of global clients reach, engage and develop their employees and customers.
"Improvisation brings extraordinary benefits to business performance and work life,” said Andrew Alexander, CEO/Executive Producer, The Second City, Inc. “This new name change – Second City Works -- further focuses and clarifies the work of Tom and his talented team in applying this transformative art form to challenges confronting organizations across a broad spectrum,” Alexander added.
Drawing on The Second City’s 55-year legacy of engaging audiences with smart, incisive comedy, Second City Works has evolved from its early days in corporate entertainment to become a leading innovator in professional development, marketing services and event support. The company focuses on four practice areas: sales effectiveness, talent & leadership development, legal & compliance and marketing & content.
Second City Works also licenses innovative video content for corporate education under the brand RealBiz Shorts, a cloud-based service of video libraries with funny content tailored to ethics, compliance, life sciences, human resources, talent development, and sales enablement training.
“Our new name – Second City Works – speaks to what we hear from clients all the time: We make work better – in terms of helping individuals, teams, and organizations work more effectively – and for making life on the job more fun, engaging, interesting, and ultimately more successful,” said Tom Yorton. “The improviser’s toolkit features the skills for thriving in today’s chaotic business environment -- including skills around speed, agility, collaboration, comfort with change, willingness to fail, and confidence with ambiguity” added Yorton.
The Second City’s legendary take on how improvisation helps organizations and leaders meet important challenges – and get great results – is the focus of a new book by Tom Yorton and Second City Executive Vice President, Kelly Leonard titled, Yes And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration, which is published by Harper Collins.
“Yes, And takes you behind the curtain of Second City to reveal deep insights and practical tips about how to lead a creative life,” according to Daniel Pink, author of the business best sellers To Sell Is Human and Drive. “If you want to flourish in the new world of work, this book is an essential read,” added Pink.
“Yes, And” details the seven elements of improv and shows how it fosters skills in leaders and teams, including co-creating in ensembles, building ‘yes and’ cultures on the job, embracing failure to celebrate high performance, leading by listening and learning to follow, and innovating something from nothing.