A Scientist, a Project Manager, and Improviser Walk into a ZooWritten by Lisa Yeager – This article is from AIM Issue 1 (released December 2022). According to the Yale Center for Climate Communications (“Global Warming’s Six Americas,” n.d.), two thirds of Americans are worried about global warming, but only half of them discuss it, even occasionally. And I get it! Even though I have the opportunity to talk about it as a volunteer informal educator at my local zoo, I am hard-pressed to do it myself. Here’s the story of how I teamed up with other Applied Improvisors to help more people get comfortable talking about climate.
The challengeWhen I started my second master’s degree in biology at Miami University’s acclaimed Project Dragonfly Program, I was immediately drawn in by what informal learning settings could offer. Much of what I read from social and climate scientists such as the Nature Conservancy’s Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe was about the importance of talking about climate change. I realized that zoos, museums and aquariums - places where I’d hang out and volunteer - were prime venues for drawing the public into conversations about climate change and could serve as a resource for civic and environmental engagement. I had a new toolkit of ideas and techniques from the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation - (NNOCCI | Climate Interpreter, n.d.) and The Frameworks Institute (Framing for Climate Interpreters, n.d.). And the first time I tried them out on zoo guests, one lady stood in front of me, red-faced, hands on hips, and proclaimed, “I don’t believe in that theory.” I was stuck. As an improviser, all I could think was, “How am I gonna ‘Yes, And...’ this lady?” And so I tested my ideas with other docents at the zoo, people who had many more years of experience in guest interaction than I did. We tried effective metaphors for explaining the basics of climate-change science (NNOCCI | Climate Interpreter, n.d.). People more readily understand the concept of a ‘heat trapping blanket,’ than ‘greenhouse,’ for example. I also started weaving information about climate-change science, impacts and solutions into new training content for docents, and developed a toolkit of best practices from leading organizations in the field such as the NNOCCI and The Cleo Institute (The CLEO Institute – It’s Time For A Climate Change of Mind, n.d.).
The missing pieceThe emerging best practices spoke to the importance of connecting conversationally with the public. Organizations such as The Nature Conservancy (Can We Talk Climate?, n.d.), Audubon Society (Climate Action Guide, n.d.), and academic journals (“Aquariums and Zoos Gear Up to Teach Climate Change,” 2017) (Clayton et al., 2014) (Geiger et al., 2017) suggested finding common shared values, and listening to understand, more than talking and pushing information at people. Yet I fear that information alone doesn’t move the needle. If the sheer facts about climate change were enough to motivate individual and societal change, we’d have it sorted by now. People place more trust in conversations they have with people they know - friends, neighbors, that nice docent at the zoo or museum - than they do in distant ‘experts’ they hear on the news. The docents I knew were already doing much that was working, but we needed tools to build stronger connections and common goals. The Applied Improvisors reading this may have reached the same conclusion as I did: that climate change conversations are ripe territory for our kind of work. I started by introducing ‘Yes, And...’ to the docents with whom I was partnering. I could see sparks catch fire as many of them quickly realized they could use this concept to help make ALL of their conversations more impactful. The basics were coming together, but I knew things would be even better if I had some help.
The teamTwo colleagues I met at Applied Improvisation Network conferences offered just the right mix of facilitation and conservation know-how: Bobbi Block and I first crossed paths at the Montreal conference and our interactions grew organically over time through the AIN Facebook group. She’s a seasoned improviser, theater professional and trainer, with more than twenty years of experience helping people with leadership, team-building and behavior-change initiatives. When I invited others from the AIN Facebook group to join me in a climate-change speakers’ training I was attending, she jumped at the chance; she told me she was eager to learn more about climate change because she felt a bit uninformed, and wanted to strengthen her knowledge. After taking the course, Bobbi was confident we could use improvisation to help others communicate about climate change. Karen Strong sat down beside me at the Stonybrook conference, took one look at my name tag, and yelled, “I’m supposed to talk to you - you’re using improvisation in conservation!” Word gets around in the AIN community! Karen told me she came to AIN specifically to improve communication in conservation. She was trained as a biologist and, with a twenty year career as a conservation professional, came to accept that science doesn’t conserve nature, people do. Karen now consults with organizations that conserve land, wildlife and water, building on her background and expertise in science, conservation and nonprofit organizational development. She started developing improvisation communication workshops for conservation professionals in 2020, and when we reconnected at the AIN’s Friday Open Space, we started working on projects together. We were eager to collaborate, and as we followed up on conversations begun during the 2019 conference, opportunities fell into place. The three of us like to joke that we represent what happens “when a scientist, a project manager, and an improviser walk into a bar.” We started exploring ways of using improvisation activities to help make the scary, overwhelming concept of climate change more accessible and even enjoyable. Our first project was titled “Climate Change for Improvisers,” which we presented at the 2021 AIN virtual conference. Because the session was targeted to an audience of improvisers, we were not surprised that the AIN-ers loved the exercises. We then considered how to work with non-improvisers. Lisa and Bobbi experimented in opportunities with Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Aquarium beach naturalists.
The solutionI came to appreciate that a key component to talking about climate change is not talking at all, but listening. So in our programs, we combine improvisation-based exercises with data on the causes of climate change, solutions, and social behavior to develop communication skills designed to tackle this daunting topic. For example, when a zoo guest asks if climate change is real, a docent can ask the guest if they have noticed any changes in their own climate. Based on their answers, we can either ‘yes, and…’ by sharing similar observations we’ve noticed, or making a link to shared values, such as what these changes might mean for our kids. In our sessions with improvisers, as well as those with informal educators, we mixed tested techniques with some that were newly emerging from the 2021 (virtual) conference. Some examples include:
The way aheadSo far, the Project Manager, the Scientist and the Improvisor have delivered this program to 75+ zoo volunteers; have delivered variations of these sessions to 90 beach naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium; offered workshops as part of the Applied Improvisation Network and Conservation Marketing Conferences in 2021; and created a session for alumni of a Making Moves Behavior Change for Conservation course pioneered by behavior-change marketing specialist Brooke Tully. Lisa received additional support and funding when she was awarded a Cee-Change Fellowship from the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE). Its Environmental Protection Agency partners were particularly intrigued by the innovation that uses the arts to support civic engagement and environmental education. Building on these successes, we are launching a five-week series for conservation communicators in 2023. Participants in these sessions will gain:
Climate Conversations is an initiative that has been brought to life by a group of dedicated volunteers. We don’t feel ready, and we don’t feel like we know quite what we’re doing, but we DO know that we need to do something to address the issue of climate change. So we are learning and building our part of the movement together. Join us at Climate Conversations - because we can’t fix what we don’t talk about. When we can relax, have some fun learning, and practice together, we’re more likely to talk about the most pressing issue of our time.
More Reading/ResourcesAre you interested in learning more about Climate Change from the resources we used to create our programs? Check out these books and websites:
ReferencesAquariums and Zoos Gear Up to Teach Climate Change. (2017). Education Week, 36(34), 8–9. Can We Talk Climate? (n.d.). The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved March 16, 2019, from link Clayton, S., Luebke, J., Saunders, C., Matiasek, J., & Grajal, A. (2014). Connecting to Nature at the Zoo: Implications for Responding to Climate Change. Environmental Education Research, 20(4), 460–475. Climate Action Guide. (n.d.). Audubon. Retrieved March 3, 2020, from link Framing for Climate Interpreters. (n.d.). Frameworks Academy. Retrieved July 21, 2019, from link Geiger, N., Swim, J. K., Fraser, J., & Flinner, K. (2017). Catalyzing Public Engagement With Climate Change Through Informal Science Learning Centers. Science Communication, 39(2), 221–249. link Global Warming’s Six Americas. (n.d.). Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from link Hayhoe, K. (2021). Saving us: A climate scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world. (Electronic Resource QC903 .H39 2021eb; First One Signal Publishers/Atria Books hardcover edition). One Signal Publishers/Atria Books; MU Library Catalog. link National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation—NNOCCI | Climate Interpreter. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2020, from link The CLEO Institute – It’s Time For A Climate Change of Mind. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2020, from link
About the Author: Lisa YeagerAfter volunteering at Woodland Park Zoo for more than eight years, Lisa enrolled in a second master’s degree in biology through an innovative program from Miami University offered in partnership with zoos and botanical gardens across the US. All her projects ultimately focus on ways to mobilize and engage new and different audiences in climate-change action. Her background in project management proved useful for both bringing in and managing new collaborators in these efforts. Lisa has been a member of the Applied Improvisation Network for more than seven years, and has served on the board of the organization. (Read more from our magazine issues: click here to access our article database.) (Last Updated: Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026) |