Minisode 15: The Chicken Dance Origin Story & A New Name For Our Community
It all started with episode 102 of this show. One of the most charismatic and genius guests, Chris Do, mentioned that we needed a new name for our community.
A name that made us laugh. A name that connected us all. A name that was more than just the ‘improve it! fam.”
A name does not define us, but it does connect us to who we are at our core.
Hit “play” to hear our new name, the origin story of the chicken dance, and how it all plays into our core values as a community.
If you are a new or long-time listener of this show – this is an episode not to miss.
Connect with Erin Diehl:
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Minisode 15 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Welcome to improve it! The podcast. Hello friends. Notice, I didn't say improve it! Family. We are here today for a very, very special episode. This is it. To be determined name it's because of episode 102 with the awesome Chris Do.
Chris (00:55):
Here's an example. Here's why I know. I think you need a stronger name for your community and crew.
Erin (00:59):
Give it to me.
Chris (01:00):
First of all, it should make people smile and it should provoke curiosity. Like it doesn't need to explain the whole thing. So what you need to do is you need to smash up two ideas. You need to misspell it. You gotta do something weird. Like how Geico has a gecko. So you can remember it's Geico. Yes. Right? So recently, recently I've been putting out things that relate to my last name and somebody gave me the best one ever. And they said, Chris, we follow you everywhere. You can call me your Docicle.
Erin (01:33):
<Laugh>
Chris (01:34):
And I loved it. Yeah. See the, the community's much smarter than I am. So I'm just gonna use that. Okay. And I would say to people, you know, I have a black belt in, in Dofu like, you know,
Erin (01:45):
I saw that too.
Chris (01:46):
My martial art.
Erin (01:47):
That's your martial art. Okay. Well, you know, I've got a pun. Last name. My dog's name is big. Middle initials FN. What's my last name deal. You know it mm-hmm <affirmative> so I don't know. Maybe the let's I, you gotta work on that. I gotta workshop this, Chris. I thought right now this was the brainstorm. I thought you were gonna give me the name. I was so excited.
Chris (02:06):
Can't I've been working on the background, but I don't have so many processors here.
Erin (02:09):
God. I gave you so many Easter eggs. Come on Chris.
Chris (02:12):
I know let's I'm letting you down here. Dang.
Erin (02:14):
No, you're doing amazing. You're doing amazing.
Chris (02:17):
But you know what? The family will show up.
Erin (02:20):
Okay? So now you understand where I'm coming from, where this all started. Chris says it should make people smile. It should provoke curiosity. It doesn't need to the whole thing. So if you look at our art, you see me with this amazing chicken hat, which is huge part of workshops. I'll about that in a moment, it was a name that I just pulled out of my pocket. OK. It was just something that came naturally. It just rolled off the tongue. There was not thought there was not intention behind it. It was just, Hey, improve it fam. Cuz it just felt natural. But it doesn't embody you. Chris is a amazing marketer. He has millions upon millions of people in his audience. So I'm gonna take advice from this man. Also I adore Chris and he's not wrong. He's right. Improve it. Family was just something that I decided to use.
Erin (03:24):
There was no intention. So I wanna name you something different. I now know you and I know you deserve more than that. It doesn't tell the name, improve it, family. It doesn't tell the story of who you are and who we as a community who gathers here week after week, who we so drum, please, Mike, here it is your name, which you could have guessed from the show title, improve it peeps. I said peeps, peeps. You know like those little candies you eat at Easter, those little marshmallowy chicks, the improve it peeps. Now why in the heck did we give this name to this community? The improve it peeps are community of people, leaders and chicken dance enthusiasts who play, laugh and learn. Now, if you were to actually look up the definition, if you Googled the definition of peeps, you would see that peeps does mean family. It means people it's a noun. It means friends or associates. So we're actually taking the name and prove it fam we're changing it and giving it more of what we are as a community. So I wanna start by first letting you know that what we'll follow is an egg.
Erin (04:58):
He and he compilation of chickens mixed with the definition of you, the improve it peeps. That's right. There's gonna be pen after pen up in this episode to get ready. So lemme start with the origin story of the chicken hat, if you will. So if you've heard me talk about the chicken hat in previous episodes, you may not have heard this full version. So early 2013, when I started really developing the idea for improve it, I knew I wanted something in our live workshops that would keep people on their toes that would keep them interacting. And I thought, okay, well let's pass something around every time you hear a specific word. So I thought of a word and that word was improv. Every time you hear the word improv, we'll pass something to the person on the right. And in our workshops, we always stand in this gigantic circle.
Erin (06:03):
People are on their feet because it's so interactive. So I said, all right, what do I have? Oh, I have this random chicken hat that I bought in a boutique in Michigan. And I thought Well's use that. So first couple workshops, we just passed the chicken hat. Every time I said improv, whoever was holding the chicken hat would wear it or they accessorize it. They put it around their wrist. It's literally imagine a chicken with legs and sneakers on its legs. Okay. And it's a hat. You could physically put this hat on your head. So Andrew, who I think has been on this show before and if not, I should get him on here. He was on one of our blooper reels. Actually he yes and did me and this workshop he was with, he's been with me since day one. And he has said, all right, instead of just passing it, we're also gonna do a song, gonna dance.
Erin (06:54):
We're gonna do the chicken dance like you see at weddings. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> so literally in a workshop, if we say the word improv, which happens a lot, we would go and we would do that collectively. If we had 10 people, if we had 50, if we had a hundred people and it became this running joke with our team, any we've ruined the word improv for us because after you do a couple of workshops in a row, you just start chicken dancing, right? So why the world do we do it right? Why did that exist? Well, number one, improv just like your job. It requires you to think of multiple things at once. So we're doing the workshop. We're teaching you something new. We're getting you out of your comfort zone by doing all of these things. But you're also having to keep up with that chicken hat and really focus on what the learning objectives are.
Erin (07:47):
But also this thing is keeping you on your toes. Constantly. One thing I failed to mention is at the end of every workshop, whoever ends up with the chicken hat became the improv chicken champion. And that person was greatly celebrated by all participants in the workshop. So now that that's number one, the first reason why is because improv just requires you to think quickly on your feet and the chicken hat also requires you to do that. While currently involved in a learning session. Number two, we had the chicken hat as a reminder to learn and have fun. Don't a chicken. We always say what you put into the workshop is what you will get outta the workshop. And I can't tell you how many times that this chicken hat has just taken the barriers that people bring to work, these hypothetical masks and broken them down instantly.
Erin (08:41):
So the chicken is a symbol of our organization. It means to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, do it quickly, take risks, try something new, because if you can do that, you're gonna learn. You're gonna grow and you are going to be the best version of you possible. So that is the chicken hat origin story. Now, just so you know, to date, we have chicken dance with over 20,000 participants. You heard me 28,000 participants. So it is a amazing compilation of the work that we do. But I love the name peeps because it relates to our origin of the chicken hat. And I want to make sure you knew that story because it's so important to who improve it is as an organization. I, I'm not sure if I've actually ever shared that on this show. So now, you know, but wait, there is more the plot chickens <laugh> oh, they're so they're so bad.
Erin (09:49):
They're good. These puns. Okay. The plot chick, you heard me all so improve it. Peeps here is the origin story of you. I wanted to read you the core values of an improve it pee because these core values make up who you are and they make up who we are as a community, improve it peeps you lead with these core values first. And let me just define leadership really quick. We had an amazing guest on this show and you may I've recorded with her. You may not have heard it yet. By the time this episode airs, her name is Sharine Daniels and she defined leadership in the most beautiful way. She said, leaders are not defined by their titles. It's by their moral courage to say, do and be what's right. Think about that. So when I say leaders in this context, it doesn't mean that you are the director of HR or you are a VP of whatever.
Erin (11:02):
You could literally be an intern listening to this show. You are a leader because I know who you are. You care about yourself and the world around you in it. You wanna create a better world for those that you know, and the future generations to come. But let me share with you and improve it. Peeps core values, because if this doesn't hit home, I don't know what does, so number one, you improve it. You lead with, yes, it, you encourage and support others. You make space for new ideas and for different voices, you do this with your teams within your organization, within your communities. And like I said, you want future generations of peeps to have a better, more inclusive company culture where all feel like they belong. So yes, and means that we listen, we make room for all of those voices that we don't ask for a seat at the table, we bring a seat to the table and that seat is a different color.
Erin (12:08):
It's a different shape. It's a different size. And you know what that difference is celebrated. That's what leading with yes. And you do that so well, my now number two, explore more treat every single day as a new opportunity to don't here in this, that knowledge to the always looking for solutions. You are a problem solver and you are a lifelong learner. Number three, here's our number three core value. As an improvement, peep, you drive results. You have goals that are measured. You break down your dreams into actions and then evaluate each step and adjust as needed. And in that adjustment, you are not afraid to fail, fail. Yeah, you are not afraid to make mistakes because we believe in progress, not perfection. You know, each one of these episodes gives you tangible homework. At the end, you listen for that. You take that tangible homework at the end of every show, whether it be a solo show or it be with one of our awesome guests and you do that homework, you take it, you apply it.
Erin (13:44):
And then you measure that over time, you hold yourself and for of community to rely on each other, to connect, to form bonds and to share the wins and share the fails. Now your number four core value as an improvement peep is that you play and have fun. You embrace that inner child yet chicken dance. Like no one is watching, okay. Literally chicken dance. Like no one is watching. We can be serious. All we want, we can get jobs done, but we're gonna have a freaking blast while doing it. And we're gonna enjoy the process. We'll never be satisfied with that destination. We're gonna enjoy that journey together. And here's your fifth and final core value improve it. Peep, you imply every day leadership. We are leaders because of our actions, not by our titles. We be the leaders that we want to be led by.
Erin (15:03):
And that goes back to what I said. It's because of our moral courage that we're leaders take that title. Do whatever you want with that. I don't care because you are a leader because you decided to show up here to give time to yourself, which then you'll and give your, so basically what I'm saying in this episode is you give a yes I did. Yes I did. And if you don't like chickens, you can egg. What? My mic just dropped pick, get back off floor. So improve it. Pees. I want you to know that those core values are on our website. That is the core values that we let we lead by here at improve it. We're an entire episode. It's right. Episode 10 it's of core values can help you hire and retain top talent.
Erin (16:07):
I know these core values are true to who we are here at improvement. And I know they are true to you because I know so many of you, if I've never talked to you on DMS or in an email, send me one. I wanna hear from you. I have no clue who listens to this show, which is the blessing and the curse. I love hanging with myel feathers. Now my Instagram name is keeping it real, but I've seriously thought about changing it to people in it. Real deal pun within a pun. Cause it's also a of my last name. D E HHL. I dunno, send an email, send DM. So know what you think of this name, change and stay tune for the next episode on how the core values can help you hire, attract, retain your own pees. This episode was egg, stress special with the puns mm-hmm <affirmative> but it's what we needed.
Erin (17:10):
I am so happy that you are here. I'm so happy for this name change. It feels relieving. I've been thinking about it for weeks since this Christo episode. And I feel like it fits, it, hits it, slaps all the things. It's what it's right. So you know what I'm gonna say? Improve it pee. I want you to keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that special. It that only you beautiful improve. Its can bring, I'll see you next week or Wednesday peep out. Okay. I'm done. I'm dead. I'm done pee pee with you and also with you. Okay. Seriously. Me and my pens. We got, this is ridiculous. We're like two peeps in a pod. Seriously. Now I'm a I'm I'm a done deal. We'll see you Wednesday. Hey friends. Thanks for tuning to improve it. I am so happy. You were along for the ride.
Erin (18:12):
If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to this show. So you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just a little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me at keeping it real deal on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I wanna leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special. It that only you can bring see you next time.