Improv for Sysadmins

Have you ever seen "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and marveled at the actors? Although it may not be obvious, improvisors and sysadmins have a lot in common! We both have to think on our feet, often "winging it," and both groups actively practice ad hoc problem-solving. Management calls it "thinking outside of the box," and we say "welcome to our world."

From the outside, good improv looks like a lot of fun (it is!), and good system administration looks easy and fun (why else do we have toys in our cubes?). Both groups have fun because they both create environments to bring people together and make good things happen. At its core, improvisation is not about being funny so much as it is about carefully listening, clearly expressing oneself, and confidently making decisions and taking action. So is system administration. Our goal is to get paid to play.

This session will relate improvisational acting concepts to system administration. Improv can show us how our responses to others can be misinterpreted and, more important, how to change that by producing a constructive dialogue. Understanding your audience and their context can make everything move much more smoothly! Other topics will include the role body language plays in communication, especially in the communication of status, and the importance of observation and attention to detail, with an emphasis on "active listening," saying "yes, and . . . ," and other observation/communication techniques.

The session concludes with a question-and-answer period and additional improv demonstrations as time permits. We won't try to be funny, but we know that you'll enjoy learning some incredibly valuable improvisational techniques.

Bob Apthorpe is a system administrator at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. He first attended LISA in 1998 and transferred from Web development to international operations at Excite.com shortly thereafter. His current interests include risk assessment, operations-friendly software development, and improvisational theatre. Bob is a proud member of the troupe "Improv for Evil" but his wife loves him anyway.

Dan Klein began his life of crime in 2nd grade, when he was caught with a pack of firecrackers. Since then his brushes with authority have been sporadic but relentless, but have not managed to deny him a security clearance, a job, or his well deserved reputation as an off-the-wall maverick. His computer experience has included simulation and process control, the internals of almost every UNIX kernel released in the past 28 years, and graphical user interface management systems.