Over 800 delighted clients since 1993
Training For Business That Builds Confident, Collaborative Teams
We teach improv skills to help improve communication, leadership, and creativity. Make your team more nimble, adaptable, and connected for today’s world.
Why improv training?
We take the core principles of improv—listening, adaptability, support, creativity—and uses them as hands-on tools for workplace learning.
Our training is:
Active, not passive
Inclusive and psychologically safe. There is no performing!
Designed for every team member
Easy to understand and immediately applicable to business
Applied improv builds team habits that make communication better, collaboration easier, and work more enjoyable.
Our core business training programs
Start with one of our proven modules below, or get in touch to have us customize a program to directly address your specific challenge. All programs are flexible and adapt to your group, your budget, and your available workshop length.
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Our most popular workshop! Help your team become more nimble, accepting, creative, and connected. Fun, fast-paced, and filled with aha moments that are directly applicable to your business.
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Great communication is the rocket fuel for organizations. We help your team become better at collaborating, listening, including everyone in the conversation and assuming positive intent, all while holding better meetings.
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Strengthen the tools today’s leaders need to build strong teams—listening, inclusion, adaptability, support, and the ability to guide people through constant change.
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Give you team new powers of listening, empathy, creativity, and finding solutions. Our customer service training helps your team bring an improvisational mindset to solving customer issues.
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Using a “Yes And” mindset, we help your team push past roadblocks and self-editing so the best ideas flourish from every member of the team. Improve your design thinking, ideation, and brainstorming skills and generate more creative solutions.
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Strong presenters aren’t just polished—they’re present, adaptable, and able to connect with any audience. Applied improv builds these skills from the inside out, helping speakers stay calm under pressure, think on their feet, and communicate with clarity and authenticity.
Learn More
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Is your team having trouble connecting? Are you bringing people together in person for the first time? Do you need more “We” and less “Me”? We use time-tested improv techniques to get your team laughing, learning, and feeling a sense of togetherness.
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Become a place where everyone feels valued and included. We help your group leverage its strengths, learn about cultural communication differences, and become more a more connected team where everyone belongs.
Trusted by more than 800 organizations since 1993
We’ve worked with public and private organizations, education, government, associations, churches, and more. Many companies bring us back year after year.
“We built great awareness on considering the language we use and the actions we take and how they impact others. Improvisation is valuable, not just because it applies, but because it is a different way of tackling problems and opportunities.”
> Lori Bocklund, President, Strategic Contact
Ready to learn more?
What you can expect when you get in touch:
A 15-minute conversation that dives into your needs and answers your questions.
No hard sales or pressure to buy.
A simple, one-page contract (if it’s a good fit). Exciting!
Helpful information even if we’re not the right fit at this time. Consider us a resource. We love what we do.
training@cszportland.com
(503) 236-8888, ext 4
Frequently Asked Questions
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No! There is no performing. Our training involves group exercises where nobody is singled out or put on the spot. It’s not about being clever or funny. It’s never scary or uncomfortable.
We don’t force people out of their comfort zones—we expand comfort zones.
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Some people are skeptical of “corporate training.” Some people hear “improv” and think it’s going to be their worst nightmare. We get it.
Across 30 years and more than 800 clients, we’ve gotten very good at presenting workshops that are so fun, so insightful, and so enticing that the biggest skeptics soon jump in to learn and play. We turn doubters into enthusiastic fans.
Our professional trainers are experts at “Winning the first two minutes.” We don’t push and we don’t shame. Instead, we make it irresistible to participate.
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We offer both in-person and Zoom-based training.
For in-person sessions, we can travel to your location, you can come to our theater in downtown Portland, or we can help you book a space.
Our Zoom-based sessions are perfect to help distributed teams connect and learn.
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We charge based on the length of the engagement, the number of professional trainers needed for your group size, and the amount of customization required.
All pricing is transparent and quoted up front after a short discovery call. No hidden fees or gotchas.
We don’t require a deposit. You can pay the day of the event by credit card or check.
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Yes! Clients sometimes bring us in for a learning workshop, followed by a performance by our professional improvisers. It’s a perfect engagement for an off-site event: learning + entertainment in one package.
Entertainment is always customized to your company and we take willing volunteers to assist us in our games. It’s a winning formula that works every time.
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Improv is for everyone and we’re skilled at working with differing physical, mental, and language abilities. There is no person who will ever be made to feel like less than a full participant.
Improv teaches people to adapt. We adapt to your group and your people.
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We are headquartered in Portland, Oregon—but our training goes wherever you are. Through CSz Worldwide and the Applied Improv Network, we deliver workshops across the United States and around the globe.
In Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, you’ll work directly with our local team. For clients elsewhere in the U.S. or internationally, we combine our Portland-based trainers with a vetted network of certified professionals to deliver the same high-quality experience anywhere in the world.
We’ve provided training in every U.S. state and in many countries worldwide.
For distributed teams, we offer fun and effective Zoom-based training for groups of any size.
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Absolutely! Introverts love our training because it’s all about listening and observing, something that introverts are expert in. There is no performing or being put on the spot in front of the group, ever.
Shy engineers and number-crunchers love our training because the exercises can feel like problem-solving. We teach how to reverse-engineer communication. It’s not touchy-feely or woo woo.
Best of all our training helps your organization create space for the quiet, shy, members of the team, so they can be heard too.
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Absolutely! The core offerings you see listed on this site are our foundational workshops that we do year after year. Organizations frequently need something a little (or a lot) different. That’s where improv shines. We can tailor training to your exact situation. Get in touch!