The Art of Relativizing Chaos and Unlocking Solutions in Everyday Life

Imagine this: it's Monday, 9 AM, Zoom isn't working , the client is impatient, and you have spilled coffee on your shirt and think, " Today is not my day ." But... what if it was?

What differentiates someone who sinks into stress from someone who finds a creative outlet is often the ability to put things into perspective —to look at a critical situation and say, “Okay, this happened. Now what?” This is where improvisation comes into play—not only on stage, but also in offices, relationships, work meetings, and life.

A study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology (Bedwell et al., 2012) highlights how skills associated with improvisation—active listening, quick thinking, collaboration—contribute to greater resilience in high-pressure environments. It's like having a plan B, C, and D… even when plan A is still underway.

Attention! Relativizing doesn't mean minimizing. It means understanding that today's crisis doesn't define tomorrow's success. It means accepting that making a mistake in a presentation or forgetting to share a file isn't the end of the world—it's just Tuesday.

According to the Harvard Business Review ( Kashdan & McKnight, 2009 ), cultivating a curious and open-minded attitude toward the unexpected is directly linked to the ability to solve complex problems. And guess what? Improvisation is a constant exercise for this curiosity.

If you want to cultivate this approach in your daily professional life, here are some tips inspired by improvisation:

Practice active listening — not just to respond, but to build understanding;

Accept mistakes as part of the process — failure is also information;

Embrace the unexpected with curiosity — the plan failed? No problem, now we have something new to explore;

Laugh more — humor reduces stress, creates empathy, and opens doors to surprising solutions.

Improvising is more than just reacting quickly. It's a way of being that trains the mind to see opportunities where others only see problems. It's learning that not everything needs to be controlled to be successful.

Have you ever used improvisation to solve a problem at work? Share in the comments. Who knows, we might inspire the next act of collective creativity!