I’d just introduced a Meisner repetition exercise at a corporate communications workshop. Thirty-eight professionals from two different departments – people who worked in parallel but rarely together – all staring at me with faces that quite clearly said “WTF?”
The workshop, up until that point, had been smooth. We’d done a whole bunch of warm-ups and icebreakers. The vibes were high. But this moment was when things shifted from “oh, this is fun” to awkward confusion.
A little background: acting school is a heady time in a young man’s life, I can say from experience. And while at the now-defunct Gastown Actor’s Studio in Vancouver, I took a course on Meisner Technique. The foundation of which is this repetition exercise that has people literally repeating minute observations back-and-forth, back-and-forth, over and over.
“You have earrings on.”
“I have earrings on.”
“You have earrings on.”
“I have earrings on.”
“You have gold earrings.”
“I have gold earrings.”
“You have gold earrings.”
“You’re looking at my ears”
“I’m looking at your ears.”
It seems deeply weird and pointless, right?
It’s not.
It’s the first step toward tuning yourself into the information that flows from conversation partners – vocal tone, facial expressions (and microexpressions), body language, minireactions, general vibes. The information emanating from the person we’re speaking to is a veritable firehose of data, if we’re tuned in to receive it.
Adapting the Mesiner Technique to new contexts
In the years since acting school, I’ve adapted this exercise for improv students, to help people in scene study classes get more in tune with their partner. To notice more.
In improv, yes-and is the first principle, but shortly thereafter is the idea of listening. But it’s often focused on paying attention to the words your partner says. Sure, that’s good and important. But opening up to the idea of listening to literally everything that is going on with your partner is a firehose of solid gold. Except it’s not painful.
There’s so much there, if you learn to pay attention.
And that’s what the repetition exercise teaches.
Anyway, this particular session was the first time I brought this activity into a corporate workshop, and boy howdy was it a record scratch moment. I was really fighting to communiate why they should do it, how it made sense, etc.
I was, in a word, stressed.
But, after a few rounds, the group began to loosen up and the conversations began to flow.
Once we shifted from the very basic repetition mechanic into a more organic back-and-forth, real deep connection was unlocked. The noise in the room as people sat face to face and really paid attention to one another was magical.
One participant said during the debrief, “I felt more seen than I have in years.” That’s due to both the magic of the Meisner Technique, and the reward for taking some risks in your work.
One more thing
There’s an idea that “what you want is on the other side of a whole bunch of hard work.” And, while I think that’s true, it doesn’t completely cover it.
That thing you want is also on the other side of a bunch of risks – big and small. Essentially, stepping out of your comfort zone, into things new and peculiar and perhaps a bit dangerous-feeling. Like those participants trying the Meisner exercise. And like me, choosing to include this exercise in the session.
The point is: as we look ahead to 2026, with 365 fresh blank days awaiting us, let’s make sure we give ourselves the space to do new hard things that will unlock big feelings and big rewards. And take some risks.
It might feel weird at first, like doing the Meisner repetition. But the results will be worth it.
