The Improv Pioneer Who Turned Play Into a Business Discipline – Kat Koppett

What if the best tool for building psychological safety, creative thinking, and leadership presence has been hiding in plain sight — on the improv stage?

Kat Koppett is one of the founding voices in applied improv, the practice of bringing improvisation principles into organizations to develop the human skills that actually drive performance. Her book Training to Imagine is now in its third edition. She has worked with Apple, NASA, and the United Nations — and she owns an improv theater in a converted firehouse in Schenectady, New York.

In this episode, Kat unpacks how she built a global consultancy by proving that play is serious business, why the ability to make mistakes is a competitive advantage most organizations accidentally destroy, and what authentic human interaction means at a moment when AI is handling more of our communication every year.

We also get into the story behind MOPCO — the theater she and her husband bought instead of a retirement — and what happened when people came flooding back to it after COVID, hungry for something they couldn't quite name.

This is one of the better conversations we've had on The Flipped Story. Don't miss it.

Find Kat at koppett.com and mopco.org. Explore the full podcast at gadarian.com/flipped-story.