Directed Improvisation

Term

Directed Improvisation

Idea level

Model

Definition

Directed Improvisation is a model of adaptive governance developed by Yuen Yuen Ang for influencing processes of change in complex systems—through agenda-setting, boundary-setting, defining success criteria, and rewarding success—without exercising precise control or preselecting desired outcomes in advance. While directed improvisation has appeared as a principle of creativity in other domains such as computer programming and the performing arts, Ang is the first to apply it systematically to development and governance.

Sources

First articulation and empirical demonstration:

• Ang, Yuen Yuen. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Chapter 2 (“Directed Improvisation”) and Chapter 2 (Table 2.1).

Genealogy

[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)

→ [Pillar] Adaptive Political Economy (APE)

→ [Concept] Complex ≠ Complicated

→ [Concept] Uncertainty vs. Risk

→ [Concept] Influence vs. Control

→ [Model] Directed Improvisation

→ [Application] Development and governance in reform-era China (How China Escaped the Poverty Trap)

Quotes

“At first blush, ‘directed improvisation’ seems to be a contradiction in terms, as we normally think about ‘directed’ as controlling and giving top-down orders and ‘improvisation’ as decentralized and free-flowing. Indeed, these two polarized modes of action have each dominated ideas in development… In fact, direction and improvisation are not substitutive actions but necessary complements. A skilled director is not one who dictates to actors what exactly they should do; rather, he or she enthuses and empowers them in the creative process.”

— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, p. 69

Concept Constellation

Across Ang’s work, Directed Improvisation consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:

• Adaptive Political Economy

• Complex adaptive systems

• Uncertainty (possibilities, not probabilities)

• Influence rather than control

• Using what you have

• Stage-variant institutions

• Market-building vs. market-preserving