COLUMBUS, Ohio — There's a time to be professional, and there's a time to laugh. But one startup is merging the two.

While it may sound like a foreign concept to some at first, Katie Drown encourages it.

What You Need To Know

  • WitWorks is a startup company based on the concept that improv comedy can boost morale in the workplace

  • Companies can sign up for WitWorks and engage in a workshop to help with team building

  • WitWorks was launched in June

Drown incorporates activities into her WitWorks workshops. WitWorks is a startup she created to improve team building, communication and collaboration in the workplace by teaching some degree of improv, but each workshop is built differently—depending on a company’s needs. 

 “Any learning management system is going to have trouble addressing team culture,” Drown said. “How do you improve team culture through a learning management system? And so, we are a tool that is able to come in and actually address those challenges.”

Drown said improv comedy is relevant in the workplace. 

“It influences the way that people feel about each other, and the way that people feel about each other influences the way that people communicate, and the way that they collaborate and the way that they’re comfortable sharing ideas,” Drown said. “Those things that I call internal intangible goods are so important to the company’s bottom line, and it’s so important to the happiness of people who are in the company.”

Drown just launched WitWorks, but she’s been doing improv comedy almost all her life. 

“It is an artistic outlet for me, and that’s really important,” Drown said. “I grew up performing since I was super small. I’ve gone through parts of my life, when I’ve been traveling with work and living abroad or living outside of Columbus, and I didn’t have my artistic outlet, I really didn’t feel like myself.”

She clearly has a lot of laughter to bring everywhere she goes, even in the workplace. 

But all jokes aside, she’s serious about doing this as long as she can. 

“I’ll keep doing it until I stop laughing. But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” Drown said. 

To learn more about improv and how you can incorporate it into your company, sign up for a workshop here.