The skills that make you excel at improv comedy are not comedy-specific.     

It doesn't matter if you're witty, or know a lot of pop culture, or can make someone laugh on command. What makes an improviser great is a set of skills that are critical in any collaborative effort: 

-listening

-teamwork

-a willingness to take risks.     

Listening is a word that's thrown around in a lot of team situations. But, more often than not, "listening" is taken to mean "Be polite and wait quietly for your turn to talk."     

Active listening, on the other hand, is like squinting with your ears. It means genuinely comprehending what you're hearing. It means processing the ideas being presented, understanding how and why they are different from yours, and modifying your position to incorporate these new concepts.     

Improvisers actively listen every moment that they are on stage. They do not stop actively listening to their teammates. If they did, they would cease to be a team and revert to being eight comedians delivering eight different punch-lines simultaneously, a.k.a. an unwatchable train wreck.     

Listening is at the core of everything that takes place during improv. Likewise, it is a cornerstone of any productive meeting, brainstorming session or group project. It is the foundation for how teams are built and how they learn to work together.