About Max

I translate improv into the reality of complex teams.

I know the meeting where every specialist is competent, every concern is valid—and people still leave with a different understanding of what happens next.

Two worlds, one practice

My professional life has always depended on people building something together.

I am Max Grillo, an Italian professional based in Munich. For more than 25 years, I have worked in technology, billing, revenue systems and large transformations across Europe, South America and the Middle East.

My work brings business, technology, finance and vendor teams around the same table. I understand dependencies, changing priorities, specialist language and the pressure to reach a decision before every detail is known. Those situations need technical competence—but they also depend on how people listen, make offers and respond to each other.

Outside that corporate world, I manage and host Rice Cookie Improv, am co-founder of Monday Flow Improv and am a member of the Applied Improvisation Network. In those communities I work with beginners and experienced improvisers, international groups and people with very different levels of confidence.

That combination is what I bring to clients. I do not ask professionals to become performers. I use carefully framed exercises to make an invisible collaboration habit visible, then help the group connect what happened to meetings, handovers, decisions and change.

Facilitation principles

How I hold the room.

Explain the purpose

I tell participants what we are practising and why. Nobody should have to guess what a theatre exercise has to do with their work.

Start where people are

I build challenge gradually, so beginners, experienced participants and sceptics can all enter the work without being exposed.

Observe before judging

We look at what actually happened in the group before deciding what it means or rushing to a polished answer.

Return to Monday morning

We connect the experience to a real meeting, handover or decision and identify one behaviour worth trying next.

Why choose me

I understand both the exercise and the environment it has to serve.

I can recognise the difference between a collaboration habit and a structural problem. A workshop should help people practise; it should not pretend that every organisational issue can be solved with better energy in the room.

First-hand experience of cross-functional business and technology work
Credibility with analytical, technical and initially sceptical participants
International facilitation with different accents, cultures and confidence levels
Clear translation from playful exercise to observable workplace behaviour
Custom design around your context instead of an off-the-shelf activity list

BASED INMunich

Working in Germany, Europe and online

WORKING LANGUAGESEN · IT · DE

Exact delivery language agreed per workshop

IMPROV COMMUNITYManager, host & co-founder

Manager and host · Rice Cookie Improv
Co-founder · Monday Flow Improv
Member · Applied Improvisation Network

BACKGROUND25+ years

Technology, billing and transformation

Bring the practice to your team

Start with one real collaboration pattern.

Tell me what your team keeps doing, what you would like to see instead and who will be in the room. I will suggest a practical first session.

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