yes, and

There is a mode of improvisation in which you agree with what one player has offered and then expand on it.  ‘My hair is on fire’ says one actor.  Yes, and it’s catching onto your clothes’ says another, building up the scene and giving the first actor something to work with. This had been recognised as the yes, and technique.

Removed from the improv world to other contexts, the yes, and technique means that you are being supportive of the other person and following their initial line of thought to add something else.  A yes, and approach to collaboration can produce good results.  It gets you a lot further than yes, but, and means that you are really listening to the other person rather than just inserting what you want to say, whether or not it has relevance to what the other person was saying.  A life of total yes, and sounds a bit Pollyanna-ish, however. We do find occasions when we have to disagree and I think a yes, but is appropriate there.