Ready For Some Fun?

On June 10 and 11, 2005, at Yale University, Dorothy Singer, Roberta Golinkoff, and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek hosted a conference called PLAY = LEARNING.

They reported that, “We held the conference because of the pressures on young children NOT to play but to learn disembodied facts, even in the crib. (sounds like many training programs – doesn’t it?) We lament our culture's increasing emphasis on drill and practice at the expense of play…. we hoped to do our bit to counter the trend that makes PLAY a four-letter word in our society.”

I wish there were a similar effort to marry play and learning for grown-ups. I believe that learning happens best for adults when they are introduced to a concept and then given some ‘play-time’ with it.

Research tells us that children move through five distinct stages of play as they develop. Babies begin with Exploratory Play; they pick up things and shake them, bang and turn toys around and taste everything. This reminds me of what adults do with ideas; they ‘pick them up’, bang them against what else they know and see how they feel.

Then children move on to Functional Play; they use objects the way they were meant to be used; they roll a ball, stack blocks, and listen to a toy phone. This type of activity could be correlated with adults trying out the new idea or skill against their own set of experiences and testing out whether they new idea or skill will really work in their world.

As toddlers race towards the terrible twos, they begin to use Creative – Symbolic Play; that is, they may pretend a box is a train; the box symbolizes a train. They make one object creatively serve the purpose of another known object. Could adults be doing a form of this when they begin to substitute what they are learning for what they have known previously?

Between the ages of three and four children discover the delight in Pretend Play; they ‘act like’ other people, they take on other’s behaviours and mannerisms for short periods of time. This sounds like role-playing and improvisation to me; both effective methods of embedding a new skill.

And finally, by the time the kids they reach school age, they are ready to engage in Sequenced Pretend Play; they can interact with others with their newly developed skills and they can adjust their behaviours and reactions when encountering a new environment or circumstance. I think this is what we all do when we get back to our offices after a training session. We begin to practice the new skills in short spurts, at first, with our colleagues and later embracing them as our own.

So, is there any fun in your change initiatives? I developed Transition Poker to help you with that. When folks in my Leader’s Summit sessions are learning how to be strong change leaders, we take those ideas and, well… play with them. They get dealt a ‘hand’ of change realities and then they place their bets. By the time the game is over, players have a much fuller understanding, and confidence, about exactly what, and how, they will navigate the high-risk, high-reward territory of organizational transitions.

Does your team or organization need to know how to respond to people’s resistance to change, invite collaboration and work around the barriers that missing resources and stakeholder apathy present? Then the Transition Poker Workshop just may be for you. If you want to bring some fun to your organization’s learning programs, find out how you can use Transition Poker to fire-up your next training session, call me today.

Are You Hopeful?

I was talking with a colleague this morning and asked how, and what, she was doing in this tough economy. She said she was seeing clients, fulfilling contracts, but mostly, she said, she was spending her time spreading hope.

Ah, the optimists are worth their weight in gold right now, aren't they? There's enough fear and hand wringing around to stuff a stadium and what the world, and our organizations, need now is hope!

The world got a glimpse of what a hopeful leaders looks like last week when Obama (we can just call him Obama now, can't we?) gave his first unofficial, State of the Union Address to a packed house. If you missed his speech, take a listen to what he said in the first three minutes.

"But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach...those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

Regardless of your national allegiance or political preferences, this is change leadership at its hopeful best. No one knows exactly how or when recovery will come, not even Obama, but isn't it great to hear someone express optimism that it will? It's inspiring to be around people with a, 'take that hill' response to fear.

So, who's listening to your vision for the future? What's your team, friends and family hearing from you right now? What are you spreading?

There are reasons to be hopeful right now. Here are just a few:

Everything ends: good times end - and so do tough times. It's just a matter of time before the economic and political pendulums begin to swing the other way. Look for it, be ready when it starts - heck, be the first one to move in the other direction. Lead the charge back to sanity from your desk.

You're tougher than you think: the same skills that pulled you through your teenage angst, a previous job loss, your divorce, your parent's health crisis - or the last recession - are still within you. Flex those muscles again. You have what it takes to move beyond your current place - look for it within yourself, own it, call on it now!

Spring is coming: for those of us living in cold climates - the winter is almost over! All those gray landscapes are just about to burst with color. Those icy winds will soon give way to warm breezes, the crocuses are just under the surface ready to leap to our rescue and....YES, like mighty sleeping giants, we will rise again! Kiss your winter thinking good bye and get ready to welcome your spring self!

Hope is what keeps us moving forward. Hope builds confidence and invites people to take a risk and step out. With hope in your heart you can stare down the fiercest of circumstances!

Would it be helpful if you could engender hope in others? How would you, your team or organization benefit if you knew how to engage people to help them find a renewed sense of optimism and the energy that comes with it?

Join us for a two-day learning experience aimed at doing just that.