(Excerpts from the 2002 White Paper "The
Power of Play"© by Kevin Prentice)
Expert
opinion is that "play" is the most effective means
of learning. Team
building and training games have been played for
centuries. The game of chess ("chess" being the Persian
word for "king") is a training game created sometime
in the 4th Century to teach military and
political leaders how to strategize.
Children instinctively know the value of play.
"Naturally play is fun
for children. However,
it's also serious business. Children
use play to explore the world and practice skills. Children
engaged in cooperative play take parts or play roles,
follow rules, and lead or follow others. Playing
this way helps them learn to handle cooperation and
competition, conflicts, power, role taking, and communication. Cooperative
play is a big step toward participating in social
life. It's easy for adults to dismiss play
as silly or trivial. In
fact, play is one of the most important [human] activities." (Kaplan,
1998)
The many studies on how people learn indicate that children are the fastest and
most enthusiastic of learners. On
average it is around the age of 16 that learning starts to slow and somewhere
in the 20's people start to coast. Deterioration
(loss) of knowledge begins around the age of 40.
A study done by the Harvard Business School showed that graduating
students did their best work and were the most successful in the first ten
years after graduating. After ten
years their accomplishments tended to be less frequent and less spectacular.
So can adults continue to grow and learn? Absolutely! Studies
have shown that the "learning curve" is not a foregone conclusion. A
person in good physical and mental health can continue to learn and grow well
into maturity. And "play" is one of the best tools available
to us.
The Benefits of
Play
So why is "play" such a wonderful learning tool?
1. Play
is "involving". The best way
to learn new skills is through action; "active learning". Test
results have shown that subjects who passively learned by listening to a lecture
retained only 20% of what they heard. Similar results were found with all types
of "passive learning" including reading, watching a demonstration, looking
at illustrations, etc. However,
tests showed that participants involved in "active learning" such as doing
the actual job, doing a simulation, giving a dramatic presentation, etc. retained
90% of the information. (University
of Texas, 1987) Playing a training
game, participating in a simulation, role playing or playing a team building
event involves the participants in "active learning".
2. Play
is a safe environment in which much can be learned through trial and error. On
his way to making the light bulb, Edison discovered over
1,800 ways not to build one. One of Madame Curie's failures was radium. Columbus
was looking for India. Every one of these mistakes had valuable
lessons and benefits attached to them. Woody
Allen is quoted as saying, "If you're not failing every now and again, it's
a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." The problem is that while big advances
come from big risks not all employers are forgiving about mistakes. While some employers encourage employees
to try new things there would still be repercussions if the biggest account
was lost, or the marketing scheme failed, or the product development stage
took much longer than projected. "Play" offers participants a safe environment
in which to explore, risk, try new ideas and make mistakes without the threat
of termination or castigation.
3. Team
Dynamics. Team play is a means
by which the dynamics of a group may be examined in a controlled environment.
Every group/team develops a personality of its own. It
is a gestalt; the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. How
does this group function, breath, eat, produce, communicate, and plan? How
does this group make its decisions? What
are its weaknesses and what are its strengths? What
roles do the various members take in different situations? How does the group adapt to change? All these questions and more can be examined
in a play environment.
4. Self-Awareness. Just as a team can be examined in a controlled "play" environment,
so too can the individual members. Participants are afforded an opportunity
to try their hand at new experiences and new ideas. This makes for moments of self-examination
and awareness. It also affords
team members an opportunity to see their teammates in a new light. I can't count how many times over the
years I have heard statements such as, "I had no idea Harry was so creative!" or "Who
knew Mary was that clever?" Plato
said, "You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." An increased awareness of ourselves and
those around us can only improve the effectiveness of a team and open up exciting
new possibilities.
5. Building Trust. As team members become more familiar with
their fellow teammates, more aware of the team dynamics, and begin to understand
where they fit into the team, they become more comfortable. Allowing teams to work together in a "play" environment
builds trust within the team.
6. The Value of the Team. Team "play" is an excellent tool for convincing
the skeptics of the value of teamwork. Many workers are so competitive or so
inexperienced with working on a team that they doubt the benefits of teamwork. This
makes for hesitation in sharing information and responsibilities. Team
building games afford these skeptics the opportunity to observe first-hand
how two (or more) heads are better than one and how sharing information and
responsibilities can bring amazing results. Team "play" also affords participants
an opportunity to discover the value of diversity. The
more diverse a team the more successful it tends to be, as it has a broader
knowledge base upon which to draw when solving problems or achieving goals.
7. Pleasure. Studies have shown that there is a direct
correlation between pleasure and productivity. "Surprise! Surprise! What government agency funded that study
and where do I submit my grant application?" It
makes perfect sense that pleasure would be a powerful motivator. The pleasure of playing a game and learning
through "play" can revitalize a group and build morale. Pleasure also effects a commitment in
the participants to the game and causes them to learn more and retain it longer.
"You know that I don't believe that anyone
has ever taught anything to anyone. I
question the efficacy of teaching. Maybe
a teacher is a facilitator, a person who puts things down and shows people
how exciting and wonderful it is and asks them to eat." (Carl Rogers)
At the Ant & the Grasshopper we strive to prepare the most exciting, enticing
and delicious learning games possible. Once
the banquet has been served it is simply a question of letting the participants
feast. Could learning be any
more pleasurable?
8. Specific lessons. Each event has its own lessons, skills
and experiences that the participants learn by "playing" the game. Some of these are group lessons. Some are individual lessons. Some are problem-solving skills, some
are physical skills, some are communications skills, some are organizational
skills. The list goes on and on. However, a huge part of "play" is learning
to tap into a part of the brain that may rarely be used in the workplace. That is the part of the brain that uses
imagination, creativity and intuition. Long
thought to be the part of the brain useful only to those in creative professions
we now know that right brain thinking is a vital tool in the business world
as well. Where would we be without "innovative" thinkers?
At The Ant & the
Grasshopper we firmly believe that play has the ability to empower participants
by affording them new experiences and information for their professional
and personal development. Try
one of our innovative team building programs for yourself and discover the
benefits of mixing
business with pleasure.
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