The Power of Play

1. The Power of Play

2. A Case for Using Humor & Play in Teaching & Life! • Humor is creativity that doesn’t get the expected results. It’s an unexpected connection!!

3. IF KIDS PLAY IN THEIR WORLD TO MAKE SENSE OF IT, WHY DO WE STOP AS ADULTS? WE CAN PLAY WITH INFORMATION AND IDEAS AS IF THEY WERE TOYS!!

4. INNOVATION demands creative and divergent thinking skills! • Knowledge is expanding exponentially. • Internet “knowledge” doubling every 58 days! • What is reliable? How do you know it’s true? Where is came from? • HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW?

5. HUMOR ENCOURAGES CRITICAL, CREATIVE AND DIVERGENT THINKING! • Mentally agile people tend to enjoy and use humor better than most. • The more finest tuned one’s mind, the better one is able to create and recognize the UNEXPECTED CONNECTIONS in humor!

6. The world’s best thinkers have generally been notoriously playful. • They also had innumerable unworkable—so-called “bad”---ideas! • Thomas Edison example… “I discovered 10 thousand things that didn’t work…”

7. Brain Compatible Learning • Every organ in your body has a function. • The BRAIN’S FUNCTION is to KEEP YOU ALIVE! • How? • It takes in millions of bits of information it gets from the environment, quickly analyzes it, and decides which bits are are important for your survival.

8. The Brain’s SELF-REWARDINGSystem • Fun is intrinsically rewarding! • ‘Colorful’ (Bizarre, exotic, surprising, frightening, freaky) information is memorable because it measurably increases both emotional arousal and attention in the brain. • (Think about how I learned your names.) • About 99% of all learning in NONCONSCIOUS!

9. More on EMOTIONS… • Emotion helps us assign VALUE to information. • How do you feel about the topic? • Do you want to learn it? • Do you believe it’s true? • How long should you remember it?

10. THE RULES

11. #1: Cut Yourself—and Others—Some Gosh-Darned Slack! • Creative people enjoy their FAILURES. If you beat yourself up for having “bad” ideas, you will have FEWER IDEAS, bad or good.

12. #1: Cut Yourself—and Others—Some Gosh-Darned Slack! Remember, the brain is SELF-REWARDING!

13. Activity 1: One Word Answers

14. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY • What happened when you stopped playing it safe and speeded up the pace of the game? • What were the positive results? Negative? • Does the Inner Critic/Censor have a place in the creative process? • Key Point: What might happen if you gave yourself permission to “hotdog” a little more?

15. Behavior 1:Don’t deride someone else’s ideas.Behavior 2:You must share your “bad” ideas with the group!

16. Activity 2: So Sue Me!

17. Reflection: Are there times that you don’t cut yourself (or others) enough slack? Is it possible that at those times you are ‘sweating the small stuff’? Try to think of a time when you did this to yourself. How did you feel? What was the result?

18. #2: DON’T BE ORIGINAL! Remember: The Pleasure Center in your brain will turn off if you criticize all the unoriginal ideas your brain will send you! DARE to be BORING…STUPID…

19. Activity 3: What’s in the Box!

20. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY • How many things did you get out of the box the first time? The second time? • Were any of your unoriginal ideas surprisingly original? • KEY POINT: Dig through the manure. Gloves are cheap!

21. Reflection: Have you ever “stumbled onto” a good idea? What was happening immediately before that moment? Did an unoriginal idea lead you there? What are some unoriginal ideas you are having right now?

22. #3: MAKE POSITIVE CHOICES! Story: A corkboard, birthday candles box of tacks and a box of matches. Point: Thinking improves dramatically when we are a “happy place”.

23. Activity 4: “Fortunately…”

24. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY • For many people it’s easier to turn a positive into a negative. Why do you think that is? • Biological reason? • Key Point: Replace negative verbiage with positive. • Why? • Don’t think about a pink elephant.

25. Activity 4B: Affirmations!

26. Suggestions: • You are such a dork! • “You have a giant brain! It has it’s own satellite!” • “Look at that giant brain. It must sleep on a giant pilla.”

27. Activity 5: “Yes, but— Yes, and…”

28. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY • Person A: Did you have more fun playing this game in Round 1 or Round 2? • What was the difference between the two rounds? • Compare the 2 vacations you just came up with. Which was more fun? Why? • In real life, how does a “Yes, and” attitude affect thought and interaction? How about a “Yes, but” attitude? • Is a “Yes, but” attitude needed sometimes? When? • Key Point: You will create more momentum--and be more fun to work with-- when you build on your partner’s ideas instead of tearing them down

29. Applications to our Learning Environment • One easy way to “Yes, and” is to simply rephrase what someone else has just said. • Key Point: THIS SHOWS RESPECT! • It sends the message that you heard the person and are interested enough to interact with what they said.

30. Activity 6: Supply the Word

31. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY Be honest: While playing this game, did you ever think, “No, don’t say that—I wanted you to say this”? Key Point: We are married to our own ideas. (This doesn’tmeantheyaren’t good.) Sometimeswecan let go of ourownideas—becauseothersmay have a better one.

32. #4: FOCUS OUT, NOT IN! Together the Teacher and the Taught do the TEACHING.

33. #4: FOCUS OUT, NOT IN! “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” --Benjamin Disraeli

34. Activity 7: GO!

35. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY In what ways did we have to focus outward to make this game work well? Key Point: Could we have moved at optimal speed without these techniques?

36. Activity 8: Group Count

37. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY What happened when you waited for the “hit”? Did it make a difference? How often do we speak without listening—without getting that “hit”? Do we ever speak to only fill the silence? Is there a message in the silence?

38. Activity 9: Active Listening

39. DEBRIEF of ACTIVITY When you used the twin tactics of acknowledging and clarifying did you find you listened better—heard and understood more—than you usually do? If so, does this fact alone provide you with good reasons to actively listen in all your interactions? When you told your story, what did it fell like to have someone listen in such a focused manner? How often do people in your daily life listen to you that way?

40. #5: Always Acknowledge THE BOMB! Professional Comedian’s Secret Weapon: Be the first to point out that you just stunk up the place, using a humorous “ad lib” you made up in advance.

41. Activity 10: Clown Bow