The other day, I got this short video from one of my Clients, Kerry Straine of Straine Consulting. Kerry works with dental practices to ensure that they experience peak performance. If you click on the video you will see the folks from this dental practice doing an exercise called Bunny Bunny. The exercise is a warm up used to break the ice, gets people to listen and focus and literally get people warmed up. I use it all the time and it is part physical, part listening, part coordination and part execution.
Often, when the group is first assembled, and getting ready to partake in the Improv exercises, they are tight, nervous, worried about what they will look like, or they are concerned with making sure they know the rules and do not mess it up. The tension is really palpable.
And this attitude usually locks in for about the first two minutes and then something miraculous starts to happen. The class members start to laugh. They find joy in the ridiculous, they let go and giggle and they forget all of the crap that was in their way in the beginning when we started the exercise. Bottom line, these hard working people remember what it is like to play again! Frequent TED speaker, Dr. Stewart Brown (Click here to watch one of his TED talks), a noted medical doctor and psychiatrist and play expert, says that a life without play is a grinding existence marked by efforts at survival. We have a chance each day for it to be more than that. Play helps us focus, concentrate, increases insight, and has numerous health benefits like reduced stress.
How in your business or in your personal life can you give play a larger role. Where can you get your play on. Can you imagine starting a meeting with an improv game!!! Remember everybody, play ain’t just for kids.
But don’t my word for it, ask these folks from Cromwell Dental! Thanks to Kerry Straine for forward this on to me.