Knowledge is a serious business, dominated by cerebral academics whereas the world of play can conjure up images of children, clowns and, for a few unfortunate souls born in the seventies, Timmy Mallett.
It’s a courageous leader that suggests that their team spend a day away from work, ‘playing’. Increasingly research suggests that play is not in fact the antithesis of learning – it could be the most effective way to develop people and improve behaviours.
Here are five reasons why:
- Play creates stronger memories. Our minds like computers use more space on our ‘hard drive’ to record experiences than words on a page.
- The feelings of camaraderie, frustration and joy that we experience during a team exercise, enables us to raise our EQ or emotional intelligence quotient.
- The practical nature of a team game or exercise turns theories into practice, bringing to life psychometric tools like Insights, MBTI and Belbin.
- In the same way that children build relationships on a playground with other children they’ve not met, colleagues can connect more effectively when given a task that demonstrates their creative and playful nature.
- Play can be employed in the workplace to raise morale on the job, encourage networking at conferences and improve team effectiveness.
Fresh Tracks has been proving this theory for nearly 20 years and now more than ever before employers are realising that to be a great place to work, means finding ways to play and learn.