Jacqueline Lloyd Smith - Strategic Play: The Creative Facilitators Guide

Jacqueline Lloyd Smith
This book is dedicated to my parents, Royston and Rita Lloyd, who since 1964 dedicated their lives to developing nursery school programs in the UK and Canada. Many thanks go to my sister who carried on their tradition and has taught over a thousand early childhood educators on how play shapes young minds, my two sons who are uncompromising in their quest for a work/play balance, and to my husband whose naturally playful spirit reminds me of the thin line between work and play!

Dr. Denise Myerson
This book is dedicated to the memory of my late father, Charles Frederick Simmons, who believed in the high value of lifelong learning. My thanks also go to my mother, children, and partner for all their remarkable support over my many years in business.

We would like to thank the many individuals who have helped us along the way to make this book possible. We would like to thank Andrea for her editorial assistance, with her keen eyes, understanding of the topic, and great organizational skills. We would also like to thank our amazing clients that we have had the pleasure to work with over the years. Thank you all for being willing to stretch and grow with us as we prototyped and developed our methods and madness. Your willingness to jump in, take risks, and allow us to use your photographs and write case studies, along with the amazing testimonials you have written, have made this book possible. Thank you for having faith in us and the power of play.

We would also like to thank all the people over the years who have trained, influenced, and inspired us. Thanks to our friends at The LEGO Systems Group and The LEGO Foundation and all the volunteers at CPSI and CREA who share their techniques, tools, and ideas. We are especially grateful to the following individuals who have shared their creative knowledge: Min Basadure, Bob Pike, Sharon Bowman, David Gray, Stephen Covey, Daniel Pink, David Rock, Stuart Brown, Sir Ken Robinson, Mike Thompson, Jonathan Bannister, Maxine King, Tamara Christensen, David Gauntlett, and Richard Perez.

Editor: A.S. Brittain
Cover Design: Sara Enrico
Cover Photograph: K. Hansen
Book Design: Wordzworth Ltd.

Jacqueline Lloyd Smith and Denise Meyerson collectively have over 50 years global experience in the design and delivery of incredible learning experiences for clients in the private and public sectors. They have partnered with top tier, medium size, and small corporate clients to produce events that rock. They are now opening their files to other facilitators and trainersof all levelsto share tools and techniques they have personally tested and used.

They are generously allowing you to benefit from their years of experience in the training, facilitation, and design space so you too are able to prepare, structure, and implement workshops, events, training days, learning experiences, offsites, and seminars that have a strong impactand are memorable.

Dip into this essential guide after you have been briefed by the executive team, managers, or human resource professionals and you are required to deliver a face-to-face session for anything between 1 and 100 hours. Play with these practical, user-friendly techniques to help your participants feel engaged and energized, so they will remember the key messages long after the event. Redesign and restructure the tools to suit your audience and the topic so the session remains vibrant and focused. Create experiences for any topic, whether for technical, personal, or professional development purposes.

Not only do you have access to great openers and closers, we also provide you with a roadmap and overall layout so you have examples of how to structure your sessions.

Jacqueline Lloyd Smith and Dr. Denise Meyerson met in Billund, Denmark in 2007, while both were licensed partners for the LEGO Systems Group. They were both appointed to the Play4Business LEGO SERIOUS PLAY Training Board in 2010 and are Master Trainers in the methods of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. Jacquie and Denise were early adopters and leaders in bringing LSP to Canada and Australia. Jacquie continues to serve the Americas, based out of British Columbia, Canada. She is the principal for Strategic Play Group Limited. Denise continues to serve Oceania, based out of Queensland, Australia. She is the principal for Management Consulting International (MCI).

You can visit their websites to learn more about their work:
Jacquie: http://strategicplay.ca
Denise: http://mci.edu.au

Lets face it, people love to play and have fun. And everyone wants to be happy. We will often ask a room full of people, Who here has ever gone to a meeting, workshop, training, or offsite and left thinking That was a total waste of my time? You can imagine how many hands go upalmost all of them. When we ask, Who here woke up today and said, Yay! I get to go to that event, people usually laugh and it is rare to get a hand raise. If someone does raise their hand, it is usually the new guy in the back because this is his first one. And yet no one questions that we continue to afford wasting time, energy, or resources like this.

Our lives seem to follow this linear track:

1. Play when you are a baby and as a small child.
2. Learn when you are a youth in school.
3. Work when you are an adult.
4. Reflect and play again when you retire.

We want to help break this pattern as people begin to recognize we should all be lifelong learners and that we learn best when we play. We want to make this a circle, not a line. We can play to learn, apply the lessons to our work, and reflect at any iterative stage in the process. We can play and reflect, we can learn and reflect, and we can work and learn.

Play is directly linked to decreasing stress levels. And when people play they allow themselves to take more risks. People need a break from taking themselves too seriously. They need to have fun and be happy. When we are happy we are closest to changing our minds and we are less likely to hang on to things.

Research now indicates that designing playful activities into work can have far-reaching benefits. Employers will see an increase in retention and satisfaction, and communication will improve. Everyones minds will open to change, they will be more open to taking risks, and they will be more creative in solving problems. There are many areas and ways you can incorporate more play into your workplace.

This book primarily addresses using play activities during working meetings, training programs, events, and offsites. but you can use these ideas almost anywhere you imagine they will fit. And the more you use these types of activities the more your participants and clients will ask for them and expect them; they will become part of your culture. When you begin to add play in applied and strategic ways, people begin to remember how much they love it and they long for more. If you, as a consultant, want your sessions to be in demand and to be invited back time and time again, start adding some fun to the work.

To change the culture of your organization, strategically add some play. People are waiting for it!

Five Step Essential Process:

In all our applications where we are using purposeful play we make sure to follow five essential steps: It does not matter if you are building something out of LEGO bricks or if you are making something with craft supplies. It is important that as a facilitator you follow these simple steps.