E057_How learning through play improves teamwork and psychological safety

Who says play is just for kids? 

Join us as we reveal how incorporating learning through play into adult learning can be a game-changer for team building and individual growth. 

We share enlightening experiences and insights on how play can unleash creativity, encourage critical thinking, and develop emotional intelligence within teams. We discuss the remarkable impact of Lego's adult game in enhancing team communication, fostering understanding, and promoting a culture of collaborative learning. 

But that's not all! 

We're also tapping into the wonders of experiential learning. Get ready to discover how creating a safe space for guided discovery can transform how you learn and work. From enhancing job satisfaction to reducing stress and nurturing creativity, the benefits of play in the workplace are numerous. 

Using our first-hand experience from crew development workshops, we'll show you the power of experiential learning in fostering a sense of belonging and efficiency in communication. 

Join us in exploring the magic of approaching challenges with an open mindset and turning the learning process into an enjoyable experience with the touch of play.

Thanks for listening!

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This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn: Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player.

Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Chapters

• 0:12 Play in Learning and Team Building
• 10:24 Play and Experiential Learning's Value

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Learning through play, but we're grown adults. That's something we left behind when we finished school. Did we? Should we? What are we losing by leaving play out of learning to be better leaders, better team members and, overall, better human beings? Children know that play is their superpower, and we're here to convince the adults who may have forgotten that it's one of our superpowers too, because a team that plays together stays safe together.

Speaker 2: 0:43

I am Nula and I am Karen and we are the safety collaborators.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Our mission is to help people have better conversations and change the way they think about safety. Consider us your thinking partners, sharing expertise and wisdom in everything safety, safety culture and psychological safety.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Do you wonder about how to enhance the learning culture in your organisation? Do you want to encourage teams who are empowered to guide their own learning, a culture of collaborative learning? Encourage innovation, risk taking and experimenting. When we say risk taking, we don't mean break the rules. How do we promote imaginative thinking? How do we have teams who understand their emotions and how they impact their daily work? When we think of all of those questions, how many times have we been invited to run programs to help alleviate the stress of those half a dozen questions? We're thinking about it all the time.

Speaker 2: 1:44

So we use quite a bit of play, particularly in our face to face events and actually in our virtual. But think about Lego. Why is Lego so successful? Why do adults Love going to a Lego store? Oh, my word, I know the last time I where, was I in Glasgow, I think. Yes, I went to the Lego store. I couldn't believe how much fun I was having in there. It's just, and I was never even really a big Lego person as a kid. Well, my god, I love it now and that's why I think Lego then introduced the adult game, lego play, which is all about helping teams to grow and to evolve and to be critical thinking and to be creative and, to you know, have communication, different types of communication, etc. It's really successful.

Speaker 1: 2:30

It's incredibly successful and we use it all the time and learning through play it. Really, it helps us get into flow and I love the description it's being in the joy zone, yeah, and deliberately daydreaming, and it's embracing a sense of serious play. And no, this is not child's talk. This is taking your organization to successful heights and having fun along the way. And Going into the Christmas season, we're often thinking about toys. How do we play? How do we ink? What are we going to do with the children over this time of the year? And Karen and I thought well, let's have a conversation that matters about how teams that play together stay safe together.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Hmm, and this podcast was inspired a lot by the official learning bites that I've been doing, and those are 45 to 90 minute team sessions and a lot of those involve play. They involve people doing activities together, building puzzles, playing with Lego, trying to figure out solutions to challenging questions and the order that things come together and so often, what I loved about this is that I would be working with different departments and different crews and You'd work with one crew for a couple of days, like, let's say, it's the deck crew, while the drilling crew were focused on some other tasks and what have you, and then you'd go back and you'd focus on the drill crew and you'd leave the Deck crew alone, or you'd be working with the engine team. Often one of the crews would come to me and they would go when are we going to play games again, because we learn so much?

Speaker 2: 4:12

And they do come at that with that question, like kids in a candy store. They're like, yeah, can we do that completely?

Speaker 1: 4:19

Yeah, we haven't played games for a few days, or we're gonna get time to play with you this week, yeah, and it's just absolutely lovely because you can hear the excitement. Whether it's building a model out of spaghetti, yeah, or there's so many different ways. I remember the one day it was after quite a serious learning session around teams and Team structure and the five stages of team development and this one team actually worked through it. But they'd be working quite well together for a while and they worked through it quite quickly and their supervisor came to me and he said we were allocated 19 minutes. We still got half an hour.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Seen as we're in the recreation area, can we just play a couple of rounds of yenga as a team?

Speaker 1: 5:04

And I often use yenga in team development, but I hadn't used it with this group at all and they've got these big block yengas which are such fun, and I said absolutely. I said go ahead. And they played three rounds of yenga and it included laughter, it included friendly bets, it included them dealing with frustration and having to manage conflict and the one person who Just gave up because he didn't like what would happen if he was going to lose, and and the dynamic of how they had to work around that and how that conversation then flowed over Into when they were on site, because what they were learning was how they reacted to conflict, how they reacted when things didn't go their way, who took losing really badly, who took it as a joke because you know, this was all a fun game and how to deal with the emotions that go around that. And those emotions are very, very Reflective of what happens on site when things are working well and when they're not couldn't agree more.

Speaker 2: 6:09

While I was listening to, I was thinking about what underpins all of that. I mean, a couple of things popped up. It's a nice way of a safe way Let me say in inverted commas for people to appreciate that we're all different and that we react to things differently. And if they're paying attention, they will see those differences and, as you say, then take it back into. Well, hang on a minute, he might not take it quite that way or she doesn't really matter. Maybe I need to adjust the way I ask a question or adjust the way that I Want to get something done, and I think if you're a leader and you'd appreciate that, then you start to Work with people in a different way. But our brains don't actually like to be static. So I think one of the things with play, it needs that shift, that change. We become really immune to our environment very, very quickly and our brains get bored.

Speaker 2: 7:07

They're loasy.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Well, that's your spot of least resistance. It's more energy efficient. I.

Speaker 2: 7:12

So our brains like to have a little bit of change, and I think the conversation around neuroplasticity comes in here. When we're playing, we're actually rewiring things and we're forced to look for solutions that aren't always obvious. And if we can do that when we're playing, we may feel more able to take that vulnerable risk when we're needing to be very serious, than to getting the job done in a safe way. So there's so much to learn from. I'm gonna say here playing like a child. That doesn't mean having a tantrum, just means playing, no, playing, playing. I've been watching a series on YouTube, actually just following a family who are building a house in the woods and somewhere, rather, and the kids are there and watching these kids play and actually watching the family play, and I don't think we see so much of that anymore in general, but to see this family literally playing with leaves and sticks and then all of a sudden, some random goat comes bullying at them from the distance and they just roll over laughing. There's a lot to learn from this. And how do we bring this into facilitation and team learning?

Speaker 2: 8:29

Experiential learning is not new. It's been around for a long time. We've certainly been doing it for well over 20 years and that's quite different to learning. We do a lot of learning, skills learning, competency learning. We see a lot of that, we get a lot of that, but sometimes just experimenting, having some experiential learning. It's not about the theory, it's about how do we embody what we're trying to learn and that's what we can get more easily when we're playing. In inverted commas Now, I can remember in the earlier days of consulting in this space when some people say, oh, you shouldn't say that's playing, it's an experimental experience. You know what I'm saying? We're getting a lot of expertise. It's play, get over yourself, it's playing.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Right, oh no. Why do we travel with tennis balls? Exactly Because we get to use them in all sorts of wonderful things.

Speaker 2: 9:19

I was going to add blindfolds and ropes, but okay.

Speaker 1: 9:24

Well, if you want to know more about the blindfolds and ropes, email us at hello at safetycollaborationscom.

Speaker 2: 9:29

Exactly, exactly. All right, I will bring up the tennis balls in a minute in another shared story. So experiences that are playful, that are joyful, meaningful, they're actively engaging, they're iterative because, okay, that didn't work, we didn't win the game, let's try it again. And we tend to lose that. The older we get, the less iterative we become. It's all about oh, there's all these procedures and rules and whatever. So we become accustomed to living that way and forgetting that another part of us actually it's okay Again, and I say this it's not about breaking rules, but it is about let's challenge the system and we can do that playfully and safely, with some vulnerability as well.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Yeah, so you so reminded me of a term that Professor Sylvia Downs introduced me to when I was studying under her and it's guided discovery.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Yes, so it's not about taking these wild gander risks and going off and doing crazy things, but it is around guided discovery and when we have that, we can be innovative, we can be creative, we can get into flow and we can challenge and we can find new ways of doing things. And it's within a boundary of that safe space, absolutely, and it's safe around. This is an emotional space where we're learning. It's safe around. This is where we get to make mistakes. It's not about judging. It's around saying, okay, we are learning from making the mistake in the learning environment, because then when we are out in the field, we don't have to make the mistake there and we can see how that works.

Speaker 2: 11:07

And I think the role that we play as experiential learning facilitators let me use that word is what helps create that space. I mean that's why external facilitators that do this sort of work are brought into an organisation, because they're neutral to the organisation, they're aware of things, but we can encourage challenge in a safer way because we are not directly related to the job or the tasks at hand that people have to do.

Speaker 1: 11:39

That gives a lot of freedom and flexibility and the ability to do what you cannot do when you're employed in the organisation. Indeed, I think we have a lot of licence in that sense. That's the word, and there's huge amounts of research being done into child play and in learning and the value of that, and how play should not be left to the break times. It should be built into education and how being a playful parent actually enhances your child's social skills, learning and development. There's just so much benefit, and we'll share the link to learning through play, which came up in some of the research we were doing around child play, because it's so valuable and there isn't enough research into adult learning and adult play, but it is starting to be more, especially in the fields of psychology and sociology.

Speaker 1: 12:34

And how do we bring play into the workplace? And the research that has been done is showing that play at work enhances job satisfaction. It makes you want to come back for more, it increases task involvement and creativity because it gives you licence two day dream to think of better ways of doing things. And it certainly contributes to your own and your team's ability to deal with stress, because when you're learning how to deal with stress in playful situations, you can realise that actually dealing with stress in the work environment isn't that different.

Speaker 1: 13:10

And it's a lovely space to watch as research and the science behind it is just showing the value in where this comes from.

Speaker 2: 13:18

We ran and this is one project that I was involved with and it went on for weeks. I'm not sure how I came out the other end, but everybody else was brilliant.

Speaker 2: 13:29

You might have had a bit of a twitch. We were actually on a game reserve for well over a month. So what we were doing there was we were running. It was a new rig coming into a new location, but on the way through to location we were doing crew development and the whole purpose behind this, apart from introducing two to three different organizations that were going to be working together, but was also about introducing the crew, the management and to each other, and it was trying to build the family, let's put it that way. So these were two and a half day crew development workshops. We had them come in and they were like, rolling through every two and a half days we had a new crew by the end of it.

Speaker 2: 14:14

I did have a twitch, but it was brilliant fun, it was absolutely amazing, and we ran these with that express intention of adding some play or be there some serious conversations in all of that. But everything was one experiment after another, from blindfold games, you know, trying to guide people through minefields through, to throwing tennis balls in circles and many, many times, and we've got another lovely story about tennis balls actually. So we had all of these activities built intentionally to create the lessons that we wanted everybody to walk away with, and for many years after that the safety of that operation was actually attributed to the program because it was so successful.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Not only that, just on that, I mean many, many years later, as in two years ago, I met people that you facilitated those programs with who were still talking to me about it and going. That was some of the best experiences around learning and team development that they'd had. Got a warm and fuzzy. So these, these, as it should, because it's the things that connect physiologically. It connects, it gives meaning, it creates joy and it doesn't leave when you're out of the situation.

Speaker 2: 15:33

No, we talk about. There's the audible learning, there's visual learning, but there's embodied learning. People think that learning happens cognitively, so just in the brain, but it doesn't. The majority of our learning actually happens in the body, from the neck down. It just gets guided by what's going on up in the head to a large degree, and the benefits of this was and why was it successful? It's because people were not afraid to stop the job. They weren't afraid to have a conversation because they already knew each other. They were like hey, remember when we did that blindfold activity that you were shit at? Well, you know, let's think about that right now. So there was lots of that.

Speaker 2: 16:14

So we built in that inclusion that we're looking for. It sends that sense of belonging long before any challenges are met. Because, let's face it, when you're on the job you've got to meet challenges. Nobody's trying to get rid of them. They will be there. It's part of life. But how can we embrace that in a more joyful way, in a learning way? Not every challenge is going to be joyful, but if you can approach it with that mindset, positive growth. You know, some of those words come to mind, but really I think if you can just approach it with an open I think that's a better word. It decreases conversational waste because we're no longer afraid to. We don't put your foot around the conversations that we need to have. We've encouraged people to have those conversations and it increases that emotional stability right from the beginning of operations. I mean, if we could get involved with all of that right from the beginning of every operation that was out there, I'm sure lots of operations would be happier ones, because otherwise it's a long, slower road to get there.

Speaker 1: 17:13

It's a slow burn and sadly, many people get burned along the way they do they do. Absolutely true, especially when you think around team psychological safety, yeah, this does set a huge foundation for that. And even when you can't do it up ahead, what I loved about some of the teams I worked with while we were doing the learning buts, there was just one of the exercises and it was really really challenging and people were getting irritated and annoyed and frustrated with each other and there was conflict going and you know, the supervisor, kind of like pulled me aside and he goes you've got to fix this. Yeah, and I was like this is exactly what is supposed to be happening right now. I said, because you know you guys are going to figure it out, so my job is not to make this easy. The pain is where it's at. My job is to create situations where you have to deal with difficult, conflict, frustrating situations, because then you will see exactly who everyone is in your team and how everyone ticks, because the honest person comes out, not the person. That I was trying to. That I thought you wanted to see Exactly and we did that session and then we did another few during that week and towards.

Speaker 1: 18:25

It was about a month later when they came back on board, so after they'd gone home for a hitch and we did a like a where's everybody at, how are you doing? And it was the most beautiful feedback because that supervisor said he said remember that session. He said that's what made us a team. That was where we started to see each other as people, and not just as people we work with, but people that we actually got to know. And it was just so lovely watching that team grow and develop.

Speaker 1: 18:51

And, yes, we get to know each other in the workspace, yes, we get to see how each other works. But you don't build those lasting connections and bonds when you're having to do the job and you're having to keep each other safe, because that is it's like what we're on a 12 hour shift Exactly Go, go, go, go go. And as much as people say, there is no time pressure. The focus is getting the job done. Yes, you'll have a smoke break or you'll have a coffee break, you might have a bit of a conversation, you might hear that somebody had a child or what's gone on at home, but it's a very different bond and playing together creates it, just takes it to a completely different level Interesting.

Speaker 2: 19:34

I was actually listening to a my favorite, stephen Bartlett, this morning and it was a behind the scenes session and he was talking about his team because he's got that 30 people running that podcast and he said we all work hard but the real learning and the real team bonding happens outside of the job. So they had intentional days away, days or half days or lunches. I mean we do the same thing because that's when you have the time to just kind of let go, let's play, let's do things, let's be experiential. What do we want to experience?

Speaker 1: 20:10

together and it doesn't only enhance our culture of learning but it gives the foundation of a culture of care, absolutely. We started this episode talking about it's going into the festive season, the holiday season. For many people, it's a time of giving and receiving of gifts, and if you want to give me Lego or McConnell, any, of those I'm just putting it out there, like hello, okay, we're getting the message With joy and happiness. Madden Claire Yep.

Speaker 2: 20:35

I have six younger sets here just by the by Fabulous.

Speaker 1: 20:41

But many people are not going to be home for the festive season. They're going to be at work, they're going to be in environments where it is quite stressful, and maybe bringing in a little bit of play and some dedicated time for play could actually help alleviate the stresses over the holiday period. So think about how you can bring that into your working environment. And yes, there is method in our supposed madness to help you and your teams learn together, understand each other, create memories that will help you deal with the challenges or changes that you face at work, enhance your learning and your culture of care and, most importantly, building the foundation of a team that plays together, because they will stay safe together. And if you'd like to learn more about integrating player at work and experiential learning, then let's continue this conversation.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Connect with us at safetycollaborationscom or email us at hello at safetycollaborationscom. Leave us a message on the show notes page, where you will find all of the information around this. Follow us on LinkedIn and remember sharing is caring. Share this podcast with your connections, who will get value, and including parents who would love to learn how to play. And thank you for joining us. It's always lovely to have conversations that matter. Till next week. Stay safe and stay well, kes何.