“Like its five sibling senses, play is emerging from the shadows of frivolousness and assuming a place in the spotlight… Play is becoming an important part of work, business, and personal well-being, its importance is manifesting itself in three ways:games,humor, andjoyfulness.”
Games
According to Pink, playing video games can:
Enhance the ability to detect changes in the environment and process information
Deepen empathy
Offer rehearsals for social interaction
One of the examples Pink uses to illustrate the power of games is the US military, which has invested heavily in simulations based on gaming technology and uses it for many aspects of military training. The Program Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation, which employs 1000 military personnel, civilians and contractors had $9.95 billion in contracts under management in 2008. They provided over 335,000 training devices in 19 foreign countries and 472 sites worldwide. Furthermore, the US Army's training game, America's Army, offered free on the website GOARMY.com has, 9,400,000 registered users.
The business sector, too, is investing in gaming technology for training. Companies like Johnson & Johnson, American Express, IBM, and Volvo, all use games for employee training. Hilton Hotels, for example, has a customer service game called "Ultimate Team Player" that is tied to the loyalty and customer satisfaction survey that guests complete at the end of their stay1.
By 2012, between 100 and 135 Fortune 500 companies will have adopted gaming for training purposes
4 million people played the United Nations world food program's "Food Force", in its first year
The federal government is currently evaluating 16 new technology-based products in classrooms across United States
More than 200 American colleges and universities offer undergraduate and master's degrees in videogame development
As gaming software becomes less expensive and easier to use, we can expect corporate training departments to utilize video gaming more frequently, much of it developed, perhaps, by in-house IT departments. Who knows, all those hours spent by your children and students playing World of Warcraft may finally pay off.
1Forrester Research Inc. report, "It's Time to Take Games Seriously” (August, 2008)
InJoyfulness, Pink talks about Dr. Madan Kataria’s Laughter club.
Dr Madan Kataria, the guru giggles and is the founder of Laughter Yoga Clubs believes that:
Joyfulness differs from happiness. Happiness is conditional; joyfulness is unconditional.
When you depend on something else to make you laugh, the laughter doesn’t belong to you. That’s a conditional laugh.
But in laughter clubs, the source of laughter is not outside the body; it’s within us.
Laughter in a group can help people go from the conditional happiness of adults to the unconditional joyfulness of children.
Laughter can play a major role in reducing stress in the workplace.
People who laugh together can work together
Laughter Yoga Club with Dr Madan Kataria
Laughter Yoga Clubs is a unique exercise routine that combines group laughter exercises with yoga breathing which allows anyone to laugh without using jokes, humor or comedies.
This is a good Ice Breaker exercise. It can be an effective way of starting a training session, group collaboration, team-building event, and etc.
Here is an example of Dr. Kataria laughter training Conference in Korea where he trained the delegates from different part of Korea.
2008 Laughter Training Conference in Korea
(Note: Please watch until the 1:00 mark (you can watch the rest after class) and then I will resume the presentation)
World Laughter Day
Steve Wilson, president and co founder of World Laughter Tour says that” Laughter is a free and natural expression of the joyful human spirit and promotes Health, improves morale and increases productivity at work, facilitates the healing of illness, melts away stress, works wonders in the classroom, is the hallmark of healthy family life, and promotes international harmony…”
The purpose of World Laughter:
Steve believes that the world is so out of balance that it needs to lighten up and laugh more in order to maintain perspective. We set aside this day to send a message to get more people laughing, urging the world to lighten up! "Systematic exposure to true mirthful laughter in a supportive environment can contribute to world peace by fostering attitudinal healing.
If you like more information about Workd Laughter, I've provided the link under resources.
" According to Wilson, "Laughing is the birthright of humanity, and humane living requires daily bouts of good-hearted laughing."
There are many benefits to using humor in the workplace or injecting humor into training and instructional programs. In fact, humor can be a key component to instructional design. For example, an instructional designer may decide to make training videos or simulations more interesting by using light humor. Jokes and anecdotes can transform an otherwise mundane topic to something that is interesting and amusing. Also, by injecting humor into content or delivery of training material, is the added benefit of keeping your audience engaged and inspired. The interest level will be higher, and your audience will tend to pay attention to most of the material or content presented.
From a training perspective, humor can unite people by breaking down barriers and easing social tensions, as seen in this video created by Brad Montgomery:
(Note: Please watch until the 1:22 mark and then I will resume the presentation)
According to Daniel Pink, 'humor activates the right hemisphere, or creative side of the brain by giving people a sense of the big picture, placing situations in context and combining different perspectives. (Pink, 2004) Humor in the workplace has the benefit of increasing communication, inspiring creativity and building relationships among individuals. However, one must be cautious in using humor, as it often has the downside of causing tension, or exacerbating existing divisions.
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