The difference between work and play

I use action methods to improve communication and reduce conflict in the workplace. Using play methodology can often move past barriers that have appeared to be set in concrete. But these methods still rely on a shared understanding of why we are at work and how adults at work behave. It is an interesting paradox that whilst asking people to relax and enjoy being playful this is to improve performance at work. An increasing number of employees either do not know the boundaries between work and personal life or just ignore them.

When we go to work we are exchanging our time and skills usually for money. It isn't slavery largely thanks to some serious work put in over the years by various unions and supporting legislation. This does mean we are answerable to others and have to abide by rules around attendance, behaviour and dress as well as what we achieve.

This may well sound like stating – as Basil Fawlty says “The bleedin' obvious”, but recently I have dealt with people who have said how bad the workplace was. On talking with them it becomes clear that the badness was “Not sitting where I want”, “Not getting to do the bits of my job I like”, “Having to arrive at the same time every day”, “Interrupting my face book updates”,and “Having to wear something other than a stained track suit just because I'm a receptionist”.

All the people concerned had applied for their jobs, read the relevant policies and agreed to them but all had suffered a catastrophic memory failure almost immediately. All felt they could do things as they wished.The idea that someone might have the responsibility for their work and therefore the right to question them about it was unacceptable to all. They all either owned the role outright or felt that any discussion of performance was intrusive and cruel.

At this point I realised that my default state was becoming increasingly grumpy.

I want us all to achieve at work and enjoy it as much as possible. I work at shifting barriers and building effective working relationships. This is based on everyone being a grown-up for most of the time. The methodology is based in play not childishness. We can be adult and use play techniques at work. What we can't do is go to work and only do what we want.

Practice makes perfect

Acting out different situations and ‘what ifs’ helps the brain to store the different feelings

of these experiences. So next time the person is in a similar situation the brain can use this

stored knowledge to make a more appropriate/educated response.

Practising new situations can be scary, so often we change the characters and environment.

So it is the witch in the forest who needs to tell the garden gnomes to stop misbehaving.

This is a lot safer than the person telling classmates/colleagues to stop teasing him/her.

It allows the client to practice being assertive, allows him/her to be angry (letting go of pent

up emotions associated to this trauma), and be in control.

It is always a delight to see people act out different sides of their personalities. When the

executive/ professionals allow themselves to be mischievous, or vulnerable, or if a person

with a disability lets people trip over, or be in total control.

Giving your brain experiences helps improve the brain’s ability to make sense of what is

happening around you. Often when people get isolated, the world around them becomes a

scary place. Disassociating oneself from society is an all too common phenomenon. People

can become ‘narrow-minded’ and set in their ways of communicating, in some cases they

stop communicating all together, and this in turn leads to isolation.

Keep practising... it’s a lot easier than Sudoku.

Taking a chance

I’m a cautious person by nature and experience. Much of my my training is about making progress slowly and carefully although it is also about going with the moment, working with “now” but sometimes that can get overlooked.
People living with dementia don’t have a lot of time to make slow, ordered progress. They can’t take time to build trust. Their world is immediate and often short lived in terms of memory. yet they are a shining example of willingness to take risks when there is some fun attached. I am continually amazed and impressed by their willingness to try anything imaginative with little knowledge of where it may go or what it might involve. There is some initial caution from some - quite right too -but all of them quickly get involved, share ideas and get stuck in. They embrace play in a way most of us take time to get to.
We can argue that their sense of self is different, they are less embarrassed by others’ potential opinion, but that is not always so.They say yes when they could say no.
This week the news featured an item on those whose memory it total. They forget nothing and have complete and instant recall. The impressive thing about them was that they approached every day thinking “I must make this count because it will always be with me.
At both ends of the memory spectrum there are people willing to take chances because that is where the true quality of their life is for them.
The action methods we use are such fun. The impact on me that working with people with dementia has had is totally positive. They have taught me that saying yes and taking a chance is so much more rewarding than standing in my own way. I haven’t seen the Jim Carey movie about saying yes yet but can I encourage all of us to say yes rather than no if at all possible?
Of course we shouldn’t take foolish risks. Most of us learn to assess risks once we make it through adolescence and realise we aren’t invincible. But then we stop a lot of our play.
using Improv, puppets and drama takes a long time with other groups because they have to get past their inner fogey saying “Don’t make a fool of yourself”.
The most fun I’ve had at work has come from doing just that. And when we do get groups past that barrier they grow and progress so fast.
So, don’t start climbing mountains, bungy jumping or going on the stage- unless you want to, but say yes to as many things as you can and see where it takes you.

The King is dead... Long live the King

Isn’t it great how children can use imagination and play to give form to their experiences? Children still surprise us in the way they interpret the world around us. Sometimes it matches our interpretation, often not.

When asked to pretend to be thirsty, some children will drop dead from thirst immediately, others beg for a drink bottle, and some enjoy the process of just crawling on the floor in search of water.

An invitation to act out being a King or Queen can be met by having your head chopped off in the first 10 seconds, having to be their servant, or to having a chat about how great they are. There are fewer inhibitions, and children tend to act the bits they want to act, rather than being worried what others might think or do.

Some adults need a bit of time to adjust to the fact they can be ‘silly’ or allow themselves to enjoy play. Boundaries we place on ourselves might need to be overcome. (Why are they there?) Giving form to events in your life is important to maintain a sense of sanity and control. Finding a way to do this is very personal. Drama therapy can be a form which meets those needs, when talking, simply isn’t doing the trick.

Inspiration

Photo: Phil Reid/The Dominion Post

Residents from five Wellington rest homes gathered at Fergusson Rest Home in Upper Hutt on Wednesday for the third annual Wellington Care Homes Wearable Arts show. see Dominion Post 19 Aug 2011

Dignity – who needs it?

One of the many reasons I like drama therapy is that it is fun. There's no sense of therapist superiority. The person doing the work controls all aspects.

The license to be the child they want to be, to access play, ideas, fantasy is their choice.

Children do not have the constraints that adults learn to place on themselves but when adults attempt to play they can often trip themselves up. What do I look like? Will people think I'm silly?

A colleague told me of some relatives who were distressed that someone, an older person, was allowed to leave still wearing tiger facepaint. The person was very happy being a powerful tiger but for the family it was not dignified.

As adults we live every day with the judgements we place on ourselves as well as those others may make. They do have a place in life in the sense that knowing of such judgements may well influence our choices such as not drinking and driving, avoiding theft or violence not just because they are morally wrong but because people will not value us. Sadly this doesn't work for some. But these judgements can also stop us from simpler, harmless pleasures and things that may improve our whole lives.

When someone older loses their original sense of self it is bewildering and scary for them and their family and friends. Part of the individual's anxiety is a response to that shown to them by the people around them. If they find a medium that gives them joy and confidence surely we can accept this and not keep referring back to the dignity and style of someone who sadly no longer exists despite their physical presence. Of course this is hard but with people who see the benefits of drama therapy the transition is much easier.

We mourn the loss of the person we knew but at least can see the existing person is happy and having some fun.

If the way for this is by accessing play, so be it. What is wrong in something that all children embrace. We all have those memories. Just because the outward appearance is of a mature adult does not mean we should be denied ways that are effective and give happiness.

There is not a lot of dignity in misery. There is much more in the look of pleasure when the pirate chief takes the treasure galleon and sails into the sunset.

So heave ho me hearties – I may look daft to you but its' my ship and I've got the gold, jewels and a crew ready to make you walk the plank if you don't join in. And there are sharks in my ocean.

Still want your dignity?

All work and no play ...

Work is a very serious thing at any time. It's how most of us support the other areas of our life.

With the job market tight and pressure on to make more with less , the workplace is a demanding environment.

We all spend a large chunk of our week at work so how can we make it a happier place to be?

This is just as important for the organisation as it is for the staff. A happy workplace is more productive, loses less time to sickness, is more likely to solve problems quickly.

A lot of unhappiness centres on communication. All of us have times when we can't say what we want. We put barriers in our own way and at times that's a very good thing. That little brake in our head that stops us saying what we are thinking at that second has probably saved lives as well as jobs and relationships.

But at work we sometimes have to say things that may not be well received no matter how diplomatic we are. We don't always distinguish clearly between the fact that lovely though we are, we are at work, paid to do a job. Not everything is personal or about us. Yet because we take ownership of our role for most of us our work is extremely personal. Any comment on what we do is a comment about us.

Organisations spend a lot of time money and effort on promoting good communication. This is a very serious matter indeed. But does the way we do this have to be so serious?

I'm always amazed that teams go away to try and build relationships. They won't be working at a resort in a room at a high level of intensity, or on an assault course.

Why not use the surroundings they will have to work in but make that more fun?

The methods taken from Drama Therapy are just as effective in the corporate and government fields

The puppets in the picture have been an amazing resource for getting people to talk. Someone who is uneasy speaking in a group turns into a lead orator with one of the puppets as his or her mouthpiece. The puppets get away with saying outrageous things and give everyone a laugh.

People who have enjoyed each others' company, not felt threatened will form much more effective working relationships. They will be more comfortable knowing that any impressions their colleagues have of them were at least partially formed in a happy, relaxed place.

No matter how this is approached, having fun is important for us all.

Watching a team that can barely talk to one another except via e mail learn to enjoy and respect each other is a great experience. Watching a new team come together having fun and building positive links is even better.

Whatever you are doing, have a think about having more fun at work. Being a professional, being a high achiever doesn't mean being a misery. So many people feel that some one is pulling their strings.

When in doubt, let a puppet do the talking for you.

Playing has no rules

People with memory loss can rapidly become isolated from those around them. They don't communicate the way they used to.

I keep coming back to how much we all rely on talking to stay connected to each other. And how difficult that is for many of us as we get older. We place so much judgement on how someone speaks. Get a word wrong, mispronounce something or just muck up your grammar and a lot of negative judgements may come in to play. Heaven help you if you stumble a bit. If your memory is not working the way you want it to, so the right words don't come, that can be very frightening. That is even harder on family and friends who struggle with this loss of contact with the person they love and care for.

But playing has no rules. We can make them up as we go along. There is no way we can fail or feel anxious about being second rate, not up to standard. If something doesn't work, we just change it with no baggage, no regrets or worries that it wasn't right. “It's just a story” - how safe does that make whatever we do?

Using play works so well because it just takes away any anxiety. People relax , have some fun and start communicating any way they wish. They use their early memories and the rest of start get a glimpse of amazing lives and achievements. With time this could take many people so much further or at least make daily life a less unhappy and worrying thing.

That's what I have come to love about the action methods of Drama Therapy. It allows us to act out what we want, how we want. No one can query our choice of words. If we don't use words at all just gestures, we are still communicating. If we're communicating, we can be in touch.

It is wonderful for me to see how people respond and reconnect when they get the chance to rediscover memories through Drama Therapy.