Get ready for a whole new approach to speaking that totally energizes the traditional sit and listen, stand and deliver style of professional speakers. Create the WOW FACTOR to your presentation that's so amazingly awesome, your audience leaves 100% juiced and energized.
What if you could give your audience permission from an all too busy world to interact, to laugh, and to engage in POWERFUL PLAY EXPERIENCES that generates a buzz of excitement, tangible energy, and doesn’t fizzle out at the end of the session?
Play is permission for a time-out from an all too busy world of work to feel engaged, manage stressors, open lines of communication, and to foster relationship building through fun and laughter. Play achieves the goal of simply bringing people together in a most unique experience. Nothing else compares!
Recently, I volunteered at a community event in west Edmonton. The Girl Guides of Canada desperately needed someone to be their gopher mascot for the day. Having had previous mascot experience, I was more than happy to don the gopher costume, and playfully mingle with parents and kids of all ages for the entire afternoon. The day's festivities reaffirmed a certain perspective of mine that I am sure is shared by many others:
* Children show absolutely no hesitation to engage in fun and playful moments
* Children put aside all thought and reservation and leap forward with abundant energy ready to receive all that magically awaits them in fun and playful moments
Most significantly, I observed a typical common practice of adults. Specifically, various degrees of hesitation and reservation to engage in fun and playful moments. Hmm!!
Upon my return home that evening, I put pen to paper to write this article. As I applied myself to this task, I found myself replaying the various degrees of hesitation and reservation to engage in fun and playful moments that I had observed in the adults earlier that afternoon. Coincidently, this prompted me to think about the countless amazing people that I've met over the years through CAPS, who even at the best of times risk being too intense or don't necessarily see the fun and playfulness in the moment.
Does this sound familiar?
Are you being asked to plan an event which incorporates big time fun, playful moments, and laughter, but don't know what to do or how to do it? I encourage you to make your next move in the business of speaking an intentional one. Get ready for a whole new approach to speaking that totally energizes the traditional sit and listen, stand and deliver style of professional speakers.
Before we get started, many of you know me as a Certified Career Counselor. Respecting this, my intent here is to actually play the role of Counselor and facilitate you through your mini-action-plan of “How To Strategies.” The result of this journey? A newfound readiness, willingness and ability to engage in fun and playful moments with your audience members. Ready to get started?
Mini Action Plan:
Your Attitude Toward Play.
Do your due diligence. Embrace a refreshing, personal philosophy towards play.
Everyday over the next two weeks, look at yourself in the mirror first thing in the morning and repeat the following with an in-your-face conviction:
* I invite playfulness into the daily grind of life.
* I empower people to stretch their imaginations through creative play.
* The capacity exists within me to maintain play's momentum.
* I play, and feel good about playing.
* I don't need any special equipment. Heck, I don't even have to be in shape.
What I Don't Know WILL Hurt Me!
As your Counselor on this journey, this section has everything to do with being informed.
1. Visit the following websites starting with www.inewgames.com, then www.corporateplaypeople.com, then www.fishphilosophy.com and culminating with http://lookatmorestuff.com/index.htm. Record your reactions to these websites.
2. Conduct at least 2 informal and fun interviews with any kid, 12 years and under. Your goal is to discover their secret in putting aside all thought and reservation, and leaping forward with abundant energy ready to receive all that magically awaits them in fun and playful moments.
3. Go shopping and go bananas with toys and games and stuff. Purchase any three of the most zany and playful items that you never thought existed, ie. Floam, Straws and Connectors, Toss Your Cookies, etc.
Robert Manolson is the Creator & Facilitator of Powerful Play Experiences. He leads organizations in Workplace Fun & Wellness Workshops and believes that each day and every day we must re-energize and ignite our spirit within through the power of play. Robert can be reached at www.powerfulplayexperiences.ca. He looks forward to hearing the results of your journey and will facilitate your next step in the process on this newfound readiness, willingness and ability to engage in fun and playful moments with your audience members.
