What is Play That Works?

Play that Works is a wonderful book that anyone who teaches, advises or leads a group of people should have. It contains more than 80 proven methods of "play" that will help you make your group into a cohesive and industrious unit so they can do their "work."

Why you need Play that Works

You should order one of these books for each yearbook adviser, leadership teacher or any other customer or prospect that you care about. It is the perfect gift for all of them.

What a superb way to get in the door of that prospect who just doesn't want to take the time to see you. This book is something to talk about, a reason to see them. And when it sits on their desk after you leave, it's a constant reminder of your kindness to them with your photo and contact info within easy reach.

Chapters include:

Getting to Know You

Games designed for a group to use when they are first meeting and learning about each other. Participants need to know about each other, before they can work together. The more participants know about each other the more understanding they are when things go wrong during their time together. It always helps if the leader participates in these games so that the participants learn about their leader and feel like the leader is a part of the team as well, not just the leader. Most games take 5 to 10 minutes; plan several for an intro or break time.

Working With You

These activities are designed to help participants work together to complete a variety of tasks. Some activities can be done daily, others only once to teach a concept. Working on any group project requires participants to know a unique set of instructions and have an intrinsic motivation to create a variety of obscure tasks. These activities help ease that process by teaching participants to rely on each other, not the leader, to complete each task.

Praising You

Here we focus on thanking and praising participants for completing tasks. Most activities take only a few minutes, but it is important to take the time to recognize outstanding effort. When participants feel recognized or receive an award for their hard work, they typically maintain that level of achievement or accelerate past it.

Forgiving You

People working together in any group will disagree. They will have fights, arguments, hot tempers, and hurt feelings. There is no way to prevent this from happening, but there are several ways to recover from it so everyone can move forward. These activities must be mandatory for all group members, and the leader must lead these activities to make sure the activity doesn't spiral out of control.

Saying Goodbye to You

By the end of your groups time together, participants become emotionally connected due to their forced dependence on each other throughout that time. These people need effective ways to say goodbye to each other and to their leaders. For those who will be leaving at the end of a specific time, the closure provided by these activities helps gather memories about the participants outstanding accomplishments while providing insight for returning group members.

Miscellaneous Tips for Group Leaders

This section includes helpful things involving the plethora of random responsibilities of all group leaders.