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essentials, using New Games and experiential education. Teamwork & Teamplay. [teamworkandteamplay.com] Cooperation, communication, trainings, books, and more. Playfully Inc. Great trainings, books, and camp resources from Faith Evans in the New Games’ spirit. Playworks. [www.playworks.org] In the trenches, in many inner cities with New Games leadership principles and youth development programs and activities. Playfair. [www.playfair.com] Matt Weinstein. One of the early New Gamesters with extensive college orientation and corporate applications. The HUMOR Project. [www. humorproject.com] Joel Goodman. Another early New Gamester who spun off the many applications of humor and laughter in life, work, and wellness. Play for Peace. [www.playforpeace.org] International initiatives using play to promote peace. Sports4Peace/Teamtime. [www. sports4peace.net, www.teamtime.net] Alois Hechenberger of Munich and Austria. Great international New Games work. Deep Fun. [www.deepfun.com] Bernie DeKoven. One of the originals carrying on with Junkyard Sports, The Well-Played Game, A Playful Path, and so much more wisdom. Pacifica, California Family Fun Festival. [pacificcoastfogfest.com/ activities/family-fun-fest] 1,000plus people have played each year for 33 years under the leadership
“Play is the exaltation of the possible.” ~Martin Buber of Bill Michaelis, John McConnell, and Drew McAdams. There are many more groups listed in The Leader’s Handbook. There are also many other places to look for positive play influences. These include: • The various national and regional play coalitions (see US Play www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
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funny T-shirt goes a long way toward saying, “Let’s play!” It might just be your tone of voice. Another way that you as a leader can facilitate playfulness is to think about and pay attention to all the ways that you can give people “permission” to be playful. That is, letting them know in one way or another (verbally, nonverbally, or by your modeling) it’s OK not to be perfect, it’s good enough to give it your best shot, big people can play too, and it’s OK to be expressive and/or publicly foolish. Emphasize Involvement and Participation. Fun activities, whether they are competitive and/or cooperative, most often need some level of challenge. So try to get folks hooked in mentally, physically, and expressively, but also procedurally (e.g., asking them, emphasizing teamwork). Challenge them to stretch themselves a bit at some level. Also emphasize activities that will get everyone involved without a lot of standing around or waiting in lines. Choose or modify games that allow people access to them and don’t screen them out because they are not fast enough, or flexible enough, or athletic enough. Choose games that the very widest range of the population can play, whether they are athletic or just have athlete’s foot. Providing access to your activities also implies creating the “permission” for egress. That is, anyone at any time should feel free to leave your game if it is not working for him or her or if he or she is not in the right mood. The right to play includes the right not to play and sometimes you have to tell people that. And believe it or not, that freedom helps strengthen the play community. The last concept related to participation and involvement is congregation. Play at its best helps to break down barriers and build bridges between people, whether old or young, able-bodied or differently-abled, black or white. The playground becomes the common ground where we can laugh together, be challenged together, and win together in the broadest sense. Attention to all of these fac-
tors—teamwork, sharing power, communication, involvement, participation, access, egress, and integration—goes a long way to help establish the play community. You as a leader can make that happen.
Facilitation Versus Arbitrary Authority
The next major concept we want to emphasize is facilitation. Our whole approach to leadership is that of facilitation or “making things easier” for the people to play (that is what the word actually means) versus commanding them, or having a know-it-all attitude. Your power doesn’t come from the fact that you’re wearing a black-and-white striped T-shirt and have a whistle around your neck. Your power as a leader comes from the relationships that you establish with your players and from your ongoing trust and confidence in yourself to take risks, to learn from your mistakes, to model playfulness, and to put yourself on the line. That doesn’t mean that you won’t have to exert higher levels of visibility and authority in some instances (e.g., dangerous situations), but it does mean that your real effectiveness comes from the trust and communication you establish in the play community.
Remember:
The fun begins with you. What is your own personal playfulness about and how do you communicate it? You can’t take anyone anywhere you’re not willing to go yourself. If you want people to risk or be expressive or try or be crazy or “whatever,” you’ve got to be willing to model it, and to express it yourself. There is so much more to say about the philosophy, principles, and techniques for creating the Play Community that are elaborated upon in The Leader’s Handbook. These include the evolving roles and goals of leaders/players’ ownership and shared power, responsiveness to creativity and change, and how we can all be better guardians of the process of play, the context of safety, the energy, the fun, and the flow. Play On! Michaelis, Bill, and John M. O’Connell. The Leader’s Handbook, Learning Leadership Skills by Facilitating Fun, Games, Play, and Positive Interaction, 2nd ed. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc., 2013.
WINTER 2015 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE 23