PLAY YOUR WAY TO HIGH PERFORMANCE

Posted on August 6, 2015 @ 5:48am

Play Your Way to High Performance

Play as a word, and as an activity, gets a bad rap.  People think it's frivolous, wasteful.  Negative sayings about play are common:  “Stop playing and get to work.” or “He’s always playing around.”   It’s too bad really.  Not just because when we play we feel great -- but because play really is the answer to high performance.  In business, play is essential to developing collaborative relationships, creating new products, offering standout service, and solving tough problems. 

Remember the last time you were in a state of play?  What did it feel like?  How focused were you?  What results did you produce?  Chances are you were tuned-in and turned-on with little wasted effort. 

Now counter that with the last time you were in a state of non-play and ask yourself those same questions.  It’s really hard to argue for the value of being uptight, fearful and stressed out – it rarely produces anything good. 

High performing teams and high performing organizations are not afraid to play with how they work together, with how they make decisions and how they serve customers.  We've used play to help leadership teams:

- Prepare to do something they’ve never done before.  Ex: Close down one hospital and open a new one in the same day.

- Break down silos and build relationship bridges.  Ex: Between Legal and Marketing, Sales and Ops.

-  Set themselves apart from a customer service perspective by infusing a fun can-do attitude in all they do.

The good news is that we are players by nature.  We were born knowing how to play - it's just been trained out of us.  It’s more a matter of understanding the tremendous value that play offers and then giving ourselves permission to play.  It’s equally important to notice when we are drifting into the non-play circle so we can re-adjust!  

So the next time you are faced with a business challenge, ask yourself, “How can I play my way into high performance?” 

To learn more about some very powerful play principles, join us at our upcoming Author's night in August at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia.

Here's the LINK.  

© 2012 DillonMarcus, Executive Retreats