Can Play Make You More Productive at Work?

[00:00:03] Welcome to The Lighten Up Project, the show that reminds us that healing doesn't have to be heavy. I'm Malcolm Grissom, the stand-up CEO and founder of the World Laughter Organization. Let's explore how humor, heart, and play save the day and create spaces for healing and connection.

[00:00:33] So let's get ready to laugh, learn, and lighten up. Welcome Lighten Up Nation. Hi, my name is Malcolm Grissom. I am the stand-up CEO and welcome to another episode of The Lighten Up Project. Thank you for joining me.

[00:01:03] Today on The Lighten Up Project, I would like to talk about the relationship between productivity and play. Productivity and play. Traditionally, in our culture, there has been a division between work and play. Sort of like between church and state.

[00:01:33] Sometimes they mix, but very often they don't. Well, with work and play, when you're in corporate leadership, especially, there is some crossover. You know, yes, corporate leaders, they'll say, yes, there's, no, we do play a little bit. There is some time in play.

[00:02:00] We, every year, we have one or two corporate retreats where we play a whole bunch of games. And we have funny memes around the office that we post. And, you know, that's our mixture of work and play.

[00:02:24] But when you look at it, there's still a significant separation. Now, when you're an entrepreneur, you're working for yourself, right? So you don't have the boss to say, no, you can't play. There are a lot of entrepreneurs find ways, find more ways to play.

[00:02:53] And especially those entrepreneurs with a background and with a corporate background still have that ingrained in them, that sense of the division between work and play. I personally think that play belongs with productivity.

[00:03:22] Play is a very, very useful tool in productivity. Play belongs with productivity and work all the time. I think they're very close tools. They're intertwined, really. Play and work, they should be intertwined.

[00:03:51] Because when that happens, I think people who play are more productive than those that don't. Let me give you a personal story. Some of you know that when I was nine years old, I had a virus called Reyes Syndrome.

[00:04:19] Well, Reyes Syndrome was responsible for my temporary loss of the ability to walk and talk. It took me about a good six months to a year to be able to function on my own.

[00:04:45] And when I said function, I mean stand, balance on my own. So, still shaky, but at least I could balance on my own. I could shuffle from point A to point B. I can get around, you know. And then I could communicate with grunts and talking slow and slurred speech.

[00:05:15] But that's how I could communicate. And that's what I mean by function. It took me about a year to get to that point. And as soon as I was at that point, my mother had pushed me back into school long before I was ready.

[00:05:37] I was going to school on a small school, small island town school where everybody knew me. But I was very popular before my illness.

[00:06:02] And so, now I came back to school and that was a problem to put it nicely. I was bullied for a couple of years. External bullying. My internal bullying, though, of course, that lasted a lifetime pretty much.

[00:06:31] But I was bullied and I lost a lot of my self-confidence. Other people didn't have confidence in me. I wasn't getting confidence boost from my family. I certainly wasn't getting it at school from anybody. And I wasn't getting it. I wasn't giving it to myself.

[00:06:58] So, I was afraid of a lot of things. I was afraid of making mistakes. That was what's very important. So, when it came to productivity, getting things done, I had to get things done correctly. If not, I could not make mistakes. I was afraid to make a mistake.

[00:07:28] And that harmed me. I'm in school. With my schoolwork, I had to get it perfect. I had to go over it and get it perfect over and over and over again. Even with acting, once I got back into acting, I was still afraid to make a mistake.

[00:07:49] There's the actor's nightmare of the actor who gets on stage and forgets their line and doesn't know what to do. Well, I lived that every time that I got a new acting role, essentially. I was afraid.

[00:08:19] And, well, then, a couple years after that, I began my journey into becoming a stand-up comic. This was right after high school and going into college. And, as a beginning comic, I made a lot of mistakes. As beginning comics will.

[00:08:48] It's part of the craft. Every comic, well, when you're learning anything, you're going to make a mistake. But, especially getting out there and trying to be vulnerable with a whole bunch of strangers and make them laugh. And, every time that I made a mistake, I was harder and harder on myself. Eventually, after about two years of trying this stand-up comedy thing,

[00:09:18] I quit. I quit. I just couldn't do it anymore. I hung up my, you know, I just said, no more for me. And, I stopped doing that. And, I got a job. A couple of jobs. It was during this time that there was this inner creative voice

[00:09:46] that wasn't, it just didn't sit right. It kept telling me, Malcolm, you need to go do something creative. You know, you need to get back into it. Right? And, that's when I learned about improv. And, here's how that happened. A friend of mine told me that I should volunteer at this improv company.

[00:10:16] This local improv company needed a concessions manager during their performances. And, so, I took that role on. I was their volunteer concessions manager. And, that opened me up to be able to take improv classes at this school. It was really a school.

[00:10:46] The Bay Area Theater Sports. The BATs. If you are in the Bay Area, you should check them out. They're in Fort Mason area. And, just, they have classes. And, oh, you owe it to yourself to take a class.

[00:11:11] Even if you never thought of doing improv ever before in your life. Just go and take a class if you're in the Bay Area. So, I took improv at this school. And, one of the first lessons I learned really opened me up. I mean, it just really opened me up.

[00:11:37] And, that was that mistakes are gifts. Mistakes are gifts. Yes, mistakes are something where we can say, Well, I tried. And, that didn't work. I made a mistake. That didn't work. So, now I'm going to try again. And, I'll do it differently. Okay.

[00:12:06] So, that's one way that a mistake is a gift. But, a mistake, I think, is also a gift. Because, it reminds us that we are trying. We are human. And, we are trying. Continually trying. And, taking risks. We're trying to be successful.

[00:12:31] Because, there's no way to be successful without taking risks. There's just not. You have to take a risk in order to be successful. Well, I don't see a lot of you. But, I can imagine a lot of you are nodding your heads right now. You need to take a risk in order to be successful.

[00:12:57] And, in order to take a risk, you have to risk failing. You have to risk failing. And, you have to risk failing big. Go big or go home. You really, you do. And, that, I think, is another way why mistakes are gifts.

[00:13:24] So, I learned that mistakes are gifts. But, not only that. I learned to yes and my mistakes. And, I'm going to talk much more about the concept of yes and in the next episode. But, essentially, yes and is accepting something and adding on to it.

[00:13:51] And, I know some of you are saying, wait, we're talking about mistakes, Malcolm. So, you make a mistake. You yes it. Meaning that you accept it. And, you add on to it. I don't understand that concept. Well, like I said, I will go further into explaining yes and in our next episode.

[00:14:20] But, essentially, yes and does not necessarily mean that you agree wholeheartedly in whatever's being offered. So, in a mistake, it doesn't mean that I'm saying, yes, I made a mistake and I'll make the mistake even bigger. No.

[00:14:48] I learned to celebrate my mistakes. And, again, some of you may be asking, wait, Malcolm, wait, what do you mean by celebrating your mistake? You made a mistake and then you said, yay, I made a mistake, yay, let's throw a party and sweaty everywhere. No, that's not the case at all.

[00:15:19] Celebrating mistake. What I mean by that is that I learned to accept my mistake and to recognize that it's a mistake and to find how I could best use that.

[00:15:46] To find how I could best use that mistake to move forward. To acknowledge the mistake and say, hey, I made a mistake. Yay, okay, I'm human. I won't be doing that again. That, to me, is celebrating a mistake.

[00:16:11] And that's the most important lesson that I learned in improv. That's the first lesson that I learned. And so now my challenge to you is take a week. And I would like you to do this, take this on as an exercise.

[00:16:41] Just take one week and try something new every day. Add play. Add play. Add assist play to something that you normally wouldn't do.

[00:17:01] So if you don't normally play at work, find one day at least that you could be a little playful. Whatever that means. However you play. I'm not going to, I mean, you could play by making jokes. If that's your sense of play.

[00:17:29] You could play by wearing playful outfit. Maybe wearing some weird goggles. You know, the glasses. Wearing a costume piece at work. If that's something that you could do at your workplace. I'm not sure.

[00:17:53] If there is a sense of, if there's a toy that you could bring to work. So for instance, I have this toy. This is, this is a toy that I have to bring to work. And it talks to me. It's my little Einstein doll.

[00:18:17] And I have this button too that I can press and have these different types of laughs. I bring these to work. You know, I put these around me. I work at home right now. So I put these around me. I suggest that you do find some way to add that to your atmosphere.

[00:18:47] Your work atmosphere. On your commute, wear a clown nose all the way home. See how you feel. See how other drivers feel. Hi. Hi. Hi. Yes, I have a clown nose. But do something playful each and every day. And see how you feel at the end of the week.

[00:19:17] And most importantly, see, keep adding that to your work. Keep adding play to your work. And see if it doesn't make you more productive. I have a sneaky suspicion it might. Anyway.

[00:19:47] Thank you for tuning in once again to the Lighten Up Project. If you found anything in this episode to help you. If you could think of one person right now who's carrying life's heaviness around for whatever reason, health, relationships.

[00:20:16] And if this episode and any other episode on this show has helped you to lead or live a little lighter, leave us a quick Apple reveal.

[00:20:41] But until next time, laugh louder. So long. You've been listening to the Lighten Up Project with Malcolm Grissom. Dressed out, stuck, or leaving on autopilot?

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