Are You Playing With Me?: Fun and Games to Help You Get Your Message Across to Any Audience

by Leigh Anne Jasheway

Are You Playing With Me? contains over 30 fun and creative activities to use with groups. Trainers using this book will learn how to choose the right games for the right time, break down barriers to help people learn, and push people past their comfort zones without pushing their buttons.

Games are a great way to energize your group as well as:

• Enhance creativity
• Improve morale
• Clearly communicate your message
• Build healthy teams
• Resolve conflict
• And just plain have fun!

In chapter one, Leigh Anne gives a list of some major reasons play is important as a communication technique:

• Fun sells. Advertisers know this. That’s why you don’t see hundreds of ads for beer presented with pie charts and a guy in a suit standing behind a podium.
• Audiences listen better when the message is presented with a unique and fun style.
• Games and play encourage the audience to be participants in the learning process.
• When a presentation is fun, your audience may choose to learn more on their own afterward.
• Laughter helps circulate blood more effectively to all the organs, including the brain.
• Just as when we were children, playing together helps us bond and feel we belong to a group.
• Playing improves the heath of everyone involved.
• Games help grown-ups express certain emotions that they usually keep bottled up and hidden away from others.
• Research has shown that a playful spirit and a sense of humor are two of the most important characteristics of highly effective teachers.

If you are a trainer who likes a lively, interested and energetic audience, this book is for you.