“Brain research tells us that when the fun stops, learning often stops too.” – Dr. Judy Willis, M.D., M.Ed.
Science tells us that making learning fun improves retention of information, maintains curiosity and engagement, and encourages learners to try out new ideas. As Dr. Judy Willis notes, “when classroom activities are pleasurable, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that stimulates the memory centers and promotes the release of acetylcholinem, which increases focused attention.”
© Can Stock Photo / jacklooser
And yet, how often do we face an uphill struggle to introduce fun learning activities in “serious”, “professional” environments like conferences, professional schools, workplace training, and continuing professional development activities? Somehow there’s a stigma attached to anything that’s fun – after all, why would we have all suffered through endless hours of excruciatingly boring lectures if that wasn’t somehow the best way to take in information?
Happily, more and more fun has been making its way into professional development: Applied Improvisation, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitation, Gamification, and an increasingly varied list of corporate “team building” activities are becoming common in larger workplaces. And yet, there’s considerable scope for continuing development!
Attendees at a CoRe Speaker event spell out “Yes, and”.
The Scavenger Hunt
Most recently, I’ve been especially interested in the possibilities for Scavenger Hunts and the ways in which they promote the skills and attitudes necessary for excellent conflict resolution practice. My interest grew out of a family-driven Scavenger Hunt experience that just happened to include several mediators – GISHWHES 2015 (the “Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen”).
GISHWHES calls for teams of 15, so in pulling together a team to allow my daughters and me to play, I reached out to colleagues and friends and just happened to get “Yes, ands…” from 5 mediators. That first year was a huge learning curve for our team, but what the ConRes folks amongst us quickly recognized was that large-scale, team Scavenger Hunts caused us to practice skills we use all the time in mediations, but in different and challenging ways that stretched us to learn. (And what the competitive Scavenger Hunters amongst us noticed was that we have improved our results every year as we add more conflict resolution professionals to the team. Hmmmm… Probably not the whole reason for improvement…)
Our team forms a “Bridge of Spies”.
LICRSH – Legendary International Conflict Resolution Scavenger Hunt
After three years of GISHWHES training, the conflict resolution folks on our team decided to host a scavenger hunt for conflict resolution professionals as part of Mediate BC’s Conflict Resolution Week 2017. Thus was LICRSH – the Legendary International Conflict Resolution Scavenger Hunt born!
And yes, we learned even more about the potential for Scavenger Hunts in the world of conflict resolution! They are an amazing way to bring together colleagues from across distances to have fun collaborating, problem solving and exploring new ideas together! And so, we are planning a second LICRSH at the Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference in Seattle next week.
Wendy Lakusta of Team Resolutionaries takes her Conflict Resolution Superhero to the Surrey Provincial Courthouse.
What conflict resolution-related skills, knowledge, and attitudes do we develop through Scavenger Hunts?
Here’s 10 linkages between conflict resolution and scavenger hunts that I am planning to explore with the help of my colleagues (Emily Martin, Amanda Semenoff, Darsey Meredith and Rowan Meredith) over the next week as we plan for (and host) LICRSH Seattle!
- Collaboration
- Varieties of the Creative Process
- Problem-solving
- Movement/Physicality
- The Power of Silly
- Sharing the Silly
- Risk-taking
- Making “Asks”
- Tapping into Memories
- Kindness
I’ll be offering short posts on each of these topics between now and the end of the conference on March 24th. Watch for cross-posting here and at PignPotato Games.
CoRe Jolts 
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