Dwayne Johnson

Actor, Former Professional Wrestler

Look

• PLAY = Community

  The opening paragraph of The Red Rubber Ball at Work’s Teamwork section is an excerpt from the wonderful play research of the National Institute for PLAY/NIFP headed up by Dr. Stuart Brown. I’m honored to call Stuart a friend and kindred-spirit in PLAY. Be sure to give a look at the NIFP’s wealth of insights regarding play’s importance in our lives.

• Humor Works

  Dr. John Morreall, an internationally recognized humor expert, is the author of Humor Works, and a board member of the International Society for Humor Studies. Dr. Morreall shares, “how does [humor] encourage creativity?...To put it really simply, humor loosens up your brain to think of more possibilities and be more open to the wild and wacky ones.”

• Streetplay

  A delightful site that shares a variety of ways that communities are engaged in playful pursuits.

• Sports Museum of America (SmA)

  Located in New York City, this locale celebrates sports teams, heroes, fans, and triumphs of sport by being the U.S.’s first and only museum to celebrate all the sports we love under one roof.

• Jazzing Up Your Biz

  Leading a company is often compared to conducting an orchestra. But a jazz band may be a more appropriate analogy to set free the creative juices of individuality while maintaining the discipline to make “music of profitability” and not the “noise of lost revenue or market share.” The leadership wisdom of Wynton Marsalis is shared in this post about how to allow the individual and team to shine collectively.

Read

• The Ten Faces of Innovation

  by Tom Kelley

  A look at how each of us brings our particular personality to the workplace and how our attitude toward problem solving, creativity, and innovation can affect the success of the organization. Kelley shares a fascinating look at how identifying our personality, aka the “10 faces” (i.e., storyteller, caregiver, hurdler, experimenter, and so on) provides greater understanding of how our “role” affects the workplace to either optimize opportunities or hinder the collective effort to overcome challenges to present-day business situations.

• It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be

  by Paul Arden

  “Creativity and imagination for everyone,” says Arden, a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi for 15 years. He endeavors to inspire the reader to excellence via ambition and a drive to be as good as you want to be.

• Improv Wisdom

  by Patricia Madson

  As the founder of the Creativity Institute (CI), a program for Stanford faculty, Madson believes that creativity can be taught. CI teaches some of the powerful techniques of improv in developing greater collaboration and cooperation among team members.

Do

• Urban Challenge Competition

  Kevin McCarthy’s Urban Challenge isn’t a typical team-building outing with a rope climb and an obstacle course. Take on its physical, strategic, and problem-solving challenges that can create valuable esprit de corps.

• Synchronized Lightning Bugs

  Fireflies that demonstrate synchrony, concurrent repetitive group flashing, are rare. There are only two known synchronized firefly species in the United States and one of them, Phoruis frontalis, is found in Elkmont, Tennessee, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Visit this display of nature’s teamwork peaks in the month of June each year. (Note: I can remember marveling at lightning bugs on the East Coast and how I would always rush outside in the summer evening to see the light show!)