There I was, nodding off halfway through the session, although the training topic was interesting, the training itself was not keeping me engaged. Joining the rest of the participants, we sat down around 3 tables and listened to the speaker, and participated whenever necessary. Taking down notes and doing short group activities was interesting at that point in time, but my takeaways have not exactly stuck with me long term.
Coming from a performing arts background, it got me thinking of how great it would be to combine the benefits and fun of performing arts or drama with a corporate training. The training atmosphere would be fun, participants would be engaged and challenged by interesting activities that draw them out of their comfort zone, and mostly their absorption and takeaways would be instant. And then, I began my quest to see if such a training program existed, lo and behold, I stumbled upon PLAY! Corporate Training by Enfiniti Academy.
PLAY! instantly caught my attention for being a drama-based corporate training that focused on building Communication Skills, Leadership and Team Building through the actors toolkit, drama games and their unique copyrighted system created just for the Asian market called the “Elements System”. Upon joining Enfiniti Academy to project manage PLAY!, I was able to join in on the training and watch how the sessions were conducted. Participants were laughing and having fun throughout the day, yet when they gave their feedback during the debrief sessions their answers were so profound, deep and you could tell that they had picked up on something new.
To give you an idea of what the training is like, we start the day with physical and vocal warm ups to get our minds and body alert and ready for everything that’s coming our way. After brief introductions and warm ups, we dive into a series of drama games and activities that focus on enhancing and improving body language, creativity, voice projection for presentation, awareness of others in teamwork, awareness of self strength, weaknesses and areas for improvement, and working under pressure. These activities are non-threatening and trainers don’t tell participants what they are about to learn or what they should be learning, but rather allow them to experience the activities and share their personal feedback on what they got out of each activity.
Participants usually look like they’re energised and can take on the world after going through such a fun-filled two days. The best feeling for me is, knowing that people are benefiting from this drama-based corporate training immediately and are able to take home not only the outcomes their HR managers hope for, but also a sense of accomplishment after doing something so completely out of their comfort zone. The bond created among the participants is something amazing to see, especially since most of them have never even had a conversation with their fellow colleagues although they’ve worked in the same company for years together.
At the end of the day, I’m really happy to be a part of the exciting team at PLAY! Corporate Training knowing that we’re helping to build and shape their lives through something so unique, fun and engaging.
