book

Playfulness in Coaching

Name: Playfulness in Coaching
ISBN: 9781000886825

by Stephanie Wheeler, Teresa Leyman

July 2023

Beginner

361 pages

11h 25m

English

Routledge

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Cover
Endorsement
Half-Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Part I What Is Playfulness in Coaching?
Welcome to the Sweet Shop
1 Welcome
1.1 Introduction 1.2 Once Upon a Me-search (Stephanie) 1.3 My Playfulness Story So Far… (Teresa) 1.4 Our Coaching Approaches 1.5 Our Storytellers 1.5.1 Kirsten Barske 1.5.2 Steve Chapman 1.5.3 David Clutterbuck 1.5.4 Julie Flower 1.5.5 Nankhonde Kasonde-van den Broek 1.5.6 Graham Lee 1.5.7 Auriel Majumdar 1.5.8 Nobantu Mpotulo 1.5.9 Neil Mullarkey 1.5.10 Jonathan Passmore 15.11 Matthew Pugh 1.5.12 Heather Simpkin 1.5.13 Emma Skitt 1.5.14 Robert Stephenson 1.5.15 Christian van Nieuwerburgh 1.6 How We Wrote this Book Playfully: From Intent to Reality 1.7 Getting Started with Your Playfulness Notes
2 Why Playfulness?
2.1 Why Playfulness? 2.2 Why Focus on Playfulness in Coaching? 2.3 What Can Go Wrong? 2.4 Approach of This Book 2.5 Our Hope Notes

3 What Do We Mean by Playfulness in Coaching?
3.1 First, a Little Note 3.2 Why Do Humans Play? 3.3 Play and Playfulness in Coaching 3.3.1 Fireside Chat with Prof David Clutterbuck 3.4 What Do Coaches Mean by Playfulness? 3.4.1 How Playfulness Manifests in the Coaching Session 3.4.2 The Qualities Which Underpin Playfulness in Coaching 3.5 Final Thoughts Notes
4 The Benefits of Playfulness in Coaching
4.1 Through Accessing Different Perspectives, Opening Up Different Possibilities 4.2 Creating Space for Exploration 4.3 Accessing the State in Which We Can Learn, Connect, Co-create and Expand 4.4 Flow 4.5 Creativity 4.6 Imagination 4.7 Capacity to Deal with Change 4.8 Finding Balance 4.9 Capacity to Deal with the ‘Hard’ Stuff 4.10 Beyond the Mind: Deepening Connection to Heart and Body 4.11 Deepening Relationships and Positive Emotions 4.12 Well-being 4.13 Conclusion Notes
5 The Be Playful Onion Model
5.1 The Onion 5.2 The Outer Layer – ‘Doing’ Play 5.3 The Middle Layer – Expressions of Playfulness 5.3.1 Fireside Chat with Professor René Proyer 5.4 The Heart of the Onion – Playful Way of Being 5.5 Reflections on the Be Playful Onion Model 5.6 What’s Fun Got to Do With It? 5.7 Conclusion Notes
6 Our Neurobiology and Playfulness in Coaching
6.1 Once Upon a Time … 6.2 Honouring Complexity 6.3 Our Neurobiology and Playfulness 6.3.1 Understanding the Impact of the State We’re in 6.3.2 Meanwhile, in the Brain…6 6.3.3 Relevance to Coaching 6.3.4 Implications for Playfulness 6.3.5 Bringing it Together: Implications for Playfulness in Coaching? 6.4 Both Client and Coach 6.5 The Coach 6.5.1 Activating Our PNS 6.5.2 Accessing Playfulness in Coaching 6.5.3 Different Perceptions of Safety 6.6 The Client 6.6.1 Creating Safety through Play 6.6.2 Safety as a Base for Play 6.7 Conclusion Notes
7 Adding Emotions into the Mix
7.1 Before We Begin 7.2 Adding Emotions into the Mix 7.3 Thoughts on Emotions in Coaching More Generally 7.4 Playfulness and Positive Emotions 7.5 Ode to Joy 7.6 What’s Love Got to Do with It? 7.7 The Kaleidoscope of Positive Emotions 7.8 Why Does it Matter if Playfulness Generates Positive Emotions? 7.8.1 Emotions and How We Think, Feel and Behave 7.8.2 Fireside Chat with Prof Richard Boyatzis 7.8.3 Broaden-and-build Theory 7.9 Playfulness, Positive Emotions and Behavioural Change 7.10 Negative Emotions and Playfulness in Coaching 7.11 Conclusion Notes
8 What’s so Funny?: A Closer Look at Humour
8.1 Playfulness and Humour 8.1.1 What is Humour? 8.2 Functions of Humour, Laughter and Play 8.2.1 Tension Relief and Coping 8.2.2 Emotional and Interpersonal Benefits 8.2.3 Social Functions 8.3 The Shadow Side of Humour 8.3.1 Humour (Closely Interlinked with Playfulness) in Coaching 8.3.2 What Can Humour Add to Coaching? 8.4 Let’s Get Personal 8.4.1 Humour Styles 8.5 As We Alight From Our Whistle-stop Tour… 8.6 Conclusion Notes
9 Risks: Part and Parcel of Exploring
9.1 A Note on Our Approach in This Chapter 9.2 The Shadow Side of Playfulness 9.3 Your Attitude to Risk 9.4 On the Individual Level 9.4.1 General Things to Look Out For 9.4.2 Damaging Rapport 9.4.3 Misfiring 9.4.4 Misreading 9.4.5 Hard to Read 9.4.6 Hitting Barriers Too Hard 9.4.7 For the Coach, Not the Client(s) 9.5 Playfulness Can Lead to Deep Work – What if I Cause Harm? 9.6 Additional Considerations at Group Level 9.6.1 Meeting the Group/team Where They’re At 9.6.2 The Shadow Side of Humour: Things to Have on Your Radar 9.6.3 Damage to Psychological Safety or Group Cohesion 9.6.4 Group Dynamics 9.7 Ideas for Addressing Risk Notes
Part II Stepping into Playfulness: From Theory to Practice
10 Tending the Seedlings of Playfulness
10.1 Stepping into Playfulness: From Theory to Practice 10.2 Barometer of Playfulness 10.3 Can Anyone Be Playful? 10.4 What Play Habits Did You Take with You into Adulthood? 10.5 More Stories We Tell Ourselves 10.6 Attachment Theory 10.7 Beliefs about Playfulness 10.8 Connecting with Play 10.9 Working with the Whole Body 10.10 How Do You Know When You Are Being Playful? 10.10.1 Fireside Chat with Graham Lee 10.11 What You Focus on Grows 10.12 Conclusion Notes
11 Practical Ways to Dial Up (More) Playfulness
11.1 Tapping into Your Environment for Play 11.2 Have You Tried Something New Lately? 11.2.1 Embracing Sweet Discomfort 11.3 Building on Trying Something New 11.4 Having a Word with The Inner Critic and Perfectionism 11.5 Addressing Fear of Embarrassment or Shame 11.6 Working with Your States to Support Playfulness 11.7 No One is an Island 11.8 Making Space for Your Imagination and Daydreaming 11.9 Strengthen Your Humour Muscles and Laugh More 11.10 Presence, Mindfulness and Playfulness 11.11 Conclusion Notes
12 Things to Consider in Practice
12.1 Things That Might Get in Your Way 12.1.1 Capacity 12.1.2 Confidence 12.1.3 Complacency 12.1.4 Competence and Capability 12.1.5 Credibility 12.2 Things Affecting Your Client Which Might Get in the Way 12.2.1 Don’t Want to Be There or Don’t Want to Change 12.2.2 Individual Considerations 12.2.3 Psychological Safety and Group Dynamics 12.2.4 Gender 12.2.5 Culture: Organisational and More Generally 12.3 Reflection Notes
13 The Playfulness Scrapbook: A Collection of Stories, Ideas, and Tools
13.1 Getting Started: Contracting and The First Invitation to Play 13.2 Being Playful with What a Coaching Session ‘Should’ Look Like 13.3 Being Playful: Tone and Climate 13.4 The Invitation 13.5 Word Play 13.6 Playful Anchors and Playing with Identities 13.7 Metaphors 13.8 Game of Thrones 13.9 Storytelling 13.9.1 Thoughts for Practice 13.10 Writing 13.10.1 Ideas for Practice 13.11 Music 13.11.1 Ideas for practice 13.12 Movement 13.12.1 Beyond Conversations Towards Bigger Experiments 13.13 Playing with imagery, visual mapping and modelling 13.13.1 Ideas for Practice 13.14 Stepping into Playfulness 13.14.1 Ideas for Practice 13.14.2 Ambassador and Gremlins 13.15 Improv and Other, Bigger Experiments 13.15.1 Improv 13.15.2 The Character Compass with Playfulness Experiment 13.15.3 Bigger Experiments 13.15.4 Bob and the Daffodils 13.15.5 Groups/teams 13.16 Working Remotely 13.16.1 Further Ideas for Practice 13.17 Bringing It All Together Barometer of Playfulness 13.18 When It Comes to Playing or Being Playful, What Level Are You for Each of the Below? Playfulness Mixing Deck Take a Playful Moment 13.19 A Moment for Play 13.20 Playlist of Playful Moments to Randomly Select 13.20.1 Meeting Your Playful Self Through Art, Modelling or Imagination 13.20.2 Let’s Get Jiggly 13.20.3 Playful Extra Challenge 13.20.4 Explore The Treasure Map of Playfulness 13.20.5 Be the Playful Human and Build Fun into Your Day 13.20.6 Create Your Playful Hat 13.20.7 Create Your Playful Vision Board Playful Experiments for Life and Work 13.21 Envisioning Your Playful Self 13.22 Stepping into Your Playful Self 13.23 Draw or Model Your Playful Self 13.24 Playful Extra Challenge 13.25 Connecting with Your Playful Side Using Chairwork 13.26 Playful Relationships 13.27 Playful Extra Challenge Notes
14 The Next Chapter
About the Authors
Index

Content preview from Playfulness in Coaching

3What Do We Mean by Playfulness in Coaching?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003090847-4

In this chapter, we take:

A quick canter through why humans play
A trot through what we mean by play
A brisk walk-through as to what play, and playfulness might look like in coaching

We also:

Share a fireside chat with Prof David Clutterbuck
Consider how playfulness might manifest in a coaching session
Acknowledge the serious work you can do with playfulness
Look at the qualities which underpin playfulness in coaching

If you’ve read Chapter 1, you will have an idea of what drew us to explore playfulness in coaching. There, we referred to the nebulousness of adult playfulness. When rolling up your sleeves and taking a deep dive into the research and theory, it can at ...

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Playfulness in Coaching

by Stephanie Wheeler, Teresa Leyman

3What Do We Mean by Playfulness in Coaching?

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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