According to a massive study done by Google, and many other sources, empathy is the secret ingredient that enables teams to thrive. This begs the question, how do you teach empathy? While there is no simple answer to that question, learning through play is a non-threatening (and not boring) approach to increasing empathy across teams, promoting teamwork, and having fun while doing it. 

I presented multiple play based workshops for 65 soldiers from the West Point Band. The workshops used play to break down barriers to open communication and empathy between junior members and senior leaders and also helped "armored" leaders to relax, open up, and lead more effectively. 

While Net Promoter Scores certainly do not tell everything there is to know about an experience, I was thrilled to get such a high score in the follow-up survey to the play workshops.