Page 3 - Play to Learn -- In the New Nursing Home Environment

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ActivitiesandGames
Introduction: Games?
One thing is for sure – changing the culture of nursing homes is hard work. We’ve found the right mindset is key to a successful culture change journey and that games and activities can get people off on the right foot.
Culture change requires high involvement from every- one in the organization. Games and activities get people involved right away in the learning process. They learn not only about the topic at hand, but how to work together – something they will hopefully be doing more of as part of the organization’s transformation. We all know that if we put what we’ve learned to work right away, it sticks better than when we passively listen to or read information.
These games and activities on the topics of change, team, icebreakers/get to know you, self-growth, culture change and meetings and communication, not only give partici- pants information on these topics, but get them actually doing the transformative work these concepts bring to an organization. Plus, they’re fun!
Facilitator Tips
• Most activities require flipchart and markers and/or paper and pens for participants. Other supplies are notated in the activity.
• Many activities require large groups to be broken up
into pairs or smaller groups. Use this as an opportunity for mixing folks from different areas in the organization – both in job responsibilities or departments and level of authority in their traditional roles.
Drawing playing cards is another option for choosing teams or pairs. Use as many cards as there are partici- pants. Choose suits or card value and those who choose the same make up a group.
*Sometimes you will have people who can’t participate in the activity. Perhaps the activity requires movement and/ or agility and he or she has physical limitations. You may have an odd number of people for an activity that requires equal teams or someone is very new to the organization and does not yet know enough about the situation to fully participate. In these cases, you may set this person to the task of observing. The following worksheet will guide them through the process and can be very helpful in debriefing the activity so that participants not only benefit from the topic of the activity, but in growing as a team in general.
INTRODUCTION