Embracing Playfulness Part 1: The Vulnerable Leader

Ever wondered how a hospital could be a hotbed of hilarity? Join me, Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis, and my esteemed colleagues Tom Carr and Joe Fangman from Craig Hospital, as we take you behind the scenes of a place where joy is just as important as the therapies. 

Leadership can be a high-wire act, but what if the secret to balance was a willingness to clown around? We dig into how embracing vulnerability and endorsing fun can shield against burnout and create a workplace where employees are eager to clock in. From trike races to laughter-filled meetings, discover how our leadership's commitment to mirth cultivates a work environment where innovation thrives and staff feel empowered to bring their whole, whimsical selves to the job.

For more information, transcriptions and behind-the-scene photos, visit https://craighospital.org/unstoppable

Craig Hospital is a nationally recognized neurorehabilitation hospital and research center specialized in the care of individuals who have sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) and/or a brain injury (BI). Located in Denver, Colorado, Craig Hospital is an independent, not-for-profit, 93-bed national center of excellence that has treated thousands of people with SCI and BI since 1956. Learn more: https://craighospital.org

Transcript

Jandel Allen-Davis 0:03

Welcome to Unstoppable at Craig, where we pull back the curtain on what makes healthy workplace cultures click and what happens when people are empowered to expand the boundaries of what is possible. We'll explore the perspectives of employees and leaders who have carte blanche to speak their truths, tell their stories and unlock uncommon ways of approaching challenges. I'm Dr Jandell Allen Davis, ceo and president of Craig Hospital, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital that exclusively specializes in the neurorehabilitation and research of patients with spinal cord and brain injury. Join me as we learn from people who love what they do and what happens when fear doesn't stifle innovation.

Jandel Allen-Davis 0:45

I have so been looking forward to the opportunity to do this particular segment of Unstoppable at Craig, and really the theme is about the importance of play at work. You know just that whole idea of what does mirth and fun do in the workplace, and in fact, research has shown that play boosts productivity, it brings higher creativity and it creates a stronger sense of hope and humor and, heaven knows, we have a lot of both of those here at Craig. When my son was a tiny guy he's now 33, but he went to Montessori and they called play work there. So I love that. I always remember this whole notion of play as work or play is work. Jolene Godfrey said all work and no play doesn't just make Jack and Jill dull, it kills the potential of discovery, mastery and openness to change and flexibility, and it hinders innovation and invention.

Jandel Allen-Davis 1:41

Can't think of more true words that have been spoken in a long, long time, and so we're going to spend some time talking to a couple of my colleagues at work Tom Carr, who is the director of our recreational or therapeutic recreation department, and Joe Fangman, who's a supervisor in physical therapy, and these are also not just two great colleagues, but even as we were trying to get geared up to do this, we've been laughing since we started, and that's not unusual here at Craig. It's sort of how we rock and roll here. Let's, though, start with this whole idea of we work hard and play hard. What does work hard and play hard mean for you when you come into work for the day?

Joe Fangman 2:17

Yeah, I think work hard, play hard for me means they should be indistinguishable you know if you come to work and you work hard and you have fun.

Joe Fangman 2:23

They should be indistinguishable. You know, if you come to work, you work hard and you have fun. The thing we do for eight and a half hours plus a day isn't a job. It becomes just a living, it becomes what you love to do, and so I think that's for me what work hard, play hard means Blend them together. You know, have fun with your staff, have fun with everybody, have fun with a lot. We're helping our patients deal with a lot, but how do we have fun doing that? And that's what Craig does.

Tom Carr 2:51

Thanks, joe, I love that and I would add the same thing and we talk a lot everywhere in society today about balance between work and life and I really do think here at Craig it is much more integration. I just came from lunch with my staff in the therapeutic recreation department I had to excuse myself a little early. It was just, I mean, hilarity, just fun laughing, sharing, you know, just pieces of our lives and then sharing those with patients and in that way it's just a very unique and fun environment.

Jandel Allen-Davis 3:20

Yeah, I just love that we and I love what you said back to the Montessori thing that work is. Just love that. We and I love what you said back to the Montessori thing that work is play, that we don't really distinguish them, that it is most beautifully represented at work through the integration of the two and not viewing them as separate. And also, it's interesting you use the phrase work and life balance. I think work is life, right, that's right, it's all part of it.

Jandel Allen-Davis 3:39

And I think that idea of not using or viewing how we show up at work somehow they're different than we show up at home or anywhere else Absolutely it's the beauty of this place and it's what folks notice when they come in is your staff, the teams are always so happy, it's like because work and play go together and we do work and play hard. Well, with that, by way of just some sort of introductory sorts of ways of how we think about it, how about some examples of some of the things that we do here? And one that comes to mind right away is we are some competitive folk, so what does that look like in the? Into the spirit of fun?

Joe Fangman 4:13

I think it comes, you know, to friendly competition.

Joe Fangman 4:15

We're competitive folks, but it's friendly you know, never trying to put anybody down, but friendly competitions. I think that helps helps. I think that helps with our patients, it helps with our staff. You know, in PT we do Minute to Win it games. If you've ever watched Guy Fereno does Minute to Win it, you know I'll come up with Minute to Win it games. And we have an interdepartmental competition and it's funny to watch staff laugh for leaders to make fools of themselves a little bit when we're having these competitions and just to let loose and have fun. We do it usually twice a year. We'll do it around the holidays and then we'll do it a little OT month and PT month. The fourth floor PTs take on the fourth floor OTs.

Jandel Allen-Davis 4:48

There we go For a little bragging rights, there we go, but it is.

Joe Fangman 4:50

It's friendly competition, but everyone loves it.

Jandel Allen-Davis 4:53

How about you, Tom? Well, first.

Tom Carr 4:59

I'll have to share, and you guys can't see, it's important both in the therapeutic recreation field and in all aspects of what we do here at Craig, as Joe was just talking about, both with staff to staff, staff to with patients, staff with families. It's, it really is in everything we do. So I was getting prepared to come up here and getting my water ready and all the rest of it, and I was like, well, I have to be able to bring a game. There's gotta be a game. So if you could see, in front of us there's a tiny little thumb basketball game that we have here, and before I started we gave it a, we gave it a shot and right now, just so everyone knows, Joe and I are tied at one and Jandell is currently at zero but there's plenty of time here.

Jandel Allen-Davis 5:34

We will come back to this. I think it'll still be zero by the end of this Second Cause. I you know it's like getting that right English on it and I kind of really don't have the right English. For sure, that's for sure. What about, like wheelchair races? Tell me about those.

Joe Fangman 5:47

I think this is where it comes with patience, so patience like to have fun too in friendly competitions.

Joe Fangman 5:51

In Wheeler's class that happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You know the patients compete against themselves. All of our patients have different abilities. So when we do some competitions it's about are you getting better? Each week and they love to say hey, what did I get on the 23 meter push last week? And then at the end of the hour they race me A little line drill where you push forward and then you push back. Push forward, push back. I do in a wheelie. If they beat me I buy them something in the gift shop for 250 or less.

Jandel Allen-Davis 6:16

First time I did it no-transcript.

Joe Fangman 6:27

Anybody that's ever beat me since 2016 signs a t-shirt that hangs by my desk when they come back for their re-eval. They ask is that t-shirt still here? And they want to see it and it's just cool, and it's cool for me to look at and pull it. Oh my gosh, this person beat you back in 2016. I'm here at 2023, you know last year.

Jandel Allen-Davis 6:45

That's so cool, so that's exciting. You know where my office is, as you both know. I sit on the first floor and get this opportunity to look out the window, not often because it's crazy around here, but when I can look out and be distracted just a bit by what's going on outside of that therapeutic recreation area and you guys are trying new equipment. Talk about that because that looks fun. There are days I want to sneak out and I have on occasion.

Tom Carr 7:08

Anytime you know and that's absolutely true, both from the experiential aspect of it of having therapists and people who work here Craig able to speak what it is like to try one of these activities or pieces of equipment.

Tom Carr 7:21

But we as a staff, like Joe was saying, a couple of times a year try to get off site, spend some time together, both doing some work and planning, as well as then doing those things that are either patients ask or experience or what is just popular. I made a list of, just over the last couple of years, some of the things we've done as a staff because, like take me, for example, I'm not a fly fisher. I had never done it. Our patients are very interested in that, so going out one day, learning from experts on how to do that, allows you to then think about adapting that in a much different way. At that, golf hiking, biking we went up and did hand controlled cart racing up in Denver and things and just really a chance Again, learning for us. Yes, super fun just to be a group together, goofy, and things that we're not I mean, at least speaking for myself, that I am not good at, but really just getting a greater appreciation for and just having some fun. It was a great shared experience, all of them.

Jandel Allen-Davis 8:14

And not only. It seems like saying that that not only are you having fun, but it gives you a different and deeper sense of empathy, right?

Tom Carr 8:21

Sure.

Jandel Allen-Davis 8:22

You know. Another way, though, that we work hard and play hard is I've never seen a place have more fun with some of the big events, whether it's around the holidays or others, and talk a little bit about Halloween, which is like everybody. You say to them Halloween at Craig, and just these smiles and head nods. You've never seen anything like it.

Tom Carr 8:43

You can say this holiday is a big deal at X place, but Halloween at Craig is a whole thing.

Jandel Allen-Davis 8:48

Like nothing.

Tom Carr 8:48

you've ever seen folks you start planning for it pretty much the day after the year before by taking a little idea from somebody else or talking with a patient about an idea they had, and it takes 11 months to get ready for that again. And I also love, I mean, on top of that, that is fun. But then working and watching our patients come up with ideas and costumes of their own and their families, it's just impossible. It's such a visual all aspects of it, from a haunted house downstairs to a themed lunch that we have to you know the winners at the end of the day. It's fabulous.

Jandel Allen-Davis 9:21

A lot of fun. A lot of fun, and I never have seen it. I remember my first year here and on my schedule it said Halloween and it started at one o'clock and it ended at three, and I walked around with my jaw dropped but smiling at the same time. When I got back to my office I went what was that? Was that crazy?

Tom Carr 9:40

I always think I'm like I wonder what happens to the patient and family that admits that day.

Joe Fangman 9:44

I've had one. I had one where I had to do a mean greet first day, all dressed up and hey, welcome to Craig. Sorry, you need to be here, we're going to take really good care of you and you're going to be here on the best day.

Tom Carr 9:52

That's right. What were you dressed as?

Joe Fangman 9:53

that day. That day, I think we were Toy Story, so I was Buzz Lightyear that day. You know, welcome to Craig, that's where you're here. You know we're a family, we have fun, so yeah.

Tom Carr 10:07

In a couple of days. This is going to make a lot of sense.

Joe Fangman 10:08

It'll make a lot of sense once you get down to the gym and get to meet us. You'll know what we're doing.

Jandel Allen-Davis 10:17

Well, more importantly interestingly, we're going to come back to that in terms of what that sets as the tone for our do. You know, we get into the whole physical part of competition too the trike races, so I don't know how to describe it. Other than what it is.

Tom Carr 10:30

It evolved very organically of one day having these giant big wheels for people of a certain age who know what a big wheel is and we had a you know, relatively new entrance to our hospital with a circle drive and just as play organically happens, it was like I don't know who looked at who first and it was like well, I bet you I can go around that faster than you can, and so just kind of played around the first day and somebody wasn't me was like you know this would be this has got staff races written all over it. Got staff races written all over it. And next thing you know it was trike races with. I think maybe we had four groups who got together over lunch one year probably.

The Role of Play in Therapy

Tom Carr 11:13

Oh, gosh, we're probably getting close to 10 years ago, wow Raced around and had a little fun and laughed and I think last year we had 26 teams sign up for trike races from again all around the hospital. It is one of my joys of the absolute year. It is pure laughter and fun and a golden trike, of course. Currently living downstairs in the basement of the East Building here with our DME clinic.

Jandel Allen-Davis 11:35

DME, that's right.

Tom Carr 11:37

And their excitement of winning and dethroning a certain PT department.

Jandel Allen-Davis 11:41

Yes, a certain PT department.

Joe Fangman 11:42

It's not all about the trike. It's also about the bragging rights amongst each other.

Jandel Allen-Davis 11:45

Hey where's the trike?

Joe Fangman 11:46

Yeah, yeah yeah, you know Buffy in the peak, she would leave it up there and hung it up where everybody could see it as you walked in.

Jandel Allen-Davis 11:51

It was just that's the beauty of it. And then there was the year.

Tom Carr 11:58

So we got together and we had the great trike caper and you helped us, tom Poorly yes, I've learned that, showing up to work in the morning being like I didn't steal it last night, I'll just go take it now. This also speaks to our staff, because they were there early. They actually watched him take it. Yeah, I was like guys, I'm going to have to borrow this.

Jandel Allen-Davis 12:20

And then we had a scavenger hunt to get it back, and when they figured out the PT4 team, that always seems to win.

Jandel Allen-Davis 12:27

Always were up there, came down and when they got to the final place, there we were and served them lunch. So we did do a nice thing but we totally stole the trike and it's fun. I got to tell you as a CEO who I just think that fun and joy and just create such a relaxing environment the fact that I said I want to steal the trike and I was brand new. I said I think you can do that here and we can it just speaks volumes about what a wonderful culture that's been created over many years.

Jandel Allen-Davis 12:57

Well, I think an important part of that culture is this second session, and actually I toured somebody just today and there were a couple of times I used one of my other favorite phrases about how we best integrate lots of things, but in this case we're talking about this notion of creativity and fun and play. This notion of creativity and fun and play, and that is, we slip the spinach into the lasagna, whether it's how we use our adaptive kitchens upstairs from you're going to go to the store and we're going to, you are going to make your way through the store and buy the ingredients to prepare a meal and then come back and do it. That's literally and figuratively slipping therapy or spinach into lasagna, or our peak, or even these trike races, and so this is really about how and what is the importance of fun and play in terms of the therapeutic process. So would just love to have you guys talk a little bit about the role of play in terms of therapy.

Joe Fangman 13:54

I think for me. You know it says PT on my badge. But at heart, at my heart, I've always told Tom and his staff this I'm a rec therapist, cause that's where the real things happen. The magic happens outside these walls of.

Joe Fangman 14:03

Craig. So how do we get that spinach mixed in the lasagna? So for me to work on transfers on the mat, it's great. I love to see progress there, that over with a patient to getting onto a hand cycle, it becomes real. And that's rehabilitation has to be real for them, for them to be vested, and so when I can do that with the rec therapist and do a co-treat and then to see a smile on that patient's face that I just got on a bike and four weeks ago I didn't think I'd be able to do anything.

Tom Carr 14:28

So I think that's how you slip it in and you have fun doing it and I talk about this a lot with when patients come to Craig for the first time is oftentimes come from another facility and this is all new and really what they've heard before they arrive here at Craig are all the things that they cannot do or that are going to be difficult or different, and when they arrive at Craig we do. We flip that on its head and whether that's to start asking the question, like Joe was saying, is you know we're doing therapy, for what reason? You know you're a parent. What are you doing with your children? What is that thing? What do you guys want to do together? Exploring that and finding out play, activity, whatever it might be, and then making sure that we're doing it.

Jandel Allen-Davis 15:09

How does play here differ from what you've seen other places and what do you think its impact on clinical outcomes and clinical places and what do you think its impact on clinical outcomes and and clinical meaning both mind, body and spirit.

Joe Fangman 15:23

I think for me. I've been blessed two jobs and I've been able to play both of them, and when I was looking for a new job in 2011,. That's why I came to Craig. You know, when I talked to colleagues around the country and different organizations I'm part of, it's sometimes plays missing. You know, rec therapy is one of those ventures that does not get funded by insurance. So a lot of facilities that's one of the first things that's cut and as a PT, like I just said, outside these walls is where therapy happens. So how do we do that if we don't have rec therapy? That would take a lot more on me to get out of these walls and I don't have that expertise. So sometimes that's where, again, having that rec therapy staff and be able to collaborate with them, that's another part that I think makes Craig great.

Tom Carr 16:00

I've been very fortunate as well to work in a very few places. The place I came to before Craig was also a wonderful community organization. Working with Kind of would be the next step for our patients when they left here Craig. So play was integral there. But have also worked places more on the commercial side of things, even commercial recreation side of things, where that was our product and we quite honestly least participated in it. It was a thing, not a part of what we did, if that makes sense. And that's the difference in Craig. The fun is it's not what we do alone but it is so built into every aspect of what we do that it's kind of inseparable that way.

Jandel Allen-Davis 16:40

Well, the last thing I really wanted to talk about, as we think about this and it really is at the heart of it why this podcast started around Unstoppable at Craig was really about great cultures do have, and are reliant on, strong leadership at all the levels. That leadership happens in a place and it certainly is no different here and it does start at the top. I mean just we as leaders have to have the willingness to be vulnerable but also not feel as if, oh well, that's for somebody else, that's for them to do. We've provided this opportunity for our staff have fun with it, but that we get into it as well. I just love for you to talk about the connection between play and vulnerability and how it shows up in your leadership.

Tom Carr 17:25

Yeah, play in my leadership. Let me clarify something I said earlier. When I said that we, in terms of therapeutic recreation, have won the Halloween the last couple of years, I did not say I won the Halloween the last couple of years. I did not say I there is, I'm happy to be a part of this activity and by no means came up with the idea or, honestly, the part that makes it work, cause that's that's the staff there. They're not only fun, creative, innovative, all of those things. I don't have to, I don't have to be the one who comes up with the good ideas. I would have never come up with that idea. If you can't laugh at yourself, you just can't take yourself too seriously. And that allows, I think, other staff to take the lead and be creative and get it right and teach me something too, and I'm totally fine with that, even if it means I'm a giraffe in a video game on Halloween. That was really cute.

Jandel Allen-Davis 18:14

It was fun to shoot at you.

Tom Carr 18:15

I totally missed.

Importance of Play in Leadership

Jandel Allen-Davis 18:17

I game at Halloween. It was really cute. It was fun to shoot at you. I totally missed. Can you talk about a time where you felt challenged in play, something that was set up for work that you know really did force you to be vulnerable and have to, and what was what happened and what was the outcome?

Joe Fangman 18:30

I think vulnerable and challenges even the men at winning games. You know, are they going to enjoy this.

Jandel Allen-Davis 18:35

I'm the one that says are the staff going to?

Joe Fangman 18:37

have fun at this and then, when you put all the work into it, spend Saturdays watching YouTube and trying to figure out what these little competitions are you're going to do, and then you bring it in and people come to you afterwards and say that was so much fun. I think that's vulnerability.

Joe Fangman 18:51

I think the beauty too, of Craig is we're given the space to have fun. You know from you, Jandel, knowing that you'll be involved in the trike races to my director, the permission's there to have fun, and I think that's another difference that makes Craig great. I've been blessed as a PT to have two great jobs where I have fun, but I've had other jobs where fun was not encouraged, it was get the job done, work while you're there, then go play hard later. Here we blend the two together we work hard and we play hard, and you can blend them together and get things done and have fun.

Jandel Allen-Davis 19:21

I love that. You the way you answer the question about the vulnerability there's, the, you know, making a fool of myself, although seriously, I just want you guys to know I do hold back in the trike races because it would really look bad for the CEO to win it's only fair you know it's only fair to let you all win.

Jandel Allen-Davis 19:37

I could smoke them all. You got to just sort of hold back. But I love the way you answered the question, because what you said was and I feel that same way when I'm doing we've got a big thing coming up this week that my fingerprints are all over and I go, oh, they're going to hate it, Are they going to like it? But we have to risk even bringing that in and nothing feels better than watching us do it and watch people engage in it and going, oh, they really liked it. It wasn't a dumb idea, Cause I think I have about 99 dumb ones that is ideas a day. So I love the way you answered it in terms of vulnerability. It's not just about me being on a trike and spinning out around that circle, which is totally fun, by the way.

Tom Carr 20:18

Tricky turn three. Everybody Watch out.

Jandel Allen-Davis 20:20

Gosh, that's a killer turn. So what about you?

Tom Carr 20:22

Yeah, for sure. And again. And not to think that every day is trike races at Craig.

Jandel Allen-Davis 20:26

It isn't.

Tom Carr 20:27

But, with that said, that to me is also, that was a staff driven. That was not me. I didn't know that the trikes were coming. I didn't. I'll absolutely jump in and race. That sounds great to me, but it was not my idea. It was hey, I got this friend who wants to show us these things. The next thing I know we're riding around in the parking lot. That's. That's just taking a chance of being like I don't know, let's try it, I don't know.

Jandel Allen-Davis 20:48

But it builds. What's it build? This sort of sense of bringing play in this way it builds culture.

Joe Fangman 20:53

To me, that's the number one word is it brings culture to Craig, and that's a culture that we've had for years. You know and you hear about stories from way back when some of the things you can't do anymore because we have to be safe and thank goodness we can't do them sometimes, but it's been a culture that's been here for as long as you know much longer than all of us, much longer than all of us, for sure.

Joe Fangman 21:14

So I think, that's what that brings. That's what play brings is it continues that culture and how do we maintain that culture? And then I think we started this out about burnout. I think this play helps reduce burnout of our staff. We have tough jobs and days sometimes get long, but if we integrate a little bit of play, I think the risk of burnout is diminished some. And so then, just listening to our staff, then to listen to them, like you said, tom, they'll come up and they'll tell you what's fun, and we then, as leaders, encourage them to have some fun to keep that day going.

Tom Carr 21:45

So I think that's the secret. Sometimes I will very actively plan an activity or something for staff or a patient session or an outing very actively, and other times it's just making the space for it to happen organically, maybe having the tools and stuff, bringing a silly game to a podcast, like I did today, or just having those things available. But knowing that we live in a structured world and people who are busy and therapy's busy and things are busy and we have to get certain things done, and that's what life seems like and feels like sometimes. So to build in time, to slow down for a second and just be like okay, you know we're going to be in this moment. What are we going to do?

Tom Carr 22:23

It's that creativity, that's the joy that I see when it's not a laid out activity with laid out rules. That's why I love some of the wheeler classes and things like that, because the games and stuff that are played there are not necessarily wheelchair basketball or a specific. It's just something that's developed and is organic and is creative and we're trying to accomplish some stuff, sure, but at the same time we just have some time together. What are we going to do, and play comes out of that naturally in my experience.

Joe Fangman 22:51

I think leadership at Craig doesn't control.

Tom Carr 22:53

I think that's the difference too.

Joe Fangman 22:55

I mean they allow us some autonomy. I schedule my own patients, I plan my own days for my patients. The same thing comes to play. We give our staff and patients room to play and plan their own play, without someone telling us from top down, and it's all voluntary, you don't have to participate in the trike race, you don't have to participate in Halloween, but because it's so fun, most folks want to participate. So I think that's what we do. We allow some autonomy to kind of grow and let people not be stagnant that you have to get ABC done. You can pause between B and C and say, hey, let's, let's break this up a little bit. It's April fools, let's pull a prank on OT.

Joe Fangman 23:32

You know it's more OT pulling pranks on us, but we retaliate. It's more OT pulling the prints than us, but we retaliate.

Jandel Allen-Davis 23:38

That's what it is. It's given that time.

Joe Fangman 23:40

It's healthy competition. Yeah, not retaliation, it's healthy competition.

Jandel Allen-Davis 23:43

Healthy retaliation. Healthy retaliation.

Joe Fangman 23:45

You set the timers in the office to go off every five minutes all day long.

Jandel Allen-Davis 23:50

And I want you all to know that it gosh. It's almost like do you really want to say this out loud? Yeah, I do. It may be more distractions you understand that, right, jandell? Yes, I do, but I love that you all engage me, and I think that's another thing that I really would you know to whoever takes the time to listen to this as leaders and by great leaders we're not just talking CEOs, we're talking about the two of you, for sure, and the countless other supervisors and managers and directors and VPs that are out there. But that I get to be and that's the way I think about it part of the fun makes work just as great for me.

Jandel Allen-Davis 24:27

And the really cool thing that you said on that point, joe, is this idea that we actually you know you don't have this top-down, hierarchical, buttoned-up sort of leadership style or management style here. And Daniel Pink, who wrote a great book on innovation and creativity called A Whole New Mind, one of my favorite books, said that control leads to compliance and autonomy leads to engagement. You know we've talked about this through the lens of the special work that happens here, but all of what you've talked about can happen in any workplace, every workplace. But what do you think are some of the guidelines or things you'd say to other leaders, whether in healthcare or out of healthcare, that are really universals if you're gonna do this kind of work and I shouldn't say if, I should say when, because I hope more people just let their hair down and just bring that whole person who you are outside of work into work. It's amazing how it transforms cultures, to use the word you use. But what are some of the things you would say to leaders?

Tom Carr 25:33

Well and again, on a very basic level and just speaking for myself, it's is you can't take yourself too seriously, you cannot. If you do, that's what you will get reflected back at you. So you know, if you're have a serious front and this is business and let's get it done that's what you'll see from the people who work with and for you if that's how you lead. So, yeah, I would say, if you don't take yourself too seriously and allow yourself to be, to make a mistake and do something silly, and then folks will know that it's okay and that you can do those things and should do those things as well. That's probably my first one.

Tom Carr 26:08

Someone I worked for prior to coming to Craig used to do was engage all the way as early as the hiring process, and I remember she used to, when we would interview people much like this silly basketball game I have in front of us here would leave on the table during an interview different article cards or things like that, just to see if an applicant would engage with them, would pick them up and put the puzzle together or play with something while they were answering questions never addressed in any way other than just here's things that are out there. That tells you a lot about folks too, of being like I don't have to be so buttoned up that I can't play with this thing. That's right there and honestly, it might be a nice distraction and it might actually relax a little bit. I'm'm more myself and it was. It was very intentional why she did that and really taught. You knew if someone was going to fit right away. You know just by how they played during that very, very early you know meeting.

Joe Fangman 27:07

So yeah, I think you know, lead by example. Like Tom said, don't be afraid to try yourself and have some fun yourself, cause if your staff see you do that, they'll follow you. You know they'll follow that example. You set the hey, we can have some fun at work. So I think, lead by example, come up with ideas and then ask for their ideas. What can we do to have fun at work and just give them permission to give you those ideas? So I think that's important.

Tom Carr 27:31

I love it when staff come in. They're like okay. And I have many who ready.

Jandel Allen-Davis 27:35

It starts with okay, as long as it doesn't start with I'm sorry.

Tom Carr 27:39

No, it's like it usually starts with okay, I have this idea, and usually it's I have this crazy idea. And we've at least grown to the point where we don't say crazy anymore, it's just an idea and I go. It goes back to what we started this thing, this, this discussion with is if the answer is it's safe and it can be successful, chances are we're going to say yes to that crazy may be sounding idea and let's go. Let's go, let's see what happens.

Jandel Allen-Davis 28:05

You know, it's really amazing about what you all said. I was thinking I wonder what people who listen to this will think for those who, for whom work is just suffocating, just know that there are really cool places out there that are, you know that that allow this, and not only allow it, but enable it and expect it. You may think we've laughed a whole lot in this hour that we don't have a serious side, but, as I said, play is work and we've got the outcomes from a patient perspective, from an employee satisfaction perspective, from a quality, a financial you name it a safety perspective, to show that this is an important ingredient. It's not the only ingredient.

Jandel Allen-Davis 28:46

Every day is not a beautiful day for our patients. Every day is not necessarily a beautiful day for us, but for the most part, the right alchemy of a great mission purpose-driven people who are given the autonomy to do what is right within the skill set that they have and bring that to bear, not just in the care of the patients, but for those of us as leaders, in the care of those we serve, our team members. It's unique and it's special and it's not impossible to do Well. Thank you all for the time today. This was just too much fun.

Tom Carr 29:21

Thank you.

Jandel Allen-Davis 29:25

So we just got to spend some time with Tom Carr and Joe Fangman, two leaders at Craig, talking about the importance of play, and it was in listening to them that I realized that these three pillars of working hard and playing hard which is all about integrating and recognizing the value of humor and fun and play as part of great work environments that are transferable, those are all skills that are transferable and applicable to all of our workplaces and can show up more. All of that is wrapped up in this bow called. It starts at the top. You know how we leverage play, both in our personal lives and how we bring it into the workplace, and what we enable, what we unleash from the perspective of creativity and innovation, what showing our own vulnerability by you know.

Jandel Allen-Davis 30:17

In the case of me, I'll do anything around here, us as leaders, showing up and being part of the team that way and being willing to be vulnerable, less buttoned up, have fun enables and allows others to bring their whole selves into work as well, and so I really do encourage those of you who might be listening to consider the importance of workplaces that have a healthy dose of mirth, humor, play and fun as part of the very same coin that does have the sort of serious part of things, and in fact even in those at least the way this leader myself, how I choose to lead, even when we're talking about those topics, trust me, there's plenty of laughter at different points, both used in a disarming way, but typically in a way that just allows everyone to relax and not take either themselves so seriously, the work so seriously. Astonishingly, both then get the serious attention that they need. So thank you for listening.