Jyoti Patel and Emily Griffin: Let's Play More at Work!

Dec 21, 2021

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When was the last time you felt a sense of play at work? Our current workplace paradigms and power structures no longer serve us, and we’re called to rethink them to have more impact and financial success. My guests today are Jyoti Patel and Emily Griffin. These two powerhouses joined together to create The Empathy Tour, where they spent the fall of 2020 talking to all types of leaders, both traditional ones and those underrepresented in the business world, to talk about how they lead, what challenges they face, and the very real ways they are having impact and success through empathy.

Today, they share what role play has in organizational success and the common misconceptions of what we mean by a playful culture. We examine how you can embody play to foster impact and collaboration. They share best practices about creative facilitation and experience design and how they teach teams to be in creative flow. We also discuss the barriers that exist to creating more inclusive, empathetic cultures, and what they learned from leaders during The Empathy Tour on how to get past them. If you are a leader in any capacity or industry, this episode is not to be missed!

Key Takeaways:

Play opens up creativity and imagination, and it decreases the fear of judgment, as well as the pressure and tension of the day-to-day work dynamics.
Innovation does not come when employees are being constrained. Play creates an opening for everybody to speak up and participate.
Play is an art - do it for its own sake.
The first step is listening and making it safe for employees to share their feedback, whether that's anonymously, or openly in a team setting.

"Play really opens up the team process, it opens up the human element, it makes empathy and creativity center to a team facilitation process rather than on the side. Ultimately, you end up with results that folks can really get on board with." — Jyoti Patel

About Jyoti Patel and Emily Griffin:

Jyoti Patel - Principal and Owner, Spille LLC

I teach leaders and teams to harness greater power using empathy, creativity, & systems thinking.

I integrate my identities as a global leader of change, a woman of color, an artist, and a mother to design experiences that are inclusive, innovative, and delivered in the context of complex, technical work.

For the first act of my career, I led integrated flight test engineering teams, global design/build teams, enterprise learning & development programs, and deep transformations across commercial and defense test programs at a Fortune 50 company. I was on an executive track, when I decided to leave to start my own consultancy.

I design and deliver experiences that address the systemic dysfunctions I experienced during my corporate management tenure, including short-term, myopic thinking, systemic bias, poor communication, lack of team alignment, and resistance to change.

I believe culture and strategy development is a team sport, and people support what they help create

Emily Griffin

Emily Griffin is a multidimensional producer with roots in broadcasting, publishing & DJing. She’s led global creative teams in technology, art & entertainment for over 20 years, conducting an array of events, campaigns, courses and digital products.

Woven into her professional accomplishments is her commitment to embodiment, healing and transformation. As DJ GriffinGrrl, her ongoing collaborations within the dance music community continue to uplift and inspire. Emily brings her unmatched energy and an empathetic approach to her new consultancy Emily Griffin & Co, offering creative leadership, experience design & facilitation.

Connect with Jyoti and Emily:

Website: https://www.spilleplay.com

Website: www.emilygriffin.co

Download your free guidebook with prompts and lessons from leaders: www.theempathytour.co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/spilleplay

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyotibfly

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spilleplay

Instagram: www.instagram.com/spilleplay

The Empathy Tour:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/theempathytour/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theempathytour/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmpathyTour