Playfully Professional: Hiring, Training, & Retaining a Playful Team

Playfully Professional - 2:45 - 4 pm - Rm. 107
Submitted by Angelica

Britt Thomas - Marbles
Vito Gioia, Jr. - Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago
Barrett Long - Discovery Place KIDS - Huntersville, Mississippi
Patti Reiss - Mississippi Children's Museum

* Presentation available online (upload)

Four museums share tools and techniques for hiring playful personnel, training for play, and retaining a high functioning team with a playful culture. Each museum shared top tips about what to look for in the hiring process, the focus being on the right personality fit, which will become the culture.Great takeaways included group interviews, interactive / multi-part interviews. I think Team RC for as long as I can remember has taken personality into account, each one of our team members was selected for the amazing people they are, who are passionate about our community and service to the community - THANK YOU for making it such a great place to work and the fantastic things you do for the community each day!

Once you have the right team on board, they need to be well taken care of - supported with training, a clear brand, and a positive work environment to help give them the tools and inspiration they need. Great takeaways included annual safety trainings (along with regular trainings) and creating fun, varied forms of training to keep it fresh and fun.

Another tip (I think Rancho knows well) is to have a strong brand and mission to communicate to staff / in turn to visitors and something staff are proud to be a part of. I think Francie has done a great job with our branding - when they mentioned mission statement on the back of business cards and logo shirts - check!

Some of the great ideas I really enjoyed were ideas to create a positive, inspirational work environment. My absolute favorite was staff sharing "moments of cute" - the great stories and experiences with the children and families they served. Other really fun ideas included incorporating games and contests - like employee of the month, searching for where's waldo during down time in the museum, play referees breaking into a meeting for a play break, or fun ice break games (I really liked the funny "murderer" game we played in our session).

I think we're off to a great start with staff day and I think it would be fun to work on implementing some more fun / team engagement strategies - I would be interested to hear if anyone else is?

Anyone have any ideas?

If this sounds like something you would like to hear more about, check out my notes below and feel free to ask any questions .....



Notes:

- 2 sided coin, one side play (kids/parents), the other side professional (donors)

Barrett -
- "Children's museums are about people not things" - Michael Spock

- "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than  a - in conversation"

- People / staff are the face of the organization. As we move up, we interact less. Your team is a reflection of you, they represent the museum. Culture is created by the personalities you fire and the values of those team members. What personality traits are important to you? Example: outwardly positive, flexible, team oriented. Review resumes that may reflect this, not so much what's on paper, but who are they as a person? For good team chemistry - you must look for what personality traits are important. You can not take a skilled person and teach them a personality. You can teach a great personality, new skills.

- "Fit is everything." - High plains architects

- Traits - outwardly positive, display flexibility in an ever changing environment, can-do attitude, focuses on the mission of the museum, not just in it for the paycheck - in it because we are impacting lives, passionate.

- Have a cultural vision, look at skill sets, team chemistry, cultural fit, casual conversations with candidates, don't rush to fill the position, be patient and make the best choice.

Patti -

- Started as a part time education worker, now does group interviews, interview about 125 each year. Large hiring cycle begins now in Spring, preparing for Summer months. Creates a pledge class feel.

- First we take a tour, during business hours with visitors, staff members, toys. DO they pick up items on the floor, hold doors, talk to you as interviewer on way, talk to each other.

- After tour of space, big table interview: give information sheet - name / date at top, are they a student, general availability, job description and pen, in the center of the table we have tangible - toys, games, where are the personal items - do they have portfolio / clutching a purse - do they still have the pen from the beginning, who answers the questions first.

- Grab bag questions, let them choose the question (someone else can answer) - who is responsive. Wait for answer. At the end give them a chance to toot own horn. Ask about failure. Let them ask questions (likely dress code / schedule).

- Is there something else I should no about you that would make you a great fit for this position?

- Who wants to work FOR children and who wants to work WITH children

- Follow up with personal interview, practical - 15 min or 45? depending on position / time of year, call 3 references - 2 must be positive (would they have you return to work with you)

- Must be able to pass a background check

- Rejection letter within 3 days if not shredded (save the files for at least 6 months - notes from interviews / resumes)

Britt
- IMLS - videos for training specific to exhibits and team (Increase literacy through playful exhibits, how playful interactions work), staff assessment = Opt In.

- Observe, Participate, Talk, Inspire, Nexit. Joining in, connecting kids to play, nexit - naturally exiting, praising, thinking aloud.

- Video for each strategy. Staff reported for the grant that they were more comfortable and confident from the training. More comfortable talking about success / challenge.

Barrett
- Free PDF online (Boston Museum), "Learning Together - Boston Children's museum. Activities / training for staff.

- Activity - group brain storm - what is your job when you are facilitating play (inspire, engage, fun, create connections, risk taking, challenge - top choices). Group discussion revolving around - what does museum look like with no parents.

- Our session mission statement - our job is create connections that will engage, inspire, and challenge our guests to have fun. - Share in staff room, manual, share with guests - part of welcome letter. hen you come to the museum this is what we want to do for you.

Vito
- Staff retention - how do we make them stay? Challenges - non-profit - lower wages. Has a couple of staff - one 26 years on the floor, another 9 years.

- Initial training - training should continue (new information / changes), safety training once a year - EVERY YEAR (video - fun - evacuations), slide show as well, break up visuals

- All staff meetings monthly (30/10 split) - sometimes break off, end with moments of cute (shared stories)

- Work environment - positive, making changes (managers had to observe for required times) - instead of quotas- ongoing all the time, address negative in the moment, writing both positive and negative, post every month excel sheet with positive and negatives, people can nominate coworkers for EOM, sharing moments of cute (they love reading the notes)

- Moments of cute - used by fund development to convey message to donors, they did a staff lunch sharing the moments over an hour and pumped staff up

- Connect with staff in lull down times (contests, funny games like where's waldo, eye spy games)

- Play - prompts for staff to direct and help them when slow (ex. fishing in the water, with activities on fish) - creating lesson plans.

- Use games in all of training - hilarious murderer winking game, wink kills, people die dramatically, then we pause and ask who is murder

Culture - brand, build, and be it. Commit to adjust as needed. Allow team to belong to something bigger than self. Shared purpose builds loyalty and creates fun. Everyone can and does wear anywhere. Pride and loyalty around the brand. Strategic plan is a "play book". Employee recognition (ice cream scoop - flavor of the month - "dishin' the mission" - employee gets a gift certificate and a badge for the month. Play police pop up in board meetings and do something fun. "Inside scoop" - employee newsletter for the month. Team Marbles olympics - teams counting steps in areas. Fun ways to connect. We play marked on door to walk in / out.

Questions - difficulty in getting part timers there. Answer - Train more trainers - that way you can hold additional meetings to accommodate more training sessions. Wills et a two week time slot - you have to see me one of these days. Every morning we have a meeting 15 til before we open.