Allow Folks to Play
“A lot of people assume that play is the opposite of work. It is not.
It is the opposite of boredom.
Far from being evidence of disengagement, it’s actually a healthy sign of engagement.”
Brendan Boyle knows a thing or two about play. Not only is he the founder and director of IDEO’s acclaimed Play Lab, he also leads the “horizontal play function” that spans across the firm’s other verticals. “We’ve seen that emphasizing play as a ‘practice area’ really sets us apart from more conventional players.”
I’m not surprised that foregrounding play is a differentiator, for two reasons:
Suspicion of play: In my years of serving as a catalyst for innovation in corporate environments, I can’t count the number of times that a professional, joyously immersed in the wonders of creation, cautiously looks over their shoulder, somewhat fearful. It’s a deeply-held belief in most organizational settings that, “If we’re having fun, we must not be working.” What a shame! One of the most responsible things we can do is the seemingly-irresponsible practice of having fun together.
Value of play: In his landmark study on creativity, Donald MacKinnon noted two distinguishing characteristics among the most celebrated architects in the field: one was their tendency to delay decisions (which I’ve noted elsewhere) till the latest possible moment to decide.
The other? They knew how to play. The most inventive creators of the twentieth century knew play was necessary to great work.
For leaders, play — or the absence thereof — is a fantastic diagnostic test. As Brendan says, “If I pass by a brainstorm, and people aren’t laughing, I know there’s a problem. They aren’t taking enough risks.”
We know that innovation is a numbers game, subject to considerable odds, which requires you take “enough risks.” (Note, at least one innovation leader I know sets minimum failure targets to ensure that his team is experimenting broadly enough.)
May I suggest allowing folks to play is a key lever for driving the kind of volume and variation needed to ultimately succeed?
Related: Be Irresponsible
Related: Imitate Frank Lloyd Wright
Related: Delay Decisions
Related: Consider the Odds
Related: Experiment Broadly
Related: Have Lots of Ideas
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One of the defining contributions the d.school is helping teams ask themselves, “What kind of thinking is appropriate, when?” We call such clarity being “Mindful of Process.” And it can seem like semantics until you realize we need to show up in different ways.