“A lot of people assume that play is the opposite of work. It is not. It is the opposite of boredom. And 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 all of 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: second was their tendency to delay decisions (which I’ve noted elsewhere) till the latest possible moment to decide, but what was the first notable difference among the preeminent architects of the day? They knew how to play. It seems that some of the most inventive creators of the twentieth century felt play was necessary to great work.

It’s a fantastic diagnostic. 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.) But have we considered play as 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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