A Joyful Lagos Beach Race
Nigeria is incredible, with so much creative, entrepreneurial energy and innovative design. I met architects, fashion designers, furniture designers, and people in all sorts of tech. It would be amazing to see more US organizations partnering and collaborating with the immense talent I witnessed during my time there!
?It seemed that every person I met had a playful mindset, focused on the future and not the past. I also felt very welcomed, with each person I spoke to being interested in the work I do around play and toy invention.
?I coach my students to keep a playful mindset and look for moments of delight and joy, and it is something I practice in my day to day life. I’d like to share a short story from this recent trip to illustrate this point.
?There were two young sisters on the beach outside of Lagos – a nine and thirteen year old –? watching me do what I bet looked like a very strange work out – wind sprints. They didn’t speak English, but a Nigerian tribal dialect called Yoruba. Then I proceeded with 100 yard pick-ups. They watched me run several of them. Probably curious what this crazy guy was doing on their beach. On my last pick up, I waved them over… making a run in-place gesture. I was trying to nonverbally communicate my desire to race!
?It didn’t take long for them to realize what I was intimating. They jumped up at my offer and joined me at the starting line. All of us were smiling!
?I counted down. Three…two…one… and we took off!
Right away I knew I had a problem. The thirteen year old jumped out to a huge lead, laughing the entire time. So, the gold medal was clearly spoken for! I was then focused on the silver. We were neck and neck at the 80 yard mark when the nine year old pulled ahead and beat me. She was laughing as hard as her sister! It was such a special moment, reminding me that even though we didn’t speak the same language, that play is always inclusive. Suffice it to say the three of us shared a truly joyful moment.
?I'm looking forward to unlocking the power of play and design with collaborators from Nigeria, and with those of you here who share my belief in and enthusiasm for the transformative power of play.?
?Playing is serious fun, and seriously impactful to business.
Purposeful leader dedicated to creating a more humane, playful world | Executive | Polymath | Science of Play Expert
2 年Play Is The Way! In Every Way!
Experience Designer @ VCU Brandcenter | Crafting Insight-Driven Journeys, Bridging Minds With Stories, Research, And Strategy | (Design x Experience) + (Creativity x Journey) + (Art x Expression) = Innovation??????
2 年I loved this article you put out, and it was fascinating to hear about your experience witnessing the hidden creative talent of designers in Nigeria ????! Keep up the excellent work, Brendan Boyle, and looking forward to reading your next artistic article that comes out on LinkedIn! ??
Music therapy . Accessible spaces . Assistive sound design. Using systems thinking, design research and co-design with people experiencing disability to make products, services, and spaces accessible.
2 年Lovely story Brendan. A reminder to stay playful in our life’s work. The joy of having a crack as us Aussies would say… never know where we’ll end up, and that’s the best part of bit of it all , the stories , experiences , the adventure, the people.