Strategy in Play: 4 Ways to Add Play to Any Office

“Play is the highest form of research.” – Alert Einstein

How does your organization or team respond when stumped with a complex challenge in your work? Chances are, you enter the “pressure cooker.” You meet. Then, you meet again because complex challenges do not often lend themselves to solutions that can be generated in just 60 minutes which is the longest block of time you could find for all of the brilliant minds to come together. Let me guess what might happen next. In that 60 minutes, you or whomever is leading the meeting must prove themselves a magician by pulling parts of the solution out of each brilliant mind in the room, then packaging it into something comprehensive and worth the salaries of everyone in attendance. Sometimes these sessions lead to successful solutions and other times, exhaustion and frustration. Regardless of the outcome, most of us hate working this way; even those of us leading the charge.

 What would happen if instead of defaulting to white-boarding and brainstorming, teams stopped to play? If your company is fast-paced and serious, just the thought of this probably gave you a bit of anxiety. Work environments like this make us feel like the work that we do is so urgent that there is no time to slow down and certainly no time to play. But, play in the workplace can produce benefits that last well beyond the minutes sacrificed for its sake. Research affirms that workplace play can:

• Increase productivity
• Increase engagement  
• Improve creative problem-solving
• Improve relationships among teams

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOMENTUM.COM

Despite what many organizations and professionals know about play, creating space to play for problem-solving is not something that will just happen and not all workplaces will immediately welcome it. However, there are ways to introduce it into even the most serious of offices.

Here are 4 ways to incorporate play as a strategic tool in any office:

1. When introducing a new business or organizational challenge or initiative, schedule a 30 to 60-minute introductory meeting where the challenge or business case is briefly presented. Then give team members the remainder of the meeting to play. Team members will undoubtedly be thinking about how they will deliver. But, the pressure-free environment will spur creativity. Be sure to make toys and games available.
2. Introduce a conversation about a team-based issue with a playful game or activity. I have used a modified version of this Lego activity to help teams confront communication challenges on their project team in a non-threatening way. (I will share more about my modified version of this activity and the outcomes in a later post).
3. During full-day meetings and retreats, turn coffee breaks into play breaks. Be sure to make toys and games available.
4. Plan a day of play for your team before the start of a new initiative.  

If your organization or team incorporates any of these strategies into your workplace, we would love to hear from you! If the women of your company need to play, consider joining NLD Strategic on September 30, 2016 for the 1st Annual Playcation!