Need for Play…

… when I was growing up play was something I did after my homework was done, and I recall repeating my parent’s rules to my own kids.  Play was positioned as a treat, a reward, for getting the important; the serious stuff done.  But today, much has been written about the fact we had it all wrong,… play is a critical component of serious work, and an ingredient in producing really powerful results.  The basis for much of this writing is the fact that play excites that part of the brain, the right-side and specifically the right frontal lobe, which contributes to an understanding of big picture concepts and ideas.  Just think about it, in which situation are there more variables to bring into contextual alignment in rapid fashion; when solving a math problem, like planning a budget, or in playing a video game like Gears of War…?  Neither has one right answer, so the left brain still needs to do some work.  And even a budget involves some creativity.  But solving for constantly changing situations, discerning patterns and drawing connections, all required in play,… is a much more demanding mental activity.

The outcome of this activity called play, is new thinking.  If you play as a group, in addition to new ideas, you can also get alignment with others.  LEGO has built a service business around the use of play, called SeriousPlay.  Their website defines SeriousPlay as a “radical, innovative experiential process designed to enhance business performance.”  Later they claim the process “deepens group understanding, sharpens insight,… and participants come away with increased confidence, more committed to shared/common goals.”  Wouldn’t that be a treat, if every team meeting ended with such a shared commitment…?  I suggest the magic occurs because play moves people to an emotional level of involvement with others, a much deeper bond than an intellectual understanding gets you.  And the result is a group commitment, that every individual takes personally.

Daniel Pink, the author of Free Agent Nation and his new book A Whole New Mind,… positions ‘play’ as one of the six key ‘high-touch’ senses required for survival in the Conceptual Age, an economy built on the inventive, empathetic, big-picture capabilities of a very different kind of mind.  A mind with a network of one quadrillion (1 followed by 15 zeros) connections, that guides how we think and act.  One bit of history that Pink reflects on, is that up until the mid 20th century most scientists believed the right brain to be inferior and not really needed.  Roger Sperry’s work at Cal Tech turned that belief upside down.  He agreed the right brain was different than the left brain,… but far from being inferior or subordinate to the left brain, the right brain was indeed superior when performing ‘certain’ mental tasks.  The important point is that both sides of the mind are important in guiding/reacting to activities and understanding, they need each other.  But since each side takes a different approach to thinking,… the left more sequential, analytic, literal; the right more simultaneous, synthetic, metaphorical,… Daniel Pink concludes that the changes happening in society will increasingly demand the right brain approach.  I agree with him.

Back to play.  Neuroscientists also believe that the right hemisphere plays an essential role in understanding and appreciating humor.  Humor often involves incongruity, the surprise of the punch line.  It causes one to place situations in context, and to create alignment out of differing perspectives, all in real time.  These are the same attributes needed for effective ideation and brainstorming in team sessions; playfulness, expressiveness, storytelling, yes even laughter.  Play as an effective activity in work, business and well-being is growing in importance.  Can we play…?