Play? Yes girl, slay!

Let’s talk about play. Though typically confined to childhood, play can help spark creativity and improve a team’s performance at work. It isn’t just a break from seriousness; it’s a way to refresh the mind and see problems in new and exciting ways.

Research shows that when we engage in playful activities, our brains release chemicals like dopamine, which enhance learning, focus, and motivation. It also stimulates neural connections that allow us to approach challenges from fresh perspectives. In short, play helps us think better. And when we bring this playfulness into our work lives, it can create stronger team bonds, fuel innovation, and make work a lot more fun.

Wow, seems like a lot of benefits right?! So why aren’t we regularly integrating a sense of play into our work lives?

Turns out it’s really hard to do. Cultural resistance, fear of judgment, time constraints, lack of leadership buy-in, fear of disruption — these are all factors that compound to keep us from accessing the magic of play. And as a result, most work tends to happen in a backdrop of seriousness and stress, as opposed to an environment of creativity and collaboration.

I personally have a little judgy voice in the back of my mind that’s always pushing the “are you sure?” button when I think about doing a playful icebreaker or a warmup activity. It says things like “what if they don’t take the activity or worse, take you seriously?” or “what if people think of you as unprofessional if you do this playful thing?”

While I know it wants the best for me, it’s not always right. Several months ago, I kicked off a project with a new client and team, and started with an icebreaker question themed on the topic we’d be working on. I tamped down this voice in my head and pulled up the slide with the big, somewhat goofy question scribed in a beautiful minimal font (Avenir, for the visually minded amongst us.)

One client instantly came off mute to say “Wow this is totally not what I was expecting,” and the voice in my head reared up to cry a big “TOLD YOU SO,” when he continued “this is way more interesting and really unique!” We then went on to learn more about each other as individuals before getting into the work context; an activity that helped set the tone for an amazing, 3-month collaboration. Play - 1, Voice - 0!

~~~~~putting it into practice~~~~~

Your storytelling takeaway, should you choose to accept it, is to introduce a small element of play into your week through one or more of the following three activities:

• Start with an icebreaker question. Kick off a meeting with a light, unexpected question. It doesn’t have to be deep — just something to break the ice and get everyone engaged. One of my favorites for a new working group is “How does your family make rice?“

• Find something odd, funny, or unexpected in a presentation. This works particularly well for an analysis you might be doing or a synthesized view of trends in an industry. Look for something quirky, weird, or funny in the space and find a way to pop it in to one of the points you’re trying to land. A little twist keeps your audience intrigued and makes your message more memorable.

• Do a physical warm-up before meetings or workshops. Before diving into a serious discussion, try a brief physical activity with your team. Even something as simple as stretching or shaking out the tension can help a team loosen up and shift into a more calm and neutral mindset.

Whichever you pick, try to really commit to doing the activity. Put that inner voice on ice and tell yourself that you’re just putting science into action. And if you do try it — I’d love to hear how it goes!

Happy playing, and see you next week!

Ramya

~~~~~references~~~~~

Research furnished by ChatGPT (and re-verified by Google)

• Schultz, W. (2016). Dopamine reward prediction error coding. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. 18(1), 23–32.

• Pellegrini, A. D. (2009). The Role of Play in Human Development. Oxford University Press.

• Brown, S., & Vaughan, C. (2009). Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Penguin Group.

• Diamond, A., & Ling, D. S. (2016). Conclusions about interventions, programs, and approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite much hype, do not. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 34–48.

• Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Oxford University Press.