Business and Play

Business and play are words that you don’t often see together. It’s my contention however that business needs to play.

Under pressure the normal tendency for individuals and business is to contract, stiffen and play less (sound familiar?). This is dumb as it kills our ability to adapt to new circumstances and respond and innovate in an agile fashion. In the current business climate (I’m contractually obliged by Satan and Gordon Brown to mention it in every post) business needs to play more not less….

But what is play anyway? Here’s play expert Stuart Brown

A few takeaways from the video that may be relevant to business:

Play is much more than just fun
Play is essential for health and learning
Not playing makes you violent and stupid
Trust is established through play
The opposite of play is depression
Play leads to innovation

I’ve been “playing seriously” for a while inspired by the work of Fred Donaldson whose Original Play stresses the connective power of play. I recently played with a men’s group in London (pictured) and see this as the ultimate office team building if I could find a business client brave enough to bring it on.

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So What: Play if you want to be smart, creative and connected.