The Power of Play, Redux
I sat down to write this article and perhaps because I’ve been so prolific and similar themes keep re-emerging, realized that I’d previously written on The Power of Play. This creative concept keeps re-emerging.
One of the biggest self discoveries I’ve made this year is tuning in to the power of play. More specifically, I’ve integrated it better into my work life rather than solely being playful at home.
I’ve always tended to have a serious persona at work. Others view me as professional, competent, and sometimes outrageous / intense, whether in the ideas I shared or how I show up. I’ve been a professional design leader for 22 years so I would often run design sprints and lead brainstorm sessions. In those sessions, I’ve led people through playful exercises, including one time I had 100+ engineers play a speed-dating game to get to know your colleagues. And I deeply know and teach that mistakes are OK, brainstorming is about generating tons of bad ideas, and how to get the most creativity from everyone through a facilitation process. Yet my persona through all that was quite serious—I was the conductor of all the play and not actively being playful myself. As a female in tech, some of this was also wanting to present myself as someone to be taken seriously.
In contrast, I’m much goofier in my personal life. I’m playful, funny, and also outrageous. There’s still seriousness that’s tinged with a willingness to pack up and jump into any adventure. My father passed away less than two years ago, and recently as part of a coaching exercise, I did a reflection on a childhood photo and realized that I had his eyes. His eyes, and mine in the picture, sparkled with mischief, fun, and lightness. That realization helped me better access the rebel inside and a sense of play that’s slightly deviant.
In the Harry Potter series, in order to access The Marauder’s Map that magically shows the location of every person on the castle grounds, the wizard has to incant the following spell:
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
That saying, and the corresponding “Mischief managed” to erase the map have always resonated with me.
This year I’m embracing a more integrated life between work and home. I’m learning to bring the power of play into all aspects of my life. To be more open to spontaneity.
My muse in this endeavor is the fool from a tarot deck of cards. The fool is ready to bring in a beginners mind and ask the not-so-foolish questions. The fool is willing to laugh at herself and at life. The fool can dance on the edge of silliness and wisdom.
Fool, first card of the Major Arcana from Motherpeace Tarot deck
Life is hard enough. There’s so much more ease and flow when I embrace play.
These are three ways that have helped me integrate the power of play into my work and home lives.
1. Embrace a beginner’s mind
We often find ourselves jumping into a new situation or processing new information in one of two default modes, either:
I’ve heard this concept / done this thing before. I know all about it. I got this.
Yikes, this is completely brand new to me. I’m not sure what to do.
There’s stress and seriousness with both of these approaches. If you feel that you already know all about the existing situation or concept, there’s the danger that you tune out, assuming that you already know all the answers. One of my coaches frequently teaches and often reuses the same stories. His brilliant move is to ask the audience to listen to the story with a beginner’s mind, approaching it as if they’re hearing it for the first time. Even if it’s the 10th time you’ve heard something, the context will have shifted—you’re a different person today, and this day is different than before. Using this beginner’s mind opens up the brain to be welcoming of new possibilities and ideas rather than smugly closing down because you already know all about it.
On the other hand, there can be anxiety doing a new thing for the very first time. I often support clients through their anxiety in starting a new job. It’s natural to feel like you have to prove yourself and rapidly show impact by impeccably executing a 30/60/90 day plan. Yet you were hired to do this job for a reason. You’re a professional bringing in pre-existing experiences and knowledge, and more importantly bringing in a beginner’s mind to the new job. Slow down, take the time to ask a lot of questions, and invest in relationships. Embrace a beginner’s mind and know that your strength is the not-knowing.
2. Be Spontaneous
I have a controller saboteur that wants to perfectly plan out every activity, milestone, and year. While this planning can be useful in defining a goal and outlining what needs to happen, it’s often killjoy behavior. Part of the power of play comes from embracing the spontaneous. Creative ideas, either for defining the roadmap, generating new blue sky ideas, or in building better relationships often arise from the serendipitous unplanned moments.
As a design leader, I used to speak at lot of keynotes, typically for large design, technology and data conferences. It would take weeks to perfect my beautifully-crafted slides and I would have every detail of my keynotes memorized and rehearsed down to the minute. It meant that I practiced and learned to become a very good speaker, and it was exhausting. In contrast, I’ve given four talks over the last two months, and because people have become so zoom-fatigued and sick of listening to yet another slide-driven webinar, I’ve thrown away the slides and instead worked off a rough storyboard outline of what I want to say. It was terrifying the first time I did it, and like many things, became easier with practice. I was more playful, spontaneous, and the ease and flow of pulling together stories & teachings without formal slides helped me to better connect with the audience.
How might you look for the moments of spontaneity in your day? What could you do to open up the space for more serendipity to occur?
3. Laugh at Your Goof-ups
Finally, one inherent part of play is making mistakes. Batters in Major League Baseball are considered to be really good if they have a 300 batting average, which means that they hit one in three balls. The flip side is that they goof-up 2/3 of the time. Many video games are about experimenting with the controls to see how to move the character, often resulting in killing yourself many times before you figure it out.
It’s OK to make mistakes. We all do it. It’s the most humanizing when you’re able to laugh and point out your goof-ups. To be self-deprecating enough to laugh at yourself and voice what everyone else may be thinking or judging. Plus, it’s a lot more fun than being 100% serious all the time. `
Bottom-Line
While I’ve always been an advocate for play and know the value of play in creativity, I’ve often drawn hardlines between being playful at work vs playful at home. Yet some of the biggest power of play is integrating these two personas.