Opinion
There are several words that are likely to scare anyone sitting around a boardroom table at work. The word “blowout” is never good news when talking about budgets, “cyberattack” sends chills though the most hardened executives, and “uncertainty” is a clanger.
But I’m going to throw out another word out there that will make most people wince when they hear it in a work environment: “play”.
When you think about play in the workplace, it might instantly conjure up images of ping-pong tables, scavenger hunts and trivia nights. And as a boss who’s been responsible for all the above over the decades, consider me guilty as charged, your Honour.
We tend to associate play with being unserious, juvenile and not critical in the workplace, and Ben Crowe wants to change your mind on that.
Crowe is best known as tennis champion Ash Barty’s “mindset coach”, but he’s worked with thousands of people from sporting stars to CEOs and senior executives to help them understand the connection between how they think and how they act.
He believes that play desperately needs a rebrand. So let’s start with definitions. Crowe has a broad view of play that encompasses innovation and creativity.
How can we tap into play at work? The primary way is through curiosity, where every question is an opportunity go a bit deeper.
“Because we use it in everyday language, we don’t understand how fundamental play is to human existence,” says Crowe. “Every company that ever existed started with an idea that someone played with.”
Examples of play in the workplace might include a lawyer mixing it up with a line of questioning in the courtroom, being extra attentive to what a colleague is saying to ensure you really understand them, or even having some fun with clever language.
In his new book, Where The Light Gets In, Crowe explains how he helped make even the banality of post-match interviews more playful for Ash Barty. He encouraged her to drop references to something she adored – in this case, Disney movies – into her answers, without the media realising.
When a journalist asked her about her achievements over the previous year, she replied with a straight face: “I chat to my niece. Over and over, she tells me you can go to infinity and beyond.”
The play state at work is when you’re authentic and present. “As humans, we’re designed by nature to play,” says Crowe. “What sabotages us is when we get distracted away from that intrinsic desire to play, be curious, experiment, and treat life as an adventure. When we start caring about outcomes, or other people’s opinions, is when we flip from the play state to the fear state.”
So, how can we tap into play at work? The primary way is through curiosity, where every question is an opportunity go a bit deeper. “Curiosity is also the quickest way to create psychological safety in the workforce,” says Crowe.
Simple ways of doing that are by ensuring every question is considered, and being honest if you don’t know the answer. “Imperfections are going to show up in vulnerability and in play,” says Crowe. “That’s a good thing because that’s kind of where you learn from the mistakes.”
Work can be serious at times, and we might think that we need to shut off our playful side to succeed. But once you move past the outdated definitions and see how powerful it can be to unlock innovation and creativity, play has the potential to transform how we think at work. And how much fun is that?
Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com
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Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards, Cult Status and Killer Thinking. He co-founded Junkee Media and writes a monthly newsletter called OUTLET.