Time to read: 3 minutes
Article at a Glance:
- Play is essential, not optional. It fuels imagination, innovation, and growth—all skills we don’t outgrow as adults.
- Play reduces stress and sharpens thinking. It broadens perspective, boosts creativity, and strengthens executive function.
- Work and play don’t have to be opposites. Exploration, curiosity, and asking “Why?” and “What if?” bring play into everyday collaboration.
- Psychological safety makes play possible. When mistakes are safe and trust is strong, creativity and connection thrive.
When was the last time you actually played?
Do you even know how to play anymore, or did you leave play behind with your childhood toys?
Most of us are taught that play is optional at best and trivial at worst, or only for children, and something we can and should grow out of.
No one tells us that play is essential for creativity and our wellbeing.
Why We Need Play
We’ve also been told that work is work and play is play, and that a responsible adult finishes their work BEFORE they play.
But do work and play have to be separate?
Can there be play in work? Can work itself be playful?
Before we get into that, let’s look at the benefits of play.
Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, defines play as “anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as means to an end.”
He gives three reasons why play is essential:
1: “Play broadens the range of options available to us.”
How many amazing things happen when we’re just playing around?
Without play, we can’t imagine, create, innovate, or do anything new. We can’t learn or grow.
When we play, we engage our imaginations, and imagination is responsible for every innovation. Cell phones, the internet, space travel, cars, Disneyland, cheese graters, books, movies, your favorite sweater…they all began with imagination and play.
Think about it: As children, we learn about the world and ourselves through playing. Animals instinctively play to practice skills they’ll need to grow and survive.
That growth-through-play process doesn’t expire when we become adults. We’re just conditioned out of it.
2: “Play is an antidote to stress.”
McKeown goes on to say that “stress…can actually shut down the creative, inquisitive, exploratory part of the brain.”
When we’re stressed, we’re not exploring or being creative. Stress gives us tunnel vision and a sense of urgency that’s definitely not conducive to exploration, real collaboration, or seeking multiple right answers. It doesn’t create the patience and care needed for quality.
Instead, we rush. We don’t have fun. And we don’t create great work.
Play, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. We can’t be stressed when we’re playing.
3: “Play has a positive effect on the executive function of the brain.”
Executive function includes things like prioritizing, organizing, memory, planning, etc. All crucial skills for creating, doing great work, and living a functional life.
Play requires decision-making, flexibility, remembering rules, shifting perspectives, and collaborating with others.
There’s tons of research out there that supports this.
For example, this study found that children who were allowed to engage in imaginative, self-directed play demonstrated stronger executive function skills than those in more rigid, adult-directed environments.
And this study found that activities involving play, movement, and social interaction were among the most effective ways to improve executive functioning.
Enough said, right?
How we do this at Redmond.
“Imagination is the source of every human achievement.” -Sir Ken Robinson
In an effort to be playful, some companies will install foosball tables and implement casual dress codes to loosen up the mood, but we believe play can also happen in the conference rooms, on Teams calls, in our actual day-to-day work and collaborations.
Here’s how.
Exploration and possibility
Exploration is fun and requires us to play so we can imagine possibilities and consider all the options available to us.
This is built right into our structure at Redmond. We take the time to gather together and explore, imagine, and dream.
We love to ask “Why?” and “What if?” so we can better understand our reality, what brought us there, and how we might move forward.
Reflection and Renewal are two of our core values, and they remind us to slow down, look around, fill our cups, grow, and try new things.
Removing pressure
We can only play in environments where play and mistakes are safe. Mistakes are going to happen whether play is present or not.
In other words, it’s okay to mess up. We don’t fire anyone or write someone up for making mistakes. Mistakes are safe here. We see failure as an essential part of learning.
We’re going to try some stuff that doesn’t work, and that’s just part of the process!
Ubuntu
Our core value of Ubuntu helps us see each other clearly. When we see each other, it’s easier to respect and trust each other. When we like and trust each other, we can be playful together. We can bring up weird ideas and not worry about judgement. We can go off on half-baked tangents and the people who see us can often pick up our thread and add to it.
When we like who we work with, work starts to feel like play!
Where do you feel playful at work?
As you go about your work (and your whole life), pay attention to the moments that feel playful. What are you doing? Who are you doing it with? What does it feel like?
These are clues that lead us back to the play that is so essential for our wellbeing, creativity, and collaboration.
Try it!
