“Play” is critical to your innovation process.

“Play” is critical to your innovation process.

Darrell Velegol, PhD

LinkedIn Smart Link (https://tinyurl.com/KPCoSmart).

2023 Oct 26

Ever get great ideas while driving or showering or doing some other “non-work”? Innovation doesn’t require that you’re “always producing”. In fact, play is a key contributor to innovation. More than 10 years ago I read an interesting book by Stuart Brown called “Play”. Play has no purpose or obligation, so you are free to fail, to do poorly, to be a beginner. He states that in his experience, it is PLAY, not necessity, that is the mother of invention. In his Chapter 8 he gives some guidelines for play:

1. Take your own history of play. How often do you get out for 90 minutes or more of uninterrupted, open space? Free to choose what you’re doing?

2. Go somewhere interesting to you, and engage in activities that have no purpose. Something fun for you.

3. Let yourself be a beginner, even for a long time. Since play has no explicit purpose, it’s OK to do something poorly.

4. Be physical. Walk. Throw the ball with the dog.

5. Find safe havens, away from critique or judgment, even your own.

6. Spend time with people who treasure play and who DO it! If you’re not around them, find them!

Finally, he notes that the opposite of play is not work. It’s depression! Now go out and play a bit to get your next ideas.