Play as Innovation Tool
A blog post summary worth a whole book on Play Design
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” ~ Richard Feynman
Being Playful = Being Creative
I’ve offered many workshops on creativity and did many social inventions, least of which many new exercises, often on the spot, for these workshops. To train yourself to invent that fast may take several years, but it can be learned. And for everyone thinking “Yes, but I’m not creative.”: that too, my friend, is a creative story you use to avoid shame and failure. Time for a newer and better lie: You are creative!! You can Play!! You can Invent by Playing and Messing around. :)
Oh, and children do it naturally. So it’s nothing new, for the most part. Just returning back to playing around with ideas, making them experiential and than play them into well working approaches.
I. Play. This part is more about the state of mind needed for it.
II. The Tree Technique. This is about the method I use underneath.
III. Out of the box. Open doors into new fields of inquiry.
“Play is the highest form of research.” ~Albert Einstein
Principles of Play Invention. I. Play Basics
Some of these principles come from Improv Theatre. Makes sense, because this form of theatre gets you to act from scratch in the moment. In short to Play. For a full boom on the power of play click the link. Here is the playful attitude.
1. Say Yes (, And…)
We can endlessly discuss why & what and have ongoing yes/no debates, before we feel safe enough to start. And then discover in the first minutes already that all assumptions were wrong. Just start! And discover from there. And add with every new insight new aspects that improve it, or start anew. This is iteration. It’s also letting your whole body be part of the finding out.
‘Say Yes, and’ is used in Theatre Sports, which I trained for 25 years. I became a trainer after I complained to a team so much about their approach, that they asked me to show how to be better at it. I said “Yes, and ..here’s how.” :)
2. Choose To Know
‘Fake it till you make it’, is a great concept. Lao Tzu said 2500 years before Google, “From your room you can know the whole world.” Where the knowing comes from we don’t know, but it works. I understand that you’d not like your surgeon to fake it till he makes it. But a real surgeon, works so much better too, when he surrenders to, trusts, the knowledge ‘his system’ has (and can distinguish this from anxiety and bias).
I discovered that sometimes when you choose to know, you really know. I am one of those people that only when they start speaking, know what their message is. That means steering on an inner compass, that grows with time.
3. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
Our educational system has destroyed the most natural learning process there is: learning by failing. Why this pressure to get all answers right? Imagine a year old child, learning to walk, fearing to fail. “What will my parents say when I fall again? How to plan my body movement so that all risk is avoided?” You and I know that would be awful. And that goes for you too. Failing is learning.
Failing a lot, I often claimed I was good at ‘dying in front of groups’. It doesn’t really kill you. Over time I found even, it was a real talent. Through it I developed the courage and the skills to work with groups in many ways.
4. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
Well thought out plans so often fail when made reality. Ongoing real world testing is so much sharper and more refined. Make it all experiential, then try, try, try again. It will make your body system wiser. Your body system knows more than your mental understanding only. And with every renewal add with new insights and new aspects that improve whatever you’re improving.
Nobody consciously knows how to ride a bike. Your system knows. And that same system can learn to read information of groups you’re working with. Or learn to just know and see a thousand other things. We call it experience.
5. Follow Your Curiosity
And now for something completely different. Leave all logic and planning at the least for a while. Feel free to wander. Follow what attracts your attention and let things happen. By wandering into strange lands (studies, sports, events) we discover new things. You cannot know what you’ll find, but new twists will happen when you trust your system will find a new synergies.
Even when you’re hooked to something, be also curious why that is, and what you’re learning from it.What do you learn or practice from a habit, old wounds, or even an addiction. Because with what we struggle with, we become experts at.
Principles of Play Invention. II. The Tree Technique
I developed the Tree Technique as an expression of why I at times would come up with more original (not always better!) ideas than others. Where the first part offered attitude aspects, this is more a steps-to-take model.
1. What Are The Roots Of It All?
When we set out to innovate we must look deeply at what makes the clock tick, what is the essence of the company or the root of the problems. For example what is democracy for? Is to give the people a shared voice? Is it ritualized warfare to make politics non-violent? Does your democracy help the people to raise their voice, or is it a clever illusion of choice?
Several years ago I invented Switchball with a friend. It was to be a 21st century sport. We thought it as time to look at the essence of team sports, and see what the root of all team sports were, and if they still applied to this day and age…
2. Frame the essence beyond custom and convictions
So if you are an Oil Company, and the resistance against oil grows, you may have to revisit what your prime objective is. Saying you deliver oil to customers is the custom answer. What is what you do on a deeper level? Then the objective may be to power machines that help people. And when that is true, then you can consider the next level.
With Switchball we framed all team sports as ritual warfare, mostly in a battlefield setting. Because we framed it so basic, we could start considering breaking through that paradigm. What could the new essence be?
3. Reframe the Roots
Once the essence is clear, you can replace it with new paradigms. It’s like therapy, where you find the freedom to reframe hindering convictions or the needs behind them. On a personal level, you can go from “I’m not good enough.” to “I’m good enough as I am.” An Oil Company might re-brand itself as an Energy Company. After reframing feel free to update to even better ones.
In Switchball we wanted a game you couldn’t win ‘at the cost of’. And that would train 21st century requirements like adaptability, or collaboration as much as competition. And we wanted it a team sport with flexible team sizes.
4. Develop the new implications of that.
When you revisit your options with the new frame in mind, you have so many new possibilities. The newborn Energy Company can now focus on clean and green energy, rather than see it as a threat. So branch out all options that are born because of the new frame. Focus on where the most energy goes toward to. And if you feel not enough new ideas, go back to step 1 and dig deeper.
For Switchball adaptability and collaboration meant we have now 5 teams in the field, not all of the same size. So players must balance and adjust alliances as well. And the new game goal is the have everyone play the best game possible!
5. Mold them to new ideas and bring them into the world.
This whole process can be repeated for any aspect within the organization or project. How to charge a car that needs no oil? In many cities you see a whole new infrastructure rise for electric cars. New technologies may make houses energy self sufficient. Visit every aspect of your new implication and find (interesting) new ways to make it happen in the world.
For Switchball this meant we did a lot of test plays, tweaking rules, team sizes and ways of scoring. We build goals that could be replaced somewhere else during the match, to make the gameplay even more fluid. Game after game it got better.
NB: Link to Switchball rules, 21st century sport I invented with Jan Paul de Beer, and used here as a personal example of the method.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~Thomas A. Edison
Principles of Play Invention. III. Out of the Box
If both ways above don’t help, here’s a few additional approaches you can either mix with the previous steps, or use as stand alone. This is the art of discovery, the art of asking questions, the art of going places few people went to before.
Claim The Opposite Is True, ..
Whatever everyone is saying, so many times the opposite is true as well. “If we all find inner peace, the world will find peace.” is just as true as “If everyone gets angry and stop all war mongers where they can, the world will find peace.” If you are frustrated with something, claim the opposite is true and then find out how that is true. You’ll be amazed at what you may find.
I founded the “Counter for Life Questions” where children answer life questions of adults. Some are incredibly good at it. This counters the idea that children are ‘hollow vessels that need to be filled with information to become adults’.
..And Make That Stick
For example: I found rather than claiming democracy sucked I should offer the next best thing. The traditional response to “Democracy Sucks.” is: “So, what, it’s the best thing we have. You want back to the Middle Ages?” Now my statement, turned question, is, “What comes after democracy?” This gets many people thinking. So find which arguments stick and even may go viral.
With the creation of the “Counter for Life Questions” I shocked some adults. It often changed their opinions of children. By creating experiences with what(also) works, we make it much harder to deny for the skeptics .
Liberate Yourself From the Frustration.
Anger is a great source, but isn’t a good approach. Through acting in anger, you may become more of the same. Some child saviors break up families that didn’t need to be broken up. Terrorist fighters can behave like terrorists. To really address an essential topic, you must be free from it. Thus try to go from anger to wonder, that way you can find soo much more possible solutions.
I started quite a few projects because I was angry about something, but complaining doesn’t help. So I turned many of my ‘protests’ into a project. It helped me invent games, workshops, write blogposts with ideas.
Start taking jokes that work seriously
I invented many things as a joke. Only when looking at the results, suddenly realized I was on to something. In jokes you can go against the grain, disturb conventions and ridicule beliefs. Yet if the joke works, there may be a hidden working principle hidden within, that you can build upon. Use it as a foundation for a new practice that breaks the spell of conventional thought.
I once created a satirical workshop where people could play Guru for a bit. Real guru’s claim to liberate you, yet many followers keep staring at them with admiration. It turned out to be a eye opening workshop, I still offer at times.
Accept trouble
Trouble may happens. It comes with the territory. Things may get misunderstood, sabotaged or, never be taken serious, until a some authority discovers the same thing. And then, while they get awe, your effort is suddenly forgotten or, a copy of the new idea. Or, most likely you just don’t get your new idea to work. What to do? Pay the price and struggle on!
When I worked as event designer I developed a lot of management games for businesses. Many ideas got shot dead in the water, or had to be redone because of changes in program, budget or whatever. I learned to see that as part of the job.
Be irreverent, undisciplined and original
“The only sacred cow is irreverence.” This is a fool’s saying. Richard Feynman understood that too. If you don’t break through something, don’t challenge conventions, you’ll never find something really new. By playing, fooling, goofing around new combinations happen, no one ever thought of before. And while most will be a mess, there will be gold to be found within as well.
I’ve never had any piano lessons, yet I found a way to teach people to play the piano in 15' minutes. It took time for me to dare tell people about it. I felt like a cheat. After a musician had me prove it, I now at times even get paid for it. :)
Finally, Now Go Out And Play
There’s of course many more tips and ideas. Go find places where you can safely experiment. Wonder. Understand the difference between divergence and convergence. Asking strange questions. Talk to strangers. Investigate sciences you know nothing about and see what might be translated to your own field. Ect. There’s a lot of books out there that will help you get going further. My boost should help you get started. Let me know how it went; it may lead to me iterating a better version of this text. ;) , and or seek me out for a workshop or coaching, if you still don’t get it. :)
Or play on in this creativity blog post, with added takes to get creative.
