Digitalmash

Good design is hard work. If it were easy to nut out annoying design problems, I might be out of a job. But it’s also true that the cleverness in most lateral design doesn’t come from blindly grinding away at the same concept. When you’re dealing with ideas, it’s rarely a matter of simply putting in more time working. Five minutes can be much more fruitful than five hours. Often it’s when you stop working that there’s suddenly space for new approaches to the problem to present themselves.

It’s a paradox that’s perhaps best explained in the concept of Play. The trick is to not laboriously grapple with a problem, but to noodle with it like it were a Rubik’s cube. Often, the only difference in how playful we can be with a problem is what mode we’re in when we approach it.

We all have different vices. Monkeys smear poo on the walls because it’s fun. I happen to like making websites.

I’m not saying you should stop to working. I’m saying you should learn to suspend your expectations about the outcome. The notion of work carries with it the burden of productivity. There’s always an input/output equation. After all, objectives must be met.

But when there’s so much focus on achievement, it’s often hard to be the most clever version of yourself. This is even more the case when you’re trying to think laterally. When you think about it, trying to redefine your work as something that’s free of the pressures inherent in it, is a complete mindfuck. But I’m here to tell you it’s possible.

In fact, I’m convinced that the world’s most creative people have a heightened ability to switch into a mode Dr Stuart Brown defines as ‘play’. In his book of the same name, Brown reluctantly outlines what he constitutes as play:

Apparent purposelessness

An activity is done for its own sake rather than money, or food or practical value. You’re doing it without thinking about the result.

It’s voluntary

Not obligatory or required by duty. You’re doing it because you feel like it – not because your boss told you to.

Inherent attraction

It’s fun. It makes you feel good. It’s a cure for boredom. (If you’re not ticking this box most of the time, you probably should try a new line of work/play).

Freedom from time

When we are fully engaged we lose a sense for the passage of time.

Diminished consciousness of self

We don’t worry about whether something looks right or not, whether it’s smart or stupid. Later we might, but when we’re playing there are no wrong ideas.

Improvisational potential

We aren’t locked into a rigid way of doing things. We are open to serendipity and chance. We are willing to include seemingly irrelevant elements into our play. In the right frame of mind, mistakes can be the quickest way to spark a new line of ideas.

So these points characterise a playful state. From this we can generalise about what we need to better reach it.

What we need to creatively play

• We need to feel like we have time to goof around.
• We need to be interested in the problem we’re solving and be doing it because we want to.
• We need to feel safe sharing even the silliest ideas.
• We need to feel like it doesn’t matter if it ultimately yields something of value or not.

There are many examples of more progressive companies doing their best to encourage this playful state. Google’s campus definitely has a hint of Wonka factory about it. They also give their engineers a portion of time to explore their own ideas without the pressure of productivity. Facebook’s Hackathons is another example that comes to mind.

Ultimately, play in work comes to those who love what they do for a living. According to Brown, the work that we find most fulfilling is almost always a recreation and extension of youthful play. We all have different vices. Monkeys smear poo on the walls because it’s fun. I happen to like making websites. Whatever your passion, my advice is to try and find a situation that unlocks your playful side and stop working.

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