How playing at work can build success

Amy Ewbank, former Head of HR turned playwriting mentor at PowerPlay, has been talking to YOMU about why bringing a sense of play into the workplace is key to psychological safety. 

I want you to cast your mind back to when you were little. 

Do you remember creating stories from thin air? A favourite squashy teddy or plastic pirate who was the hero in your play adventures?

I’m sure you remember the feeling in your body, too. When you really stop to think about it. The feeling of creating those wonderful worlds. Of transporting yourself to a different setting in space and time, all from within the safety of your own home or school.

Children allow play to transform them. No questions asked.  Children get swept along with the story and they fully “buy into” the playful illusions they are creating. Children tell outrageous tales of war, death, jeopardy and danger.  

Kids play in this way because they feel emotionally safe to do so.  Scared kids do not play… they retreat. There is no space for play when your mind is trying to keep itself safe, after all.

So, what the heck does this have to do with work?

Well… Everything, actually.

In order to build a company culture and a team who feel valued, seen and safe; we must turn to play, for it to work. 

The CIPD defines organisational culture as  “... allow (ing) employees to understand their organisation and feel that their voice matters in driving the business towards a common purpose.” 

But I don’t think that is quite it. Company culture has always felt to me to be a nebulous, intangible thing. When companies talk in job descriptions about their “outstanding company culture”, I don’t really know what they mean.  It’s a struggle to pin down, right? But we all feel it, when we are in it. We know when a company culture is a good “fit”, when we feel safe, seen and welcome. And when we don’t. 

The company where I started was small. And playfulness was seamlessly weaved into the way we worked. 

We played games at the start of meetings, we encouraged cross-creative sharing in “lunch and learns” where team members talked about their loves outside of the workplace; of being a playful scout leader, of their work in a charity over the Christmas break, writing poems with homeless people as they took respite from the cold. Staff shared artwork with their colleagues, we saw each other perform in pantomimes and we did monthly “bring a dish” days where employees brought in and shared cuisine from their culture.

And it was gorgeous. No one needed to hide who they were outside of work. In those days, the now-cliched phrase of “bring your whole selves to work” had not yet emerged, but people did bring “non-work” parts of themselves in, and with that we all felt just a little bit… safer. To be ourselves. 

And we were a highly productive team. Now, with a company of this size, it was arguably easier to “play” than in larger organisations. But the data around creativity and performance in the workplace speaks for itself. Google spent 2 years studying 180 of their teams to find out what makes a high-performing team. The number one factor? Psychological safety. And when we feel safe, we create and with this creative innovation comes a company culture to write home about. 

The challenge is translating this culture into bigger organisations where the temptation is to park playfulness to prioritise “getting the job done”. 

Let’s start by thinking about adults outside of work settings. When do we play? And what can we learn about our playful hobbies which we can bring into our working lives?Why do adults watch scary movies? Or do a bungee jump? Or go on roller coasters? Like the kid-us that came before, we do it to play within the realms of safety parameters. We know the “killer with the saw”  or the “creepy clown” won’t really jump up on us at the movie theatre. But a juicy chunk of our brain enjoys suspension of belief so we can make believe “what if” and emerge, our brains flooded with dopamine, feeling gratefully safe.

Studies have shown that engaging in a creative process re-energises people in the workplace, whilst also increasing empathy levels with co-workers.  We need to weave the benefits of play into the workplace everyday, not just on special occasions. UK-based startup Playfilled has seen a 19% uptick in mood and energy after just one of its 12-minute "wonder dates". And this is attracting the attention of Big Four firms and global banks and tech companies as a low-stakes way to increase creativity, happiness and community between colleagues. This, Playfilled says, is crucial to equip workers for the "change marathon" ahead. Thinking of play as an integral driver of results shifts it from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for any business. 

Engaging in play, throughout the day, acts as a little hormone boost. A shot of dopamine (a less extreme version of watching a scary movie or doing a bungee jump!) to give our brains a change of thought and pace and a different way to engage with those around us. 

And I’ll let you into a secret. Play simply means finding the activities we find inescapably joyful. Play describes a mindset in which we navigate the world with a sense of wonder - a heady cocktail of curiosity, surprise, contemplation and curiosity. 

The biggest prize up for grabs is not just to use playful moments to support psychological safety at work, but to also uncover the activities in the nuts and bolts of work that feel like play to each person. From here, we can create an environment where everyone approaches work with a play mindset. And that is why playing at work matters. 

Amy Ewbank, a former head of HR, is today the founder of PowerPlay and delivers transformational bespoke, creativity awakening services, supporting burnt out high achievers to write a play and take it from blank page to stage.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-ewbank-45158a231/?originalSubdomain=uk