Have we as designers lost the joy and love of senseless doodling or going on idea road trips? When was the last time we just had fun at work? (source: reddit)

Kevin Bethune, former VP of Strategic Design in BCGDV, declared that we need more folks in multidisciplinary teams to be creative in his latest book, Reimagining Design. Eluding to our professions, environment or our formal education, as expanded in my previous writing, creativity has been “stripped” from us and is often overshadowed by other work virtues.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong being diligent, honest and excellence, casting creativity aside at work diminishes other intrinsic values, such as teamwork, awe and originality, which may be what is needed to make innovative breakthroughs. Hence, strong voices in the business world, especially during recent times of artificial intelligence and automation, have spoken on the need for organizations to be more creative.

The funny dilemma with creativity is that it is often associated with fun and play. Dr Stuart Brown, who is best known on his research on play, builds the case that playing lies in core of creativity and innovation. And yet, there is a common misconception that play and work are at bipolar with one another. Brown counterargues that the opposite of play is depression.

The future of work is having fun

For the past 2 years, unpleasant memories of COVID-19 lockdowns and mental wellbeing led to negative side effects like loneliness and the Great Resignation across the globe. Researchers, such as Adam Grant, believe that collective effervescence — the energy of being in a group with a shared purpose — is the key in finding sustained joy.

Salesforce’s Trailblazer Ranch is the opportunity for staff to participate in tactile experiences of fun.

And so, 2022 has now become the year where companies are starting to define what the future of work, where having group fun is part of the mix. Salesforce, for example, splashed a hefty investment with their employee experience: Trailblazer Ranch. By “giving back and fun at the center”, Salesforce’s ambition of merging play and work goes on an astronomical scale. Or how about Airbnb’s work from anywhere policy? In the Designer CEO’s letter to his employee, Chesky believes the newfound flexibility “will unlock some amazing creativity and innovation — and make working here really fun.”

Facing the fear of play

We see these companies leading the pack when it comes to having fun at work. Realistically, many other pragmatic companies dither at the sound of fun, which brings us back to the question: why are we so fearful to play at work?

Perhaps we are still clinging on to the old ways of the scientific management of the industrial revolution, since it carries a longer history and heritage against the newer ways of behavioural management. Consider this: If a worker in the office says, “ let’s play a game” or “let’s have fun”, the typical thought or response would be “but shouldn’t you be working?” Suddenly, we all become squeamish when play and work come together. Could it be a matter of reputation, such that others ridiculed us for our actions or thoughts? Sadly, this is a common misconception that play is for kids, and work is for the grown ups. Thus, play leads to perceived lack of seriousness and professionalism.

Play and work doesn’t seem to co-exist. Just as Stuart Brown pointed out the children’s photo of play in 2008, the future of work cover in 2020 doesn’t show any association of play, even when it is done in a satirical manner (source: New York Times Magazine)

Designers are not immune either
To think that designers are naturally playful and creative is false too. Sometimes, we as designers may be too buried in our quest to get things right. We follow the design thinking process religiously, thinking that mechanically mapping a journey and doing brainstorming sessions lead to groundbreaking ideas. We think that wireframing follows stunning visual design. At the same time, some of us have lost the joy and love of senseless doodling or going on idea road trips. We rushed into implementation without incubation and creative procrastination.

What stops us from generating great ideas, or produce wonderful work, or simply finding joy in the work that we do? The answer may lie in us needing to be a little more playful.

Or perhaps it could be another reason: we as adults have forgotten how to play, and lack the practice to play and be creative. Just like a muscle, creativity and play requires time, effort and habit forming before it becomes ingrained in our daily activities. Yes, it takes the right setup and environment for creativity to flourish, such as a beautiful ranch and a solid policy. At the same time, play can come from within a group of individuals melding certain aspects of play into their work.

Play x work: it’s all about packaging

Designers, as well as non-designers, should be given the autonomy to play at work. It can lift morale and setback at work. It can connect us back socially despite our technical differences. It can set us up to dream and create moonshots. The sleight of hand when it comes to combining play into any work-related objective is how play is being packaged. Rather than intentionally conjuring work and play together, in a forced attempt to make it relevant to the business, getting your audience to participate in light-hearted exercises is an open invitation for them to realise that they can actually practice creativity, and ultimately just have fun. In workshops and event organizing, the common phrase is “teambuilding”, “ice-breakers” or “energizers”. At the playground, it is better known as “let’s play a game”.

The following items below are 10 creative play methods that I have used in different settings and purposes. As a disclaimer, not all play methods work all the time. There has been times when improvisation takes place, turning one original game into a completely another game. That is perhaps the beauty of play: it can be chaotically refreshing.

1. Adjective me 🔠🧑🖼️: Participants think of two adjectives that must start with the same letters as their given and family name. For example, “Hi, I’m Joyfully Happy John Doe”. Adjective me is a great way to find out how your participants are feeling, so as to adjust your session accordingly. It works best virtually in a large group when people are checking in to a video conference. An additional tip is to include a gif to the introduction.

Adjective me (source: Kay Xiong)

2. Product me 🔠👩💡: An extension to adjective me, participants find an object that must start with the same letter as their given name. For example, if the participant’s name is John, he will look for an object that starts with J, such as a jar of jam or jumpers. Participants are encouraged to tell a story about their object and how it relates to them. Product me pushes a level of resourcefulness from participants to search and find something that they can talk about. It creates diversity and encourages empathy among participants. It works best virtually in a large group when people are checking in to a video conference. An additional tip is for participants to capture a photo and for the facilitator to create a collage.

Juicy Salif & Philippe Starck share a common last name, and maybe more on personality (source: BeCreative)

3. No look portrait 👨‍🦯🖼️🎨: Participants are given a piece of paper and a marker. Without looking at the paper, participants attempt to draw a portrait of another fellow participant. No look portrait creates a lighthearted atmosphere where every participant struggles to draw a person’s face. It works best with the gamemaster doing a demo for the rest to follow. Try MS Paint (or Preview for Mac users) as a digital alternative for video conferencing.

Drawing a portrait without looking (source: Eli Hill)

4. 30 circles ⭕🕒⭕: Participants form a group of 3–4 and are given a template of 30 circles and markers. Within 3 minutes, they are to draw circular objects directly on the circle template, such as clock, ball etc. 30 circles is a classic game created by IDEO that introduces the principle of brainstorming. It works best when competing with other groups. Use whiteboarding tools, such as miro, to replicate the 30 circles virtually.

Drawing 30 circular objects within the circle templates (source: Alisa Begoun)

5. Squiggle bird 💫🐦💫: Participants are asked to draw multiple squiggles, rough sketches in a circular motion, with paper and marker. They then attempt to add the features of a bird into the squiggle, such as two eyes, a beak and and bird feet. Inspired by Dave Gray from Gamestorming, Squiggle bird unleash the abstract artist in us by giving us the ability to draw representation easily. It is also a very cathartic exercise for designers to let creative tension go. Squiggle bird works well in a digital whiteboard too.

By drawing a beak, feet and eyes, a squiggle becomes a bird (source: Dave Gray)

6. Tangram charade 🟩📐🔷: A participant from a small group is given a few tangrams consisting of different shapes. By randomly picking from a list of objects, the participant is to form the object whilst the rest guesses what object it represents. Preset tangram templates may need to be prepared, depending on how enthusiastic the players are. Tangram charade is a slight twist to the traditional charade game, which creates high energy and participation when competing with other groups. For a digital version, create preset shapes on a whiteboard tool, and share the list to the participant in a private chat.

Tangram charade can be done on many different levels, including on digital whiteboarding (source: Matthias Bastian)

7. Salapp 📱🥗📱: Each participant is given a list of mobile apps to choose from, and selects 2. They then form a new idea based on combining 2 features from each app. For example, the combination of tinder and uber is a speed dating activity on wheels. Inspired by a game from DBS, Salapp is a portmanteau of salad (involving the mixing and tossing of ingredients) and native app. Consider doing quick low fidelity sketches when coming up with the new idea.

Combining 2 apps to create a new solution

8. Human Altas 👥🗺️📍: Each participant is given a question on where was the last country they have visited. As a large group, they then position themselves relatively to one another according to the location of the countries on a world map. Inspired by a game from Singapore Airlines, Human Altas requires a large room of participants who either enjoys travelling, or comes from various places across the globe. The equivalent on a digital canvas would be to ask the participant to place a name sticker on a shared map.

Participants stand in relative to countries and regions of a world atlas map (special mention to gamemaster: Amanda Chua)

9. Mind Meld 🧠⚡🧠: A pair of participants say things (objects, place, person, phrase, anything) together until they reach the same word. Participants can coordinate by saying “1,2,3, _________”. Mind meld encourages synchrony between team members, especially when they are new to one another. It can be played as a group, and in a hybrid setup.

Mind meld came from Star Trek, which inspires the game of thinking alike (source: CBS)

10. Exquisite Corpse 🗿⚰️🦵: Each participant is given a piece of paper and marker, and folds the paper into a few parts, depending on the number of players. Using the reference of a human body, they then draw on one panel before passing to the next participant. For example, the topmost panel represents the “head”, whilst the bottom panel represents the “feet”. After going around in a circle, the drawing will come back to its original owner, but this time with different drawing coming from others. Exquisite corpse is another famous example from Surrealism in the early 20th century. It is a lighthearted introduction to a 6–3–5 brainwriting, another creative technique to generate shared ideas through linkages. Exquisite Corpse is easily replicable on a digital whiteboard.

By partitioning a board into panels, a mishmash character is formed by passing the drawings around (source: Arnolfini)

Here are some more tips when playing:

• Tell a story, rather than a lecture. Make it interesting and engaging for your audience to gravitate towards the game. Sometimes, a learning point that aid understanding to the work can come to play, but do not over-engineer learning into games.
• State what it is: a game. There is no need for any disguise. And there shouldn’t be any hidden agenda or work embedded into games.
• Tease out laughter. Surprise your audience. Make it fun.
• Show how it works. Despite your best verbal explanation, sometimes demonstrating resolves confusion quickly.
• Dance with Murphy. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So dance with it when it does. Consider improvising or delaying if possible. Apologize if the game fails. Although there can be unpredictability, preparation and planning is always essential.