Working Playfully is Serious Business

At the end of last month's "4th Tuesday" webinar, we promised we'd answer, here in this space, the handful of questions we didn't get a chance to address online. Several of those questions had to do with what working playfully means and why it matters.

In a recent article in the NY Times Magazine entitled Taking Play Seriously, Tom Schierlitz writes about play. He points to the reality that a life without play is not only less fun, it is also less effective. Play opens up parts of our minds, stretches our imagination, and allows us to think and act in ways that we might not if everything was serious and everything mattered. The article makes the case to support restoring play to the day and to challenge parents and schools who think that somehow they are doing kids and the world a favor by cutting recess in favor of more book time (to pass some standardized test).

But it also appears that kids are not the only ones who benefit from play. Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library's main branch on 42nd Street. He says, "If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams."

Everyone should enjoy play - we actually benefit from it! A playful mind is alert, active, curious, expansive and fresh. Marc Bekoff, also quoted in the article says, "I think of play as training for the unexpected."

A non-playful one is eventually dulled (and dull!) Is it any wonder that so many of our churches and organizations are struggling today? They have taken themselves too seriously and in the process have courted death thinking that if they would just be a little more serious they would find life.

If the premise of this is correct, then working playfully is not optional. Granted, not everything can be fun all the time. But if everything is always not fun then we are probably going about it all wrong. Has your organization stopped having fun? Then it's time to rethink how you work and make it fun again. It may just be that you will not only find enjoyment but discover a new effectiveness at the same time