Play, An Agile Process

Business Agility; Forbes suggests that Business Agility relies heavily on a need to willing experiment, to fail, find the kernel of usefulness in the failure and grow it. To be able to put people before processes, adapt to new environments and communicate simply and mindfully. An Agile business can change direction rapidly. Czikszentmihalyi has a lot to say about flow state at work.

Play: Through playful encounters we find the desire and ability to create imaginatively, to experiment, explore to take risks in front of others and to fail, to learn from mistakes made by ourselves and others, and begin again and in that process, we develop the social awareness, emotional intelligence and resilience skills required to communicate honestly and collaborate efficiently because in that flow state we keep the enthusiasm for play going.

In addition, when we play we have the opportunity to model best practice and see it being modelled. Czikszentmihalyi was originally going to call his bestselling book ‘Flow’, “Play”.

This presentation will show advantages of using playfulness in workplaces especially when looking for greater insights into individuals ‘other’ skills and qualities and clear ways to communicate ideas.

Stephen Heart

Founder @ Playworks Oz

Trained as an actor, joined the army Royal Engineers EOD, Served in Canada as a Staff Instructor on the training team. Broke neck, recovered, broke more bones, became a facilitator and teacher for hire then created Playworks® Oz, an experiential training company based in Melbourne.

Army, University and life have taught me a great deal about change and handling it. Accepting what can’t be changed, changing what can and understanding personal strengths. Creativity, curiosity, humour and playfulness have been at the core of my successes, including running ultra marathons after a prognosis of quadriplegia.

Training and facilitating have been at the heart of my work devising activities and workshops that deliver the outcomes of clients, in a fun safe way for participants. Albert Bandura would agree that when we play, we have the opportunity to model best practice or see best practice and either way, it is a powerful learning experience. Play is Czikszentmihalyi’s ‘Flow’ and it can be harnessed to produce some seriously enriching innovations and outcomes. Marketing and Innovation are what Peter Drucker saw as the only two functions of a business. Play, when it isn’t a for of innovation, leads to innovation.