Play – as every child, parent, philosopher and psychologist knows – is a serious business. What looks from the outside like children engaged in entertaining but haphazard leisure is actually the complex process of creating crucial life skills – from creative reasoning and problem-solving to language development, confidence-building, social interaction, learning strategies, self-control and coping with stress.
“Play is the beginning of knowledge,” said American anthropologist George Dorsey, while Carl Jung believed: “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct.” George Bernard Shaw believed it can even stop the ageing process. “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing,” he said. Something Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Lego’s owner, very much agrees with.
Yet, there’s still the tendency to stick to the philosophy as described by St Paul: “When I became a man, I put away childish things.”
So when was the last time you played? We’re not talking about a game of sport for fitness, or an hour of Scrabble to keep your mind active, but daft, silly, chaotic play with no obvious goal in mind apart from pure fun and to shake you out of your established routine.
The importance of play in childhood has long been recognised: the right for children to play is even enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
By playing, children discover the world around them and how it operates, how things work and the way people function. Children develop language skills, learn how to cooperate with others, discover emotional intelligence and how to think creatively as well as find solutions to problems. Without the chance to play, researchers have found that children become stressed, anxious, angry and are unable to interact well in social situations.
As the late Seymour Papert, former Lego professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, said: “Rather than pushing children to think like adults, we might do better to remember that they are great learners and to try harder to be more like them.”
Few companies are better placed than Danish toy giant Lego Group to observe first-hand the importance of play, and for nearly 10 years now its Lego Foundation has been working in association with universities such as MIT and Cambridge to look at the effects of play from childhood upwards, including the impact on brain development and the psychological influence of play.
“Play is an essential foundation of wellbeing,” says Bo Stjerne Thomsen, global head of research at the Lego Foundation. “It’s of global importance. Play boosts critical understanding, relieves stress, boosts confidence, enhances critical thinking and fosters social and emotional skills.”
Children are naturally curious, he continues: “They want to explore their environment, to be active and fulfilled.”
Different types of play can help build different skills and capabilities, too. Building and testing structures can lead to improved mathematical skills and understanding of science, while pretend play, such as acting out or telling stories, leads to language development and a richer vocabulary.
Play can be free – climbing trees, for example, or building dens – but Thomsen recommends guided play as well, which parents can join in with.
“Children and adults can learn a lot from each other,” says Thomsen. “Children are naturally curious and parents can learn from their children’s curiosity, while parents can help children use resources and learn about opportunities and ways of thinking around a problem.”
Such skills are becoming increasingly sought-after in the modern workplace, where companies are desperate for their employees to come up with new and innovative solutions.
“The brain is more flexible than people thought, and yet it’s easy to get stuck into a rigid pattern of everyday life,” says Thomsen. “The modern workplace has more complex challenges than ever before, which can lead to a lot of stress, but there are tremendous opportunities, too.”
“Humans are hardwired to play, and this doesn’t stop in childhood,” according to Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, who believes that being playful makes us happier, more open-minded, more creative, better able to bond with other people and even helps those suffering from depression.
With an ageing population, a delayed state pension and increasing financial pressures, anything that enables people to learn new skills in later life can only be of benefit. But after years of being told to “put away childish things”, it can be hard for adults to embrace the new philosophy.
Introducing play into the workplace might be a new and unnerving concept, especially if you are in a classic time-pressure work environment where play might be looked upon as a waste of otherwise useful time.
However, there are ways of introducing changes over time that promote play and creative thinking, says Thomsen. “One way is to allocate time to coming up with new ideas, such as having a new-ideas session at the start of team meetings,” he says. “Make sure people know that it’s OK to take risks and it’s OK for an idea to fail.”
Lego offers its employees the option of the Play Agent programme, an initiative that aims to increase knowledge of play, creativity and learning both at work and home. The programme combines theory and research from the Lego Foundation with hands-on brick and non-brick exercises, led by trained colleagues and master trainers from Lego Education and Lego Foundation.
Outside the workplace, there are signs that we are all discovering the joys of play; witness the rapid growth in adult playzones, where grownups can enjoy the childish pleasures they enjoyed when they were smaller, such as jumping into a ball pit, a round of crazy golf, even playing games such as Mouse Trap and Operation, which they thought they had put away forever. A growing number of museums and art galleries are putting on sleepover nights for adults, while the “escape room” craze – like a real-life Crystal Maze – is showing no signs of slowing down.
Other companies are getting in on the act, too, by encouraging staff to take time out to play – anything from pingpong and table football to fancy-dress Fridays and in-house competitions. Some businesses are tapping into other resources to stimulate colleagues’ creativity and sense of fun.
Instant Teamwork, for example, founded by former Scritti Politti band member Tom Morley, organises corporate playdays, including group drumming, storytelling and singing, and says that these activities create energy and sharpen listening, concentration, focus and risk-taking – perfect for team building.
“With everything being delivered in apps these days, our problem-solving muscles have become lazy,” says Morley. “Play stimulates the mental muscles of curiosity, creativity and inventiveness.”
Thomsen agrees: “Without the creativity and free-thinking inspired by play, how are today’s workers supposed to come up with game-changing ideas?”
