Play Matters
What if the key to your success this year wasn’t another productivity hack but… play?
For many leaders, especially in mission-driven work, play often feels like a luxury. Or, worse, a distraction. Yet, some of the world’s most innovative organizations are using play as a catalyst for their biggest breakthroughs.
Research backs it up: play reduces stress, sparks creativity, and boosts collaboration. And at Recess Labs, we’ve made it central to how we think, work, and create.
Play isn’t just for office parties. It’s a tool, a serious one, for solving tough problems, team building, and innovation. In a world where constraints demand creative solutions, play is the framework that lets you think differently, act boldly, and create lasting impact.
So, how do you harness it? Let’s explore three powerful ways play and creativity can transform your work.
3 Powerful Ways Play and Workplace Creativity Can Transform Your Impact
1. Reframe Problems to Find Surprising Solutions
One of the biggest barriers to creativity is rigid thinking. When we define problems too narrowly, we miss the chance to see them from new angles.
In 2009, Derreck Kayongo noticed that 2.6 million bars of soap are thrown away in hotels daily. However, instead of focusing on waste alone, he asked a different question: What if this waste could save lives?
Kayongo’s team began collecting used soap, reprocessing it, and distributing it to communities in need.
In 2015 The Global Soap Project joined forces with Clean the World. Since then, they have diverted over 28 million pounds of waste from landfills and donated over 87 million bars of recycled soap.
Their playful rethinking of a problem, waste as a resource, sparked an initiative that has provided millions with access to hygiene supplies.
Action: Host a “what if” brainstorm session with your team. Challenge them to approach a stubborn problem from a completely unexpected perspective. Make it fun, award prizes for the wildest ideas to encourage playful thinking.
2. Build Creative Momentum Through Team Play
Great ideas rarely come from solitary genius. They’re born in collaboration. Play fosters trust and helps teams think together in ways they wouldn’t otherwise.
When the City of Surrey sought to tackle poverty, they turned to LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to unlock creative solutions. Through the session, participants, including government officials, nonprofit leaders, and community members, used LEGO bricks to build models representing systemic barriers and opportunities for change.
This hands-on approach helped participants visualize complex challenges and identify collaborative strategies in a way traditional discussions often fail to achieve. The tactile process enabled deeper conversations, built empathy among stakeholders, and inspired actionable ideas to address poverty.
Action: Create a weekly “Play Lab” for your team. Use improv games, role-playing, or some of these IDEO Exercises to Build Your Creative Confidence to explore challenges from fresh perspectives. Encourage everyone to set aside perfectionism and embrace curiosity.
3. Use Play to Engage and Mobilize Communities
Play isn’t just for your team, it can transform how you connect with your audience. When people feel emotionally invested, they act. Playful, interactive storytelling can be a powerful tool for mobilization.
To tackle ocean plastic pollution, Adidas and Parley for the Oceans launched a playful “Run for the Oceans” campaign in 2017, encouraging people to log their runs through an app. For every kilometer run, Adidas donates funds to remove plastic waste.
The gamified approach turned a daunting environmental crisis into an engaging, participatory movement. The campaign has rallied millions of runners globally, making tangible progress in reducing plastic pollution.
Action: Incorporate gamification into your next campaign. Create a challenge, leaderboard, or interactive experience that aligns with your mission and invites playful participation.
Wrapping Up
Play is where ideas come to life, where solutions emerge, and where impact grows. This year, let workplace creativity be your compass.
Here’s to 2025, a year of playful innovation and bold solutions.
Until next week,
Sarah & Jamie
P.S. Have a playful solution or story? Hit reply and share, we’d love to feature it!
