Play can feel challenging at work. For most people, this doesn’t sound like much of a problem—except when they:
Want their team to think outside the box
Are concerned no one wants to come into the office anymore
Scratch their heads at the lack of change resilience
Our fear of judgment is a creative killer. Psychological safety and play are intrinsically linked because the presence of one naturally enhances the other. In a workplace where employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to engage in playful activities without fear of judgment. Conversely, incorporating play can foster a sense of safety, as it encourages open communication and trust.
Amy Edmondson has identified four dimensions of psychological safety:
Open Conversations
Willingness to Help and Teaming
Diversity and Inclusion
Attitude to Risk and Failure
Guess which one rates the lowest in her Fearless Organisation pulse check? Attitude to Risk and Failure.
When we think about incorporating play into our work, we often get stuck. Perhaps it is time to consider being more playFUL—short, sharp bursts of play to change the energy, practice sharing ideas lightly, and open up to doing things differently.
How about adding a splash of playfulness to your team meetings by:
Taking turns to do one thing differently in each meeting.
Approaching a challenge or problem for 15 minutes from a completely different perspective—what would Hagrid, Papa Smurf, or C-3PO do?
Creating an easier way for people to share ideas (many brainstorms can go from 10% to 100% simply by turning everyone’s chairs away from one another).
Working on a challenging fake problem rather than a real one, which can lower the stakes and make people more comfortable sharing ‘out there’ ideas (similar to our Conversation Clinics).
Taking turns to share your “lame ideas”—a practice of being vulnerable.
If you need more support in understanding your team’s levels of psychological safety or building capacity in the four dimensions, make a time to have a chat with us here.
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