Innovation: Playing or innovating in the real world?
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:34 am
You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Plato, The Republic .
Would this be the first article you have come across on the role of play in business innovation? Certainly not. Plato sensed this centuries ago. Many of us have already experienced it in seminars, workshops and courses that are within easy reach and widely circulated on social media.
What would be the point of writing more about a topic that is already part of business culture? Simply to share an experience marked by amazement at the quality of the solutions that emerged from the game.
Let's take a trip back to our childhood and look back at those memories that gave us the most satisfaction. For a moment, let's close our eyes... let's relive a memory in which the game allowed us to conquer territories, cross rivers, dance in castles...
Perhaps because of the audacity with which we created worlds nepal phone number lead that did not exist for others, but in which we lived experiences of profound vitality. Perhaps because of the richness and diversity that we projected and gave wings to our imagination, driven only by a piece of tin, wood or cardboard. Perhaps because we connected, through play, with our innovative capacity, is why we are currently trying to recreate play in the company.
There is a decisive and inevitable moment for this to happen. Someone has to take responsibility for proposing it. Who wouldn't feel uneasy calling managers and senior managers to play? Fortunately, the business world is distinguished by having this type of profile and more and more leaders are venturing into play.
Let's agree that many people still feel ashamed and react with criticism when the challenge is a game. Deep down, there is resistance for fear of having forgotten what it means to play. The pressure of competition is so great that we do not allow ourselves to relax, let our guard down and enjoy another way of achieving better products, better business. If there is no tension, there is hardly any profit, it is an invisible but real mandate for many.
Once the invitation has been granted, fears and prejudices have been overcome, it is time to dive into the wonderful opportunity to reconnect with our inner world, facilitated by the game. There are no impediments there. It is the world of the possible. There are no limits. It is the world of the infinite. There are no times. It is the world of the eternal.
To the extent that we allow ourselves to delve deeper into this experience of freedom, we will discover our resources in line with it. And we will advance, slowly and steadily, along paths of innovation and unexpected creativity.
What is the point of venturing into a world like Peter Pan? Why would such an immersion be appropriate in a world governed by a host of limited resources?
We are aware of the inability to find solutions with the same minds that have generated the problems. So, do we have any other alternative? Can we innovate and develop improvements if we do not get out of our mental paradigm?
It would be appropriate to be grateful and humble defenders, disseminators and executors of the game. We could call it a tool, but I prefer to call it a capacity. That we all have equally. An innate capacity, which in all areas and for all topics, allows us to connect with another way of observing and responding to the reality that touches us. A capacity that, added to the capacity of the others on the team, serves to build a new model for sales, for business, for the company.
Would this be the first article you have come across on the role of play in business innovation? Certainly not. Plato sensed this centuries ago. Many of us have already experienced it in seminars, workshops and courses that are within easy reach and widely circulated on social media.
What would be the point of writing more about a topic that is already part of business culture? Simply to share an experience marked by amazement at the quality of the solutions that emerged from the game.
Let's take a trip back to our childhood and look back at those memories that gave us the most satisfaction. For a moment, let's close our eyes... let's relive a memory in which the game allowed us to conquer territories, cross rivers, dance in castles...
Perhaps because of the audacity with which we created worlds nepal phone number lead that did not exist for others, but in which we lived experiences of profound vitality. Perhaps because of the richness and diversity that we projected and gave wings to our imagination, driven only by a piece of tin, wood or cardboard. Perhaps because we connected, through play, with our innovative capacity, is why we are currently trying to recreate play in the company.
There is a decisive and inevitable moment for this to happen. Someone has to take responsibility for proposing it. Who wouldn't feel uneasy calling managers and senior managers to play? Fortunately, the business world is distinguished by having this type of profile and more and more leaders are venturing into play.
Let's agree that many people still feel ashamed and react with criticism when the challenge is a game. Deep down, there is resistance for fear of having forgotten what it means to play. The pressure of competition is so great that we do not allow ourselves to relax, let our guard down and enjoy another way of achieving better products, better business. If there is no tension, there is hardly any profit, it is an invisible but real mandate for many.
Once the invitation has been granted, fears and prejudices have been overcome, it is time to dive into the wonderful opportunity to reconnect with our inner world, facilitated by the game. There are no impediments there. It is the world of the possible. There are no limits. It is the world of the infinite. There are no times. It is the world of the eternal.
To the extent that we allow ourselves to delve deeper into this experience of freedom, we will discover our resources in line with it. And we will advance, slowly and steadily, along paths of innovation and unexpected creativity.
What is the point of venturing into a world like Peter Pan? Why would such an immersion be appropriate in a world governed by a host of limited resources?
We are aware of the inability to find solutions with the same minds that have generated the problems. So, do we have any other alternative? Can we innovate and develop improvements if we do not get out of our mental paradigm?
It would be appropriate to be grateful and humble defenders, disseminators and executors of the game. We could call it a tool, but I prefer to call it a capacity. That we all have equally. An innate capacity, which in all areas and for all topics, allows us to connect with another way of observing and responding to the reality that touches us. A capacity that, added to the capacity of the others on the team, serves to build a new model for sales, for business, for the company.