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Boost Productivity 20%: The Surprising Power Of Play

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Increase productivity 20%—who doesn’t want that? In a new study by Brigham Young University, teams that played a collaborative (video) game together for just 45 minutes were able to increase their productivity on a task by 20%.

Perhaps all those expensive team-building programs or outlandish group retreats are over-reaching. Perhaps all you need to build culture and improve performance is a gaming council and some willing colleagues.

But it doesn’t have to be about gaming.

Actually, the reasons play helps teams and their results—and the reasons play is also good for your career growth—are well-founded. Company cultures that allow for play are better able to tap into the best in their employees, and employees themselves can bring more effectiveness into their work.

Here are four reasons you should play more too:

Play fosters innovation.

Playfulness is linked to humor and the distance from “Ha ha” to “Ah ha” is short . It is often the fun of the unexpected that leads to the novelty of new ideas and thus innovation. Humor is the result of surprise. We laugh or are entertained when we expect one thing and get something else. This is why knock-knock jokes resonate at young ages and why tricks of illusion still intrigue us. Surprise is the pathway toward creativity as well—combining ideas in new ways and embracing the unexpected to build something that hasn’t been done before.

Play unites team members.

Organized play (versus simply goofing around which has its own merits) tends to have common goals and simple rules. Common goals are good for teams and their work because they align and unite people. This alignment and focus tend to provide a sense of purpose and “line of sight” in which team members can see how their roles matter and how their efforts contribute to the whole. In addition, the simple rules of play provide for just enough structure to help team members feel a sense of boundary and control over the process they use to reach their goal. In short, it’s good to feel like your work matters toward a goal you share with others.

Play lets us bring more of ourselves to work.

Play also tends to build bonds with other team members. When work is all business, we see one side of our teammates. But, as I wrote in Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work, there are tremendous benefits when we can bring our full selves to work and when we can get to know others more fully. Even those of us with the most introverted preferences for working and living value our fundamental connection with others, and play is a way to create stronger connections. Through play, we have a new lens on those around us—what entertains them, what motivates them and what we have in common with them.

Play helps us blow off steam.

Lately, it’s easy to find research about the negative effects of stressful management practices on our work and, more importantly, on our health. In addition, research demonstrates that spending time in non-work pursuits and letting the mind wander are both useful for our overall well-being and effectiveness. Play is an antidote to a high-pressure work environment.  It helps people get away from their work temporarily and reduce the intensity of their work demands. This kind of rejuvenation can be especially useful in contributing to well-being and productivity.

We’re all striving to be productive and effective—as individuals, as teams and through our organizations—and while productivity can seem like the holy grail, perhaps it’s as easy as injecting a bit more play into our work. Game on!