Play to work
How interactivity solves problems
Have you ever had a tough nut to crack — a conundrum to unpack or solve — and weren’t sure where to start? You might be blocked on a project and can’t see the way forward. Or you have a career decision to make. Or you’re trying to figure out how to do “re-entry” in a way that keeps you sane and safe.
I had a tough nut this weekend and decided to try something new (to me). I am in the business of designing experiences for people, of helping them solve big problems together. Great, right? Yes, it’s work I truly, deeply love. For this particular mission, however, I had less than a week to come up with an online event structure that would help a team drive change in the fields of climate change and water financing and security.
I had a number of ideas and had seen a number of approaches work in countless online events — and that was part of the problem. Ideas, approaches, choices, possibilities — gosh, it’s great to have so many. So many ingredients to throw into the pot. But a hodgepodge of tactics and techniques was not going to magically birth an event (or series of events) that would focus the participants’ energy and create a safe mental playground for new ideas.
Usually, with opportunities like these, I go for a run, I ask questions, I type notes on Notepad, I shower (water really helps), I get out into nature, I sleep, I meditate, I cook, I listen to music, and I make myself “think harder”, with lists, notes and more typing into my laptop (as if the laptop were some sort of all-powerful idea generator I just had to plug content into).
The problem was I didn’t have as much time as I normally would. These things take time, you see.
Fortunately, I’d been reading a book all about extending the mind, or thinking outside the brain, and Saturday morning, I’d come to the bit on “interactivity”:
“… interactivity: the physical manipulation of tactile objects as an aid to solving abstract problems. […] Outside the architect’s studio — or the kindergarten classroom—interactivity is not widely employed; our assumption that our brain operates like a computer has led us to believe that we need only input the necessary information in order to generate the correct solution. But human minds don’t work that way, observes Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau, a professor of psychology at Kingston University in the UK. The computer analogy ‘implies that simulating a situation in your head while you think is equivalent to living through that situation while you think,’ he writes. ‘Our research strongly challenges this assumption. We show instead that people’s thoughts, choices, and insights can be transformed by physical interaction with things. In other words, thinking with your brain alone — like a computer does — is not equivalent to thinking with your brain, your eyes and your hands.”
Ah-ha! Why not?
I’ve witnessed the magic that happens when people are invited to “play” with objects, to interact with them. It’s how my son learned and mastered higher math (with thanks to Stanford’s Jo Boaler, who first stressed the importance of interactivity — and body learning — in a course on learning math some years ago), for heaven’s sake. We had used Legos to learn our multiplication tables, of all things.
I also love to bring objects into my in-person workshops — and invite participants to get their ideas out and around in movement and in play.
So why not try it myself?
I pulled out a box of art and design thinking materials — with Legos and string and stickers and coloured pencils and notebooks, and away I went. I spread everything out on the table, sitting outside, in the shade, and began to play.
I turned everything up so I could see each piece. I felt like a crow, picking through my tools. I moved the pieces around, sometimes lining them up, sometimes taking a figurine and standing it on its own. I stood up and changed seats to sit on the other side of the table. I moved the pieces around, this time differently. I allowed myself to hum. I opened a notebook and started jotting down things like:
- What are we trying to do?
- What do we need?
- Why are we doing this?
- Who will this serve?
I played with questions. I knew the answers would flow.
I surrendered to the process of play. Answers weren’t important just yet.
I continued to move the pieces and without meaning to, my hands started creating a flow. I was not designing. Play was designing.
I played all morning. My husband and son watched on in wonder.
“What are you doing?” they asked, as they too, came to play around with placing the Lego people and the odd Lego piece, the googly eye, the string.
“I’m working,” I smiled.
“If this is working, I want to grow up to do what you do!” came their enthusiastic reply.
Indeed.
We can all do this. And I venture, we should do this.
Both research and history bear out what happens when we get outside our heads. From figuring out how DNA works (Watson and Crick in 1868) to how to solve major health crises, scientists and researchers and thinkers before us have cracked those tough nuts by building and drawing and playing with models, with toys, with patterns and with sound.
I dare you to give it a try, for play, my friends, is more than play. It is a window to another world.
PS Play ended up cracking the nut. Three events came to life, after much drawing and writing and playing. Then more playing.
The first event took place on 1 July 2021. More fun (my working definition of work) is yet to come.
