My Aims For This Blog (and Leapday)

When the annual workplace skills report comes out each year, ‘playfulness’ doesn’t get a look in.  

Maybe that’s right. We’re living in serious times, after all. Sandwiches cost ten pounds, the planet is on fire, and when you mention how horrible the war is people say, ‘which one?’ Being playful doesn’t feel like a priority.  

But the thing is, we can’t go on like this. We’re burnt out. And if we aren’t burnt out, we’re languishing. We’re mentally and physically exhausted, working longer and harder for less and less, and then being bombarded by get rich quick schemes and hustle culture propaganda every time we look at our phones. Young people are less happy than previous generations.

And I know, I know. It’s not our fault! The world turned upside down, we started working from home more, and before we knew it, we were spending more time on social media than we were outside. Every day we wake up stuck in our ruts, dimly remembering the last time we felt alive, and without the energy to turn it around. Ding! It’s another notification from work: Tuesday is going to be wacky snack day! Don’t forget to bring in your wacky snack! Wow. What a kooky culture. Almost makes up for the chest pain you feel every time you open your laptop. 

And hey, maybe things will get better on their own… Maybe a few years from now we’ll all be kicking back, counting our universal basic income, and surrounded by friendly robots performing menial tasks. Or, just maybe, things are going to get a little harder as generative AI strip-mines the life and soul out of our working world.  

Whatever your view of AI is, work is going to get weird. So how can we make sure we all survive the next few decades with smiles on our faces?  

Play. 

… 

That’s it.  

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Okay, okay, easier said than done. How are we going to do it? There are certainly lots of books on how important play is. But here’s what everyone seems to get wrong about play. They want you to do it in between work. They want you to take a break and play ping pong. They want you to start an office 5-a-side football team. And here’s what I’m saying: be playful 24/7. Yeah. Full on, right? Play as a way of life, not as a treat for getting your homework done.  

Now, there’s nothing wrong with play as a way to have fun and blow off steam. In fact, I think it’s vital, and we’ll be talking about the benefits of that too. I just saying that you can use play at work to not generate as much steam in the first place. I’m calling it ‘Productive Playfulness’. 

And why not? Study after study shows that play is the best way to learn, to collaborate, to socialise, even to have therapy. And yet in the workplace it seems to be viewed as something to whip out briefly for a quarterly social, (and mainly so that marketing has something to post on LinkedIn about the company’s unique culture).  

We all know that playing is important, and we don’t do it. It is universally accepted that play is important for children’s wellbeing and development. What on Earth happens when we leave school?  

We all know that playing is nice, and we don’t do it. Hell, I’m the author of this blog and I struggle to stay playful. That’s the reason I was compelled to write this blog, I guess. Because I’ve been there. I’ve been burnt out. I was worked so hard at one job I developed red-raw eczema all the way up both arms. I couldn’t wear a watch. In a one-to-one with one of my reports I absent-mindedly rolled up my sleeve and she audibly gasped.  

And I’ve languished too. Flash forward to another role at another agency. A well-paid, senior “creative” role, but I found myself watching the clock. Lying in bed as I worked from home, holding a weak smile on teams calls as my eyes glazed over. I didn’t care about anything I was doing, and I couldn’t even fill my downtime with anything that made me happy. I was fading painfully into the background, and all I could think was, is this how I’m going to spend my life? 

I’ve also had jobs where I laughed until I cried every single day. Jobs where I felt engaged, connected, purposeful, and like I was achieving something I could be proud of. What was the difference? Why did I enjoy my sweaty, on-my-feet-all-day, minimum-wage job at Nando’s more than the much-better-paid, cushy temp job where I sat in an ergonomic padded chair and read webcomics all day? 

This blog is my attempt to find and understand the answers to those questions. We’re going to explore what we mean when we say ‘playful’ and why it’s so important for a successful and enjoyable career (not to mention life!). We’re going to define Productive Playfulness, differentiate it from regular old-fashioned playfulness, and accept that it’s a skill that we can and should hone. Once we understand that PP mindset and its power, we’re going to look at what stops us from living it, and the simple steps we can all take to bring it into every aspect of our working lives (and beyond!) 

Sound good?  

Would it help if I said that I was cynical once, too? My journey towards playfulness has been life-long and had a very unplayful starting point.  

My dad died when I was 9yrs old. We were on a school trip, and he had volunteered to come along and help as a parent. The trip was to Snowdonia in North Wales. 

As we were walking up the trail, he said he felt unwell and would head back to the minivan and meet us back at the hostel. We all carried on and, on his way back to the van, he had a heart attack and died alone on the side of the mountain. 

I didn’t get therapy. My mum’s way of dealing with it was to never talk about it. 

I ended up watching, on average, 8 hours of TV a day for the next few years. When I wasn’t at school I was watching TV. This is pre-social media. I know that nowadays it’s quite normal for kids to be glued to screens every second of the day, but I wasn’t scrolling or clicking or gaming. I was just watching. I was on the outside and I didn’t want to engage in anything with anyone. 

When I was at secondary school I discovered performing. The feeling of being on stage and being the centre of attention without having to do a two-way conversation felt amazing. I rode that feeling for years and when I progressed to doing stand-up at university I felt incredibly comfortable being the only person in the room who was allowed to talk. My voice is amplified, not yours. You listen, I talk. Easy. 

Because for most people public speaking is a terrifying experience, performers often get called brave. But here’s the thing, it’s only brave if you’re scared. What would have been brave for me at that point would have been talking to my mum or my brother about my dad. Or talking to a stranger about anything. 

Luckily for me, two things happened at university that changed my life. First, I started doing improv. Second, I met my wife. (Today is our ten year wedding anniversary! Nuts.)

Both of these things started me moving towards a love of playfulness, and away from the love of (and need for) control.  

I believe that playfulness is seen as a personality trait and not a practicable skill. But we can all work on our playfulness. We have to. It’s going to save us. 

Okay, I think that’s enough of an introduction. No more excuses, it’s playtime. 

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