Many people and organizations have been asking IBM to explain just what we are talking about when we discuss Serious Play for Learning and Work. As one of the internal champions for this direction, here is my own perspective.
We use the term ‘ Serious Play’ to describe the lessons we are learning as we watch the evolution of technology and social systems in video and casual games, synchronous chat, and web collaboration spaces over the past 20 years. Serious Play can include any game genre, many of which are considered a form of edutainment, but the main goal of a serious game is not to entertain. Certainly games in the form of Serious Play will engage people which is always good for learning, but serious games are usually created to train or educate users. Some serious play is seen within simulations and may have the look and feel of a game, but are actually a simulation of real-world events or processes.
Serious Play is also be observed in the way all of us collaborate, interrelate and connect in our rapidly evolving virtual social networks and work spaces. The playful engaging nature of IM chat for example, which swept IBM just a few years ago, is now a mainstream application carrying serious business. We also see play at work in the formation and use of team spaces, new communities of practice, external community building tools, VOIP applications, mobile phone interfaces, chat spaces, and the way in which we connect, network and live within the world. As we think seriously about play, we can see that play may be becoming a core competency which we must understand to navigate the media rich, increasingly virtual worlds we are creating. Most of us intuitively understand that when we play, we learn. “The four great chords of mental health are the ability to love, to work, to play and to think soundly. It is remarkable how closely tied each these chord is with one another.”[1]
I have this rather obscure theory that I offer in various circles when asked to talk about Serious Play. I contend that we seem to be in just four spaces in our entire life. We are either at home, at work or at play or in the undefined grey space in between the first three. For many of us these spaces are increasingly becoming the same physical place as we live, work and play in the same place we call home. This lifestyle by its very nature separates us from a great deal of the playful activities, body language, lunch chats, meetings and camaraderie that used to be a part of our work day. We are losing thousands of messages in our technologically ruled virtual work space, that we must replace with the modern day equivalent. This is the Serious Play for Learning and Work challenge we are pursuing and it’s a big deal.
…. And I think there is a great deal of innovation to be mined in ‘them there hills!’
[1] Blatner, Adam and Blatner, Allee – The Art Of Play
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