How a Playful Mindset Leads to Better Work
“Stop playing around and get to work.” Many adults may recall hearing this phrase as children when they had homework or chores to do. This mindset, that play is the opposite of work, often follows us into adulthood.
But what if play isn’t a distraction from serious work? What if it’s actually one of the most effective ways to unlock creativity under pressure?
That’s the question explored in a recent episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast. Host Mina Seetharaman was joined by Cas Holman, play designer and author of Playful, and Michelle Lee, IDEO Partner and Executive Co-Managing Director, for a live conversation on what a playful mindset really looks like at work.
Cas brings decades of experience designing open-ended play systems for children and adults—including Rigamajig, which is now used in hundreds of schools, playgrounds, museums, libraries, and community spaces around the world—and her work has been featured on Netflix’s Abstract. Michelle brings a complementary perspective from inside organizations, helping teams apply playful thinking at work in complex, outcome-driven environments.
Together, they explore how adults can rethink play as a leadership skill that helps teams ask better questions, stay curious under pressure, and make room for more creative, effective work in everyday moments.
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Article Summary
Play is a mindset, not an activity
Play can be encouraged, but not forced
What play looks like for adults
Better questions are the real creative advantage
Add in good friction to boost fun and creativity
How a playful approach leads to more valuable outcomes
Play is a mindset, not an activity
For many people, “play” conjures images of games, silliness, misbehavior, or wasted time. Understandably, that can feel at odds with the working world, where real pressure, real outcomes, and real responsibility are on your shoulders. Instead, look at play as a way of approaching problems.
“Being playful in your thinking could mean having an open mind,” Cas explained. “Being flexible in how you approach problems.”
For many leaders, the challenge isn’t believing that creativity matters. It’s knowing how to invite it in without making people uncomfortable or undermining seriousness.
Play can be encouraged, but not forced
“There’s this idea of a ‘play mandate,’” Cas said, recalling a CEO at one of her workshops who wanted clear directions to pass on to his team. “But play can’t be forced. The moment it’s treated as a means to an end, it stops being play.”
“Forced fun doesn't work,” Michelle adds. “No one likes forced fun…We can't make someone play. We can set the conditions to invite someone to play.”
Instead of a mandate, leaders can demonstrate a playful mindset by the way they frame questions, tolerate uncertainty, and signal curiosity.
Learn how to tap into the power of imagination to tackle complex problems with our online course Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving.
What play looks like for adults
Children don’t overthink play. They move fluidly between exploring, building, imagining, competing, resting, and collaborating, learning constantly in the process.
Adults, however, often associate play with a narrow set of behaviors. When play is reduced to games or performance, it’s easy to see why it feels out of place at work.
In her book, Cas outlines more relevant language with eight play types that encompass what this behavior looks like in adults.
The 8 types of adult play
Meditative (slow) play
Quiet, reflective play that allows space for noticing, slowing down, and letting ideas surface over time.
It feels like…focus, awareness, calm.
Creative play
Expressing ideas, making something new, and experimenting without a fixed outcome.
It feels like…generative thinking, messiness, brainstorming.
Problem-solving play
Engaging with constraints, puzzles, and challenges in an exploratory way.
It feels like… iteration, reframing.
Attention play
Play that sharpens focus and awareness by tuning into patterns, details, or subtle shifts.
It feels like…staying present, deep engagement.
Possibility play
Imagining what could be rather than what already exists.
It feels like…speculation, “what if” thinking, suspension of judgment.
Competitive play
Play driven by motivation to outperform yourself or others.
It feels like…challenge, comparison, momentum.
Embodied play
Physical, sensory engagement that involves the body and unlocks thinking that can’t happen sitting still.
It feels like…movement, gesture, spatial interaction.
(Mis)behavior play
Play that bends, tests, or pushes against norms and expectations, often surfacing hidden assumptions.
It feels like…exploring boundaries, risk taking.
Cas emphasized that these play types aren’t rigid categories or steps to follow. Each one can show up as free play—open-ended exploration without predetermined outcomes—or as social play, done alongside others.
Why language matters if you want to encourage playfulness at work
When play is narrowly defined as something performative or extroverted, it can alienate people who think, learn, or contribute differently.
Language can also turn play from sounding silly into acceptable behavior. Instead of a generic invitation to play, leaders can design work that supports specific forms of engagement, whether that’s slow reflection, imaginative exploration, embodied movement, or structured problem-solving.
When leaders understand that play shows up in different forms, it changes how they design meetings, projects, and experiences. Play doesn’t have to be confined to warm-ups, breaks, or off-sites. A brainstorming session might invite exploratory or possibility play. A planning session might lean into problem-solving or meditative play.
Better questions are the real creative advantage
One of the clearest ways a playful mindset shows up at work is through the ability to ask better questions. Questions don’t just guide discussion. They shape the solution space. As Cas put it, “Shifting the question can lead to completely different outcomes.”
When leaders frame work around specific solutions, teams tend to optimize what already exists. When they frame work around underlying needs, teams are more likely to explore unfamiliar (and more innovative) directions.
When teams are briefed on a solution instead of a problem, it speeds things up, but it also narrows their focus. A good question helps people stay in a divergent, playful mindset longer. “Diverging is what gives us more possibilities to choose from,” Michelle says. If teams are encouraged to explore alternatives and avoid locking in decisions too early, it can minimize rework later.
Cas shared that when her students are asked to design a shoe, they often replicate familiar forms. But when the question is reframed as ‘How might we protect feet?’ the ideas multiply.
“The question can either open up curiosity, or it can limit it,” Cas said of how reframing the question is an innovation strategy that leads to more creative solutions.
“The question can either open up curiosity, or it can limit it.”
CAS HOLMAN—FOUNDEr OF RIGAMAJIG AND AUTHOR OF PLAYFUL
Add in good friction to boost fun and creativity
In children’s play, friction is intentionally designed. If something is too simple, it loses its ability to engage, teach, or inspire. Adults, however, often design work to remove friction, optimizing for speed and ease in ways that unintentionally strip away learning and creativity.
“Friction—or challenge—is where the good stuff is,” Cas said. “Easy is boring.”
Michelle offered a relatable example: “If the goal of golf were ease, you’d just put the ball in the hole.”
How a playful approach leads to more valuable outcomes
One of the most common questions leaders ask when play enters the conversation is also one of the hardest to answer directly: What’s the ROI?
“Play might get you to a better answer, but it’s not necessarily the fastest route,” Mina noted. “In a corporate world obsessed with ROI, those things can feel at odds.”
“It requires rethinking,” Cas said of bringing a playful approach into an existing process. “Trying to force an innovative process into a system that’s not innovative means you’re always going to run up against things that don’t fit.”
This means going beyond what you say you value as a leader, and shifting processes and reward systems to actually support those behaviors.
In Cas’s experience, play often extends the ideation phase but shortens what comes after. “In the end, it might be a longer process,” Cas said, “but we have an outcome that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And that’s a more valuable outcome.”
“Retention is a big deal,” Michelle noted of going beyond measuring output and efficiency as metrics of success. “If you introduce play into your workplace, it changes the mindset. It makes people excited to come to work, and that ultimately helps your bottom line.”
When leaders broaden how they think about the ROI of playfulness to include engagement, creativity, and energy, the value of play becomes easier to see and defend.
Keep Exploring Playful Thinking
Read Cas Holman’s book
On sale now: Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity
Learn with Michelle Lee at IDEO U
Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving — Tap into the power of imagination to tackle complex problems.
Related Blog Posts
How to Lead in Uncertainty: 3 Qualities for Success
3 Levers for Leading Through Change and Uncertainty
The Power of Play: How to Solve Problems Like a Toy Designer
Play at Work: 7 Ways to Shift Your Mindset and Unlock Innovation
Listen to more podcast episodes
Subscribe to the Creative Confidence Podcast to hear conversations with today’s most thoughtful creative leaders and explore past episodes at ideou.com/podcast.
About the Speakers
Cas Holman
Founder of Rigamajig and Author of Playful
Cas Holman is the founder and chief designer of the toy company Heroes Will Rise and a former professor of Industrial Design at RISD. Cas travels the globe speaking about playful learning, the design process, and the value of play in all aspects of life. She has shared her perspective in workshops and seminars with teams at Google, Nike, LEGO Foundation, Disney Imagineering, and art museums around the world. Some of her designs include toys like Rigamajig and Geemo, as well as play experiences at the High Line and the Liberty Science Center. Cas is author of Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity (October 2025, Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House) with science writer Lydia Denworth about the importance of free play for adults. Cas lives in Brooklyn and designs from her studio in the Catskills, New York.
Michelle Lee
Partner and Executive Co-Managing Director, IDEO
Michelle Lee is an IDEO Partner and Executive Co-Managing Director, where she helps lead IDEO’s San Francisco studio and the IDEO Play Lab. With a background spanning toy design, user research, product management, and design leadership, Michelle brings a deep understanding of how playful thinking can unlock creativity in complex, real-world contexts. At IDEO, Michelle works with organizations across industries—including education, healthcare, and consumer products—to apply play as both a mindset and a method for tackling ambiguity, engaging teams, and driving meaningful change. Michelle regularly speaks and writes about her passion for play, including presentations at SXSW, The Delight Conference, The Culture Summit, Circularity 23, and educational institutions and organizations around the world, inviting audiences to reimagine the power of play in shaping meaningful futures.
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