At least since the first new economy, playful design has invaded the working world. Today, the offices of startups, digital agencies, and web companies like Google often look more like playgrounds than work spaces. According to a recent survey in the UK, 80% of managers believe that playful office spaces can motivate employees. On closer look, however, their playfulness often bottoms out in bright colors, round shapes -- and the proverbial slide. This talk asks what it might mean to make work environments truly playful, what effects it has on well-being -- and whether we can make people play. Presentation given at Stanford University mediaX, May 10, 2016.
9. new chapter
of interviewed managers (FMCG, UK)
believe that playful office environments
increase employee motivation.
relaxed office environments: fad or future? (2014)
80%
10. new chapter
relaxed office environments: fad or future? (2014)
91%
of interviewed managers (FMCG, UK)
believe that playful office environments
improve team work.
11. gartner
of global 2000 companies will have at
least one gamified application by 2014.
gartner news room (2011)
70%
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1629214
12. playing works
• highly engaging
• reduces stress and anxiety
• fosters trust, relatedness, social-emotional skills
• fosters deep, conceptual learning
• fosters flexible, creative problem solving
• satisfies basic psychological needs -> short-term positive
affect and recovery, long-term psycho-social wellbeing
• trains autonomous self-regulation
Wenner 2009, Gray 2003
19. lettvin faraday, MIT
»You might regard it as the
womb of the Institute.
It is kind of messy, but by God
it is procreative!«
quoted in: »building 20: the procreative eyesore« (1991)
21. john lasseter, creative director, Pixar
»I kept running into people that I
hadn’t seen for months. I’ve never
seen a building that promoted
collaboration and creativity as well
as this one.«
quoted in: »steve jobs« (2011)
50. Jared M. Stein
»n. Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled
environment in which participants are lured in either by
mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed
environments, or by force, through a system of
punishments or rewards.
n. Any system or environment that repulses a target user
due to it’s closeness to or representation of an oppressive
or overbearing institution.«
defining creepy tree house (2008)
52. christopher Alexander
»Set up a playground for the children in each
neighborhood. Not a highly finished playground, with
asfalt and swings, but a place with raw materials of
all kinds—nets, boxes, barrels, trees, ropes, simple
tools, frames, grass, and water—where children can
create and re-create playgrounds of their own.«
a pattern language (1978: 369–370)
58. will wright
»Players navigate a possibility space by their
choices and actions; every player’s path is unique.
Games cultivate – and exploit – possibility space
better than any other medium. ... We're invited to
create and interact with elaborately simulated
worlds, characters, and story lines.«
dream machines (2006)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm
62. robert propst
»#1: Forgiving Principle: We must be allowed to change our
minds. The complexity of organizational environments coupled
with the unpredictable course of future directions requires a
forgiving behavior in facility design.
#2: Grace with Change: A facility needs to change with ease.
#3: On-line Planning and Expression: The individual can
participate in goal setting and thus behave like a manager at
any level. Users are often the best judges of what works.«
quoted in abraham (1998: n.p.)
63. robert propst
»It’s truly amazing the number of decisive
events and critical dialogues that occur
when people are out of their seated, stuffy
contexts, and moving around and chatting
with each other.«
quoted in abraham (1998: n.p.)
71. robert propst
»The dark side of this is that not all
organizations are intelligent and progressive.
Lots are run by crass people who can take the
same kind of equipment and create hellholes.
They make little bitty cubicles and stuff people
in them. Barren, rat-hole places.«
quoted in abraham (1998: n.p.)
72. Kars alfrink
»When designing tools for play,
underspecify!«
a playful stance (2008)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm
pattern
#2
81. paul penfield, MIT Professor
»Its ‘temporary nature’ permitted its occupants to
abuse it in ways that would not be tolerated in a
permanent building. If you wanted to run a wire from
one lab to another, you didn’t ask anybody’s
permission — you just got out a screwdriver and
poked a hole through the wall.«
mit’s building 20: the magical incubator 1943–1998 (1997)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm
82. bard bird, autor & regisseur, »ratatouille«
»If you walk around downstairs in the animation
area, you’ll see that it is unhinged. People are allowed
to create whatever office they want. One guy might
build a front that’s like a Western town. Someone
else might do something that looks like Hawaii…
John believes that if you have a loose, free kind of
atmosphere, it helps creativity.«
zitiert in »steve jobs« (2011)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm
86. office adventure playgrounds?
a possibility space
Rearrangeable spaces
Rearrangeable, recombinable furniture
Manipulable, trashable furniture
Bring your own device/stuff
underspecified
License to play around unmonitored
Encouragement to play around unmonitored
89. donald f. roy
»De Man cites the case of one worker who wrapped
13,000 incandescent bulbs a day; she found her outlet
for creative impulse, her self-determination, her
meaning in work by varying her wrapping movements a
little from time to time. ... Like the light bulb wrapper, I
did find a ›certain scope for initiative,‹ and out of this
slight freedom to vary activity, I developed a game of
work.«
banana time (1960)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225060960537.htm
98. James P. Carse
»It is an invariable principle of all play, that
whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever must
play, cannot play.«
finite and infinite games (1986)
99. Edward Deci, Richard Ryan
»An understanding of human motivation
requires a consideration of innate
psychological needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness.«
the what and why of goal pursuit (2000)
106. Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
5. Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
115. anonymous current employee
»There are reasons that this company has a higher turn over of
staff than a call centre. ... A lot of micro management, big
teams and knee jerk copycat change of directions often mid
sprints. Frequent prolonged crunch mode has resulted in low
quality software and bad company vibe. Partly due to
unrealistic hard deadlines pulled out of a woolly hat. A fear of
failure postpones or cancels most releases. ... No, I would not
recommend this company to a friend«
glassdoor (2014)
127. »It is the nature of a fun community to care
more about the players than about the game. ...
We are having fun. We are caring. We are safe
with each other. This is what we want.«
Bernie de Koven
the well-played game (1978: 19-20)
128. … vs. Quality and Varietyopen for benign transgression
129. … requires and builds trust
I won’t let you fall.
I’ll tell you when it’s
too much
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucianvenutian/439410200
131. Work Play
Other-determined Self-determined
Instrumental Autotelic
Consequential Inconsequential
Regulated Open
Care for result Care for each other
Motivation serves function Function serves motivation
work play playful work
Other-determined Self-determined Autonomy-oriented
Instrumental Autotelic Learning & quality-oriented
Consequential Inconsequential
Safety nets promote
exploration
Regulated Open Open, trust-based
Care for result Care for each other Socially oriented
Motivation serves function Function serves motivation Value-based
145. arbeit spiel
Fremdbestimmt Selbstbestimmt
Mittel zum Zweck Selbstzweck
Folgenreich Folgenlos
Durchreguliert Offen
Sorge um Ergebnis Sorge umeinander
Motivation dient Funktion Funktion dient Motivation
work play playful work
Other-determined Self-determined Autonomy-oriented
Instrumental Autotelic Learning & quality-oriented
Consequential Inconsequential
Safety nets promote
exploration
Regulated Open Open, trust-based
Care for result Care for each other Socially oriented
Motivation serves function Function serves motivation Value-based
put lived values over rule systems …
146. … through social free spaces ...
http://ascottallison.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/p1030286.jpg
147. … and modelling the values you wish to see.
http://ascottallison.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/p1030286.jpg