VIDEO: Tim Brown on the Role of "Play" in Innovation

In this talk at the 2008 Serious Play conference, Tim Brown of IDEO (we tend to like them if you can't tell) discusses the role of "play" in innovation and creativity. At first glance it seems obvious that play would be a part of creativity, but as Brown points out, adults (even those in so-called creative fields) tend to self-edit to the point that anything that could conceivably be called "play" is cut short. Using design legends Charles and Ray Eames as examples, he points out the fact that great ideas often come as a result of not simply stopping when a good idea has been developed.

The openness of play, a time for generating and testing ideas without fear of judgement, is an essential part of innovation. That openness, however, has been drained out of many of us by the time we reach adulthood. Kids, Brown states in the video, "are more engaged with open possibilities."

We at DEMO are strong believers in helping kids maintain and even further develop their natural comfort level with creativity so they don't have to go back and attempt to re-learn it as adults...