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Play time makes employees more creative
By Wang Yong |
January 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FOR your employees to shine at work, encourage them to play.
All genuinely creative actions have an element of play, says Harvard University psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell, author of "Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People."
Though not the first to argue that play unearths talent and ideas, professor Hallowell strengthens the argument with the latest psychological findings.
When you play, he explains, your brain secretes more "brain-derived neurotropic factor," which promotes brain nerve growth. Play activates the amygdala, which helps you manage your emotions and spurs activity in your prefrontal cortex, home of your "executive functions."
"People avoid thinking by being too busy to think," he says. Indeed, many bosses like to see their employees keeping their noses to the grinding stone around the clock, but that really stifles talent and ideas.
Professor Hallowell's many cases studies, coupled with my own work experiences, prove that your best colleagues are often those who are allowed to be flexible with their work-leisure balance.
I know of many present and past colleagues who would think about work even if they do not dwell in the office. Presence in the office alone, even from dawn to dusk, hardly makes one a good employee.
Working in a machine-like, rule-bound way might be productive in an old-style factory, says the professor, but it won't help you adapt and innovate in today's creative market. He gives a few examples of how to play:
1. Encourage your employees to play with small children, even at work.
2. Ask open-ended and creative questions so people have to think.
3. Liven up your workplace with special days, like a "Bad Dress Day."
Regarding the first example, the newspaper where I work at is indeed a creative place, as the lovely toddlers of colleagues are often found swaggering through the labyrinth of our office rooms and aisles, sparking laughter and fresh thinking.
"Play is what humans can do and computers can't. Play is the activity of the mind that allows you to dream up novel approaches, fresh plans," says professor Hallowell.
But not all play makes Jack a less dull boy. When you enter your office, you often find many employees shining not at work, but at flickering computer screens: they revel in the distracting conversations with pals and girls on instant message service.
In today's offices occupied with computers, employees easily mask their lack of interest in work with pretentious typing. They are playing indeed, but this kind of play does no good to work, nor to individual happiness.
For scientists have discovered that things like e-mails and online chatting fail utterly to deliver the sense of closeness and comradeship provided by face-to-face recreation.
As professor Hallowell points out, everyone profits when people connect. When someone you're genuinely connected to gets happier, so do you. But electronic connections don't count.
So he suggests: Limit electronic contacts so you focus on real-time human interactions; hold gatherings and offer refreshment so people relax and socialize.
As Shanghai strives to be a digital-smart city and many bosses in the city aspire to be email-smart, professor Hallowell's new book, published last year, kindly reminds all of us that electronic communications, however modern and smart, don't shine as brightly as a face-to-face smile.
All genuinely creative actions have an element of play, says Harvard University psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell, author of "Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People."
Though not the first to argue that play unearths talent and ideas, professor Hallowell strengthens the argument with the latest psychological findings.
When you play, he explains, your brain secretes more "brain-derived neurotropic factor," which promotes brain nerve growth. Play activates the amygdala, which helps you manage your emotions and spurs activity in your prefrontal cortex, home of your "executive functions."
"People avoid thinking by being too busy to think," he says. Indeed, many bosses like to see their employees keeping their noses to the grinding stone around the clock, but that really stifles talent and ideas.
Professor Hallowell's many cases studies, coupled with my own work experiences, prove that your best colleagues are often those who are allowed to be flexible with their work-leisure balance.
I know of many present and past colleagues who would think about work even if they do not dwell in the office. Presence in the office alone, even from dawn to dusk, hardly makes one a good employee.
Working in a machine-like, rule-bound way might be productive in an old-style factory, says the professor, but it won't help you adapt and innovate in today's creative market. He gives a few examples of how to play:
1. Encourage your employees to play with small children, even at work.
2. Ask open-ended and creative questions so people have to think.
3. Liven up your workplace with special days, like a "Bad Dress Day."
Regarding the first example, the newspaper where I work at is indeed a creative place, as the lovely toddlers of colleagues are often found swaggering through the labyrinth of our office rooms and aisles, sparking laughter and fresh thinking.
"Play is what humans can do and computers can't. Play is the activity of the mind that allows you to dream up novel approaches, fresh plans," says professor Hallowell.
But not all play makes Jack a less dull boy. When you enter your office, you often find many employees shining not at work, but at flickering computer screens: they revel in the distracting conversations with pals and girls on instant message service.
In today's offices occupied with computers, employees easily mask their lack of interest in work with pretentious typing. They are playing indeed, but this kind of play does no good to work, nor to individual happiness.
For scientists have discovered that things like e-mails and online chatting fail utterly to deliver the sense of closeness and comradeship provided by face-to-face recreation.
As professor Hallowell points out, everyone profits when people connect. When someone you're genuinely connected to gets happier, so do you. But electronic connections don't count.
So he suggests: Limit electronic contacts so you focus on real-time human interactions; hold gatherings and offer refreshment so people relax and socialize.
As Shanghai strives to be a digital-smart city and many bosses in the city aspire to be email-smart, professor Hallowell's new book, published last year, kindly reminds all of us that electronic communications, however modern and smart, don't shine as brightly as a face-to-face smile.
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