Every year, new productivity hacks promise to save us from burnout, inefficiency, and disconnection at work. We reorganize calendars, color-code to-do lists, and install apps that track keystrokes and hours. And yet, despite all the hacks, employees are exhausted, disengaged, and creatively stuck.

What if the problem isn’t that we need more productivity tools—but that we need more play?

That’s not a metaphor. I mean literal play. The kind that is open-ended, imaginative, and unconcerned with outcomes. In my decades as a play designer and educator, I’ve watched executives, engineers, and designers from companies like Google, Nike, and Lego light up when they are given permission to play again. Not because they suddenly “learned” to be creative—but because they remembered they already are.

Play as Permission, Not Performance

Play is not the opposite of work; it is the antidote to burnout. Free play—spontaneous, nonhierarchical, and outcome-free—requires us to embrace possibility, release judgment, and reframe success. Those three elements are exactly what today’s teams are missing.

When I lead workshops, I don’t hand out another strategy framework or ask people to brainstorm. I hand them Rigamajig planks or a pile of cardboard and say, “Create something.” That’s it. No rules, no rubric. At first, people fidget, waiting for the “point.” Then they loosen up. They laugh. They collaborate without titles or hierarchy. They invent.

What I’ve really given them is not a toy but permission—to stop performing professionalism, and to start playing again.

I think of myself as a play coach. Like a sports coach, I help people unlearn the stiffness of adulthood, the belief that play is frivolous, and retrain their instinct to experiment. The difference is that play is not about winning. It’s about rediscovering curiosity.

Why Hacks Fail and Play Works

Productivity hacks focus on controlling the process and outcome: more efficient emails, tighter schedules, and measurable success. But outcomes aren’t the only reason we work, and controlling the process usually kills any joy in the work. Play demands the opposite of control: letting go.

Consider what happens in my sessions. At first, people compare credentials and second-guess every move. Then they start tinkering. Soon they’re laughing too hard to judge one another. Some even take off jackets and shoes. The shift is unmistakable: They move from performance to presence.

Play is also radically egalitarian. In a room where the CEO and an intern are both building oddball contraptions out of wood planks, hierarchy fades. Everyone is invited to contribute, not for efficiency, but for the diversity of talents that play reveals. That leveling effect fosters the kind of psychological safety that research shows is essential for innovation.

The Playful Mindset

From my research and practice, I’ve found that adult teams thrive when they adopt what I call the Playful Mindset:

• Embrace Possibility. Ask “what if?” and treat the workplace like an adventure playground.
• Release Judgment. Let go of worrying about looking silly or wasting time. Play is a judgment-free zone where odd ideas aren’t embarrassing but essential.
• Reframe Success. In play, success isn’t about hitting a metric—it’s about the experience itself. The fun is the point. And paradoxically, that freedom often produces the very innovations teams are chasing with their hacks.

Be Your Own Play Coach

The good news: You don’t need an outside facilitator to begin. You can become your own play coach. Start small. Turn the next team meeting into a tinkering session with random office supplies. Walk the long way to lunch and make a game of it. Bring in an activity that has no deliverable attached.

Play doesn’t ask you to stop working—it asks you to work differently. It invites teams to reconnect as humans, to experiment without fear, and to rediscover the joy that fuels real creativity.

If you want better collaboration, stronger resilience, and more authentic innovation, don’t download another productivity app. Hire—or become—a play coach. Because your team doesn’t need another hack. They need to play.