Tag Archives: playful

How Following Your Passion Can Lead To a Breakthrough

Screen Shot 2014-07-15 at 12.29.18 PMNicholas Woodman, founder of GoPro, gave birth to his star product while playing and living his passion riding the waves on his surfboard. Play is when great breakthroughs can happen, because you are no longer thinking with your rational mind but rather listening to your inners feelings and instinct.

The Mad Billionaire Behind GoPro: The World’s Hottest Camera Company

Play Leads to Breakthroughs

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 4.47.43 PMVery often, scientific breakthrough turns out to be an accident.  Here is another example of how play and fun mood can lead you to great discoveries. 

In fact breakthroughs must disrupt the logic of what we know; because they bring new knowledge, breakthroughs can come only from parts unknown to the conscious mind and therefore unknown to reason. So breakthrough — even the most intellectual and sophisticated ones – can manifest only at times when we disengage from what we know and from what we understand logically. This is why play is so crucial: it disconnects us from reason and logic and opens us up to new and different thoughts we wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

An 18-Year-Old Intern Who Kept Screwing Up Brain Surgery On Mice Accidentally Stumbled On A Scientific Breakthrough

Why a Relaxed Brain is More Likely to be Creative

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 4.22.54 PMSleeping relaxes our brain and allows it to make new connections and neural pathways. Creativity happens when those alternative networks process information in new way. The same dynamic is at work when we are playing. Because playing puts aside our rational mind it opens up the door to our deeper creative potential. Play is therefore a factor of creativity and opens us up to the possibility of breakthroughs because it disconnects us from the exclusive and dominant nature of logic, Play is necessary for the survival of an organization because it unleashes and strengthens our problem-solving abilities and resilience as nothing else can.

 Do These 3 Things Before Bed to Hack Your Creativity While You Sleep

Harnessing the Power of Ritual for Business Innovation

How often do you engage in rituals? Probably more often than you think. From daily routines like the first cup of coffee in the morning or the story you read your child at bedtime to the most culturally significant celebrations, including weddings and bar mitzvahs, rituals are almost certainly a part of your personal life. But are they a part of your professional life? If not, you are missing out on an extremely powerful management tool, especially if what you are seeking from your team is creative innovation and out of the box thinking in the context of a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Research done by neuroscientists shows that 80% of our brain’s grey matter is dedicated to non-conscious thought and that imaginative play is one of the most direct means of activating our creativity and problem-solving abilities. Read More

A New Corporate Mandate: Rethink Efficiency and Play!

“Play is the highest form of research”
– Albert Einstein

“I was not working, I was playing. I was letting things reassemble in front of my eyes and … I knew I had come up with something that would get me the Nobel Prize… and it did!’
– Dr. Kary Mullis, Scientist, Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry (1993)

Since 2006 IBM has published a series of biannual studies highlighting the priorities of CEOs around the world. Read More