Mike 
“The opposite of play is not work, but depression,” says Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play. As you can guess, Brown is a vocal advocate for the importance of play, both for children and adults. (See his TED Talk, “Play is more than just fun.”)
How do you react to Brown’s statement? Perhaps you make adequate time for play, personally and in the organization that you lead. If so, you’re ahead of the game.
Many leaders, however, are so passionate about the mission of their church or ministry that they tend to neglect play. For you, play is “anti-work,” something to be done during one of your all-too-rare vacations. For those that you lead, you’re happy for them to play – as long as they do it on their personal time.
Before you dismiss this blog, here are three ways that more frequent play can benefit your organization:
- Build relationships. A business-only relationship isn’t very meaningful and it creates little trust. People connect in different and deeper ways when they’re doing something fun together. And those connections will change the way that they interact when they go back to work.
- Relieve stress. Few organizations or job functions are immune to stress. While urgency to accomplish a mission is good (to a point), unrelenting stress does not bring out the best in people. Play can break the cycle of never-ending pressure for more results.
- Release creativity. Play often uses different parts of our brains and gets us out of our comfort zones. In doing so, we may return to our jobs with new insights and fresh perspectives.
