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Serious Play

August 13, 2001

"Serious play is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.  You hear this theme expressed by Nobel-Prize-winning scientists like Watson and Crick, pioneering artists like Picasso, and industry-defining entrepreneurs like James Watt, Walt Disney, Sam Walton, and Andy Grove.  But what does it mean?

It means innovation requires improvisation.  It means innovation isn't about rigorously following 'the rules of the game,' but about rigorously challenging and revising them.  It means innovation is less the product of how innovators think than a by-product of how they behave.  Serious play is about innovative behavior.  When talented musicians improvise, you don't look inside their minds; you listen to what they play.  When talented innovators innovate, you don't listen to the specs they quote.  You look at the models they've created. 

The essence of serious play is the challenge and thrill of confronting uncertainties.  Whether uncertainties are obstacles or allies depends on how you play.  The challenge of converting uncertainty into manageable risks or opportunities explains why serious play is often the most rational behavior for innovators.

Serious play is about improvising with the unanticipated in ways that create new value.  Any tools, technologies, techniques, or toys that let people improve how they play seriously with uncertainty is guaranteed to improve the quality of innovation.  The ability to align those improvements cost-effectively with the needs of customers, clients, and markets dramatically boosts the odds for competitive success (Schrage, 2000, pp. 1-2)."

Reference:  Schrage, M. (2000).  Serious play: how the world's best companies simulate to innovate.  Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

What are you doing to encourage serious play?

Serious Play is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

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Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-14