If you think that play is something you only do separately after work, I’d like to share this quote with you from the French diplomat and historian François-René de Chateaubriand:

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

Ever since I ran away and joined the circus, I’ve always seen my work as a form of play. The harder the work, the harder I have to play to get through it. This mental trick – to gamify work – enables me to accomplish spectacular things.

We are facing a chronic play deprivation in the modern world.

Projects are left undone, because we are ‘too busy’ to do the work that matters. Superficial relationships with distant co-workers are low-trust with poor communication. All the recent transformations in work culture have led to higher stress, without a release of that stress through deep communication or energetic collaboration.

Playing games can guide us into getting more out of limited resources of time and energy. Deeper connections within a team drive better business performance, and intentional play is how we can gamify our work.

If you’d like to learn how gamifying your work can lead to better results, I invite you to read my latest white paper, Gamify Your Work: