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How to Play

first published on whitelabs

We are often encouraged to ‘play’ in the marketing / advertising space to create bigger and better ideas. How do we create a playing space for professionals?

What does it mean?

To me, playing is synonymous with experimentation, which implies a high degree of risk.  I think a team that encourages playfulness must never shy away from failure, and more importantly they should learn from the inevitable mistakes.

Take for example, figure skating. One of the most spectacular Winter Olympic manoeuvres is what is known as the ‘triple axel’, whereby the athlete leaps into the air at speed, spins three times, and lands. This move is notable in the fact that there is no safe way to practise the triple axel without actually trying it on ice (whilst wearing a pair of razor-sharp skates, mind you). The athlete would have theorised, then practised and fallen repeatedly before perfecting the trick which can take years of training. ‘Playing’ in a sense, is like practising the triple-axel, where the likelihood of failure is higher than success, but the reward potential is great.

As an industry of professionals, our clients and our assignments determine what I call are 'mission critical' jobs. Clients such as financial institutions, medical or legal firms often have little or no room for error - and as a result discourage 'playing'. But even so, it doesn't mean we can't create spaces for people to play.

Operation Blackout

White’s ‘Operation Blackout’ was an example of creating a playing space. One day, one brief, zero clients. All of a sudden, the main concern for risk is removed, and everyone is given a chance to try something that they have never attempted in the past. Answers to questions like ‘how much preparation should I do before making a presentation?’, ‘how little product testing can I get away with?’ and ‘which team member can think on their feet?’ became immediately apparent.

Identifying Opportunities to Play

Often, especially since one of our main clients is a bank, we can misinterpret opportunities to play as mission-critical jobs. It is up to us to communicate to stakeholders and team-members to identify the times where experimentation is accepted, and to be just as prepared to learn from mistakes, as celebrating success.

Creating a Playable Environment

Creating a culture of identifying and learning from mistakes rather than making a witch-hunt every time something goes wrong requires a team that trusts and respects each other. The rewards to constant experimenting and learning is a stronger and more confident team, and greater potential for cutting-edge work.

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We are often encouraged to ‘play’ in the marketing / advertising space to create bigger and better ideas. How do we create a playing space for professionals?

What does it mean?

To me, playing is synonymous with experimentation, which implies a high degree of risk.  I think a team that encourages playfulness must never shy away from failure, and more importantly they should learn from the inevitable mistakes.

Take for example, figure skating. One of the most spectacular Winter Olympic manoeuvres is what is known as the ‘triple axel’, whereby the athlete leaps into the air at speed, spins three times, and lands. This move is notable in the fact that there is no safe way to practise the triple axel without actually trying it on ice (whilst wearing a pair of razor-sharp skates, mind you). The athlete would have theorised, then practised and fallen repeatedly before perfecting the trick which can take years of training. ‘Playing’ in a sense, is like practising the triple-axel, where the likelihood of failure is higher than success, but the reward potential is great.

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