Serious Play

An examination of corporate innovation processes identifies the challenges presented by digital simulation technologies and explores the impact of prototyping and experimentation on corporate structures

Successful innovation demands more than a good strategic plan; it requires creative improvisation. Much of the "serious play" that leads to breakthrough innovations is increasingly linked to experiments with models, prototypes, and simulations. As digital technology makes prototyping more cost-effective, serious play will soon lie at the heart of all innovation strategies, influencing how businesses define themselves and their markets. Author Michael Schrage is one of today's most widely recognized experts on the relationship between technology and work. In Serious Play, Schrage argues that the real value in building models comes less from the help they offer with troubleshooting and problem solving than from the insights they reveal about the organization itself. Technological models can actually change us--improving the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and innovate. With real-world examples and engaging anecdotes, Schrage shows how companies such as Disney, Microsoft, Boeing, IDEO, and DaimlerChrysler use serious play with modeling technologies to facilitate the collaborative interactions that lead to innovation. A user's guide included with the book helps readers apply many of the innovation practices profiled throughout. A landmark book by one of the most perceptive voices in the field of innovation.

A lively exploration of eclecticism, playfulness, and whimsy in American postwar design, including architecture, graphic design, and product design This spirited volume shows how postwar designers embraced whimsy and eclecticism in their work, exploring playfulness as an essential construct of modernity. Following World War II, Americans began accumulating more and more goods, spurring a transformation in the field of interior decoration. Storage walls became ubiquitous, often serving as a home's centerpiece. Designers such as Alexander Girard encouraged homeowners to populate their new shelving units with folk art, as well as unconventional and modern objects, to produce innovative and unexpected juxtapositions within modern architectural settings. Playfulness can be seen in the colorful, child-sized furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, who also produced toys. And in the postwar corporate world, the concept of play is manifested in the influential advertising work of Paul Rand. Set against the backdrop of a society that was experiencing rapid change and high anxiety, Serious Play takes a revelatory look at how many of the country's leading designers connected with their audience through wit and imagination.

Serious Play is a comprehensive account of the possibilities and challenges of teaching and learning with digital games in primary and secondary schools. Based on an original research project, the book explores digital games’ capacity to engage and challenge, present complex representations and experiences, foster collaborative and deep learning and enable curricula that connect with young people today. These exciting approaches illuminate the role of context in gameplay as well as the links between digital culture, gameplay and identity in learners’ lives, and are applicable to research and practice at the leading edge of curriculum and literacy development.

Unleash innovation potential with creative, serious play Building a Better Business Using the LEGO® SERIOUSPLAY® Method delivers a creative approach to enhancinginnovation and improving business performance, with the focus onunleashing play. Written by the two original Master Trainers forLEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP), the book outlines how LSP can developteams, people, relationships and business . Based on the merging ofplay with organizational development, systems thinking and strategydevelopment, LSP can foster improved meetings, faster innovationprocesses, team growth, and better communication. The belief that everyone intends to "do good" and has thepotential to do it is at the heart of LSP. The method nurtures theidea that everyone in an organization can contribute to discussionsand outcomes. Building with LEGO bricks is a type of creative playthat triggers a different kind of thought process, unleashingimagination and potential that is frequently untapped by thelogical mind. The book explains this hands-on, minds-on approach,and discusses the theory as well as the practical implementation ofLSP. Topics include: Observation of internal and external interaction dynamics Fostering a free and honest exchange of opinions Suspending hierarchy for better, more effectivecommunication Facilitating change by encouraging exploration The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method is employed by start-ups andmultinational corporations alike to maximize synergy among teamsand throughout organizations. For leaders looking to boosteffectiveness and see better results, Building a Better BusinessUsing the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method is acomprehensive introduction to this creative managementtechnique.

This collection of duck activities has a strong fun element, however, we do not want it to sound like it is all just fun. There is, in fact, a wealth of solid theory that forms the basis of why we developed this stream of uses for six bricks in business and learning environments. The idea of using playful methods for a range of purposes to generate innovative thinking is not new. For centuries, people have used artifacts like totems and puppets to tell stories and share information, beliefs, and knowledge. We also know that many facilitators and trainers are using tools such as design thinking and agile methodologies where prototyping and games play an important role in the processes of thinking and creating. Whatever your goal, using 3D models is a great facilitation tool. It allows you to lead people through a process where they are able to examine their inside world and relate these lessons to their work environment. These insights then lead to opportunities for further exploration and discovery and ultimately, more productive and effective communication.

Queen Victoria was famously not amused, and the age to which she gave her name is not generally known for its playfulness or sense of fun. But play was pervasive in Victorian society and in the realist novels that were central to that culture. In Serious Play, J. Jeffrey Franklin examines the role of play in three areas—gambling, theatricality, and aesthetic theory—demonstrating in the process how the realist novel served as a vehicle for play while play in turn entered and helped define the form of realism. Franklin's analysis focuses on close readings of eight novels by Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Charles Kingsley, William Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope, as well as works by Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, John Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold. The readings are grounded in histories and cultural studies of gambling, recreation, the stock market, theater and antitheatrical prejudice, the performance of gender roles, working-class protest, aesthetic theory, and especially the novel genre itself. While the treatments of gambling, theatricality, and aesthetics are specific, the book shows how play links each of them to broader, culturally defining issues that Victorian writings frequently express: values versus value, the artificial versus the authentic, and the real versus the illusory. Serious Play demonstrates, as no previous study has, how play functioned as a linchpin concept within the discursive infrastructure of Victorian society, challenging critical commonplaces about the unplayfulness of the Victorians and the ideological conservatism of realism. "Serious Play provides a completely new insight into the Victorian realist novel. . . . All the major theories of play are subjected to penetrating analysis through which their respective shortcomings and their historical conditioning are highlighted, so that the book can also be read as one of the most comprehensive assessments of modern play theories to date." —Wolfgang Iser

This 194 page colour book is Sean's 3rd book about professional facilitation of LEGO Serious Play. Detailing new techniques to achieve successful outcomes ONLINE. Including step-by-step guides, graduate stories & bonus downloads.