At the 2008 Serious Play Conference, Tim Brown, the CEO of the “innovation and design” firm IDEO, asked the audience to take the piece of paper they had been given and quickly draw the person sitting beside them. After their 30 seconds was up, the group was giggling, embarrassed and apologizing to their neighbors.

Tim then contrasted this experience with doing the same exercise with young children. Children don’t laugh, get shy or apologize, he explained. Instead they’re simply excited to take on the exercise and show off their work when they’re done.

Why the difference between the adults and the children?

As adults, we fear the judgment of our peers. We also fear not being right and executing a task poorly. Young children don’t worry about this. They simply get on with their creative vision. Tim explains that this judgment, this need to be right, stifles creativity and leads to conservative thinking.

Tim, being the CEO of IDEO, a firm on a mission to fuse design, business and social life to help companies re-think their business or product, needs fearless, creative types around him 24/7.

Tim believes that play in the workplace is essential if you want your group to generate big, fresh ideas.

But, in order for someone to feel comfortable enough to play, they have to feel secure, so it’s about creating an environment that is relaxed and fun.

It’s even about friendship, because it’s more fun to play, create and build with people who you genuinely enjoy spending time with. The whole process of work (if you want to call it that) actually evolves into something that more closely resembles play.

Check out Tim Brown’s talk at 2008 Serious Play Conference. Let us know what you think!