FEATURE - Looking back on her experience coaching teams in Africa, the author encourages us to introduce play into our work, as a way to educate people and unleash creativity.

Words from: Sharon Visser

Play is an essential gateway to creative, innovative thinking and communication, and yet it is often undervalued in the workplace.

I remember playing as a child in Africa with my friends, with toy cars in the soft, white sand during the cool late afternoons. We built tunnels, bridges and hills populated with plastic toy animals and told stories of danger and adventure. In those moments, I was not seen as a white child or even a girl; I was a co-creator of dreams.

For us, playtime was a realm of boundless creativity where anything seemed possible. Through play, children learn to tell stories, develop spatial skills, solve problems imaginatively and make pure connections.

Unfortunately, as I grew older, such imaginative activities were dismissed as childish and unfit for the serious business of adulthood. As a result, I put these thoughts away to concentrate on sensible tasks.

That changed when I was introduced to Lean Thinking. Magically, the box opened, the toy cars reappeared and I got to be creative again. Using these toy cars and a sheet of flip chart paper, we played and came up with solutions to our service center's congestion problem. This game led to a practical plan, also known as PDCA, to ensure the safe flow of vehicles, improve work visibility and prevent minor accidents.

The toy cars facilitated communication and co-creation with the people doing the work. Their involvement changed responsibility from "me" to "we" and fostered a sense of ownership and understanding. When I returned to work on Monday, the team had surprised me by implementing our plan over the weekend.

In another case, we used toy cars and colored toy figures to redesign the process for receiving vehicles. This playful approach helped the team visualize and perfect the workflow, shortening the timeline and ultimately improving the customer experience and the quality of vehicle inspection.

Similarly, a company I coach had to move its butchery-production business, which involved significant modifications to the new building. We built a scale model of the building and outlined the necessary changes. Despite his lack of project management experience, the owner's son led the project ahead of schedule and within budget. The model allowed him to communicate with everyone and visualize the work, which fostered discussion, collaboration and effective problem solving. This work was supported by a visual PDCA diagram to confirm progress and accountability for the timeline.

The same company is now experimenting with a LEGO build for each product to plan the production of a variation of 45 products. When several products are made on "pull," the challenge is always sequencing and understanding any overload in the planning stages.

With the visual help of LEGO, it is now possible to visually plan the day and know right at the beginning what the workload will be. Any run-out to overtime can be addressed and gaps filled with kaizen. With the addition of a clock, it is possible to see if work is ahead or behind.

Think back to those moments in your life when you had what my mother would have called a "good play." It is in these moments that creativity and innovation are most likely to surface. Now imagine if we came to work and saw a problem with the same boundless possibilities as a child at play.

What if we could see ourselves as co-creators instead of competitors on our own team? What a world we could build together, one PDCA at a time.

^Author