Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

Playfulness at Work & in Workshops

Research and workshop design

Playfulness at work and in workshops have many advantages. It is a central source of innovation and renewal. When initiated and facilitated properly, playfulness can increase participation substantially, induce learning and advance individuals’ capacities to make sense and acquire new skills. Recent research in neuroscience provides evidence of how playfulness moderates attention, motivation, cognitive flexibility, and hunger for novelty. Especially the increase of dopamine and the activation of the amygdala region and limbic system are central in achieving this moderation.

Our team of researchers and experts are currently exploring how and in what ways playfulness is present in worklife, how to design workshops that utilize the power of play to make enduring impacts, and how to invite individuals into play and promote play at work and in workshops.

We are looking for ten growth-oriented firms that employ 20-1000 people who want to take part in our work-life playfulness barometer

Is your workplace playful? Playfulness at work has many advantages and is often a source for innovation and renewal. What does playfulness look at your workplace and how it compares to other firms? We are looking for ten growth-oriented firms with personnel of 20-1000 to take part in the playfulness barometer. The research will be done in June 2020.

Why participate? When more than 10 persons from your firm answer the survey you will get a summary report on the nature, character, and degree of playfulness in your workplace. You also get an anonymous comparison to the other firms partaking in the survey. We will organize an online workshop with each firm where we explain the results and discuss our recommendations. In the autumn you will also be invited to our seminar on worklife playfulness, where we go deeper into the special features of worklife playfulness, tell more about the results, and provide action-oriented recommendations.

What do we need from you? A contact person (e.g. HR Director), email addresses of your personnel, and your approval to use the survey results anonymously in our research.

Sign up as soon as possible - contact Robin Gustafsson, [email protected], tel. 050 316 0981, or Siiri Pöyhönen, [email protected]. This research is done together with researcher Katriina Heljakka from University of Turku / Pori Laboratory of Play.

Ongoing research

Worklife playfulness barometer: A study of worklife playfulness in small and mid-size firms (20-1000 people). Study to start in June 2020.
Moving in and out of play: Ethnographic study of workshops that use the LEGO® Serious Play®method.
LEGO® Serious Play® workshops: workshop design for enhanced sensemaking, recall, and impact.

Based on insights from our research and our expertise in strategy and visualization, we develop workshop designs with lego bricks for digital, data, and platform strategy making.