Some people are afraid to play with ideas.
Idea play involves thinking about solutions, possibilities, and potential with freedom, no constraints. When one plays with ideas he/she uses ideas like Playdough shaping and intersecting thoughts in numerous ways--proposing paths, promise, and potential.
For many, a new idea immediately brings to mind the constraints, the reasons why the idea could never work or happen. That response serves to end the play, limit potential, and restrain promise. Instead idea play creates a plasticity of the mind allowing current paths to bend and flex in new ways, ways that serve to broaden and shift one's lens making what once seemed unimaginable, imaginable.
Idea play does hold responsibility--playing with ideas too freely can create trouble. Hence, idea play does demand focus, values, and empathy. Just as words used too freely can serve to hurt, ideas used too freely can serve to hinder.
Do you play with ideas? If so, what does that play look like? How does idea play strengthen your work and life, and where might that action invigorate or stymy your path?
What is the role of idea play in systems and organizations today? How do you define it? I'm curious.
