bold ideas. Bring your weekend brain to work

“Is there a clown in your group to inspire you?” asks Jean David, former marketing vice president of Cirque du Soleil, the largest theatrical production in the world. Speaking at the recently concluded IAA World Congress in Kochi on lessons in innovation, the architect of the quirky circus and creativity consultant was describing how you needed to recruit intelligently to foster performance.

David’s question resonates as earlier at the event, comedian and innovation consultant Tim Reid had held forth on the role of laughter and playfulness in furthering creativity. “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible,” he said, quoting legendary adman David Ogilvy. “When you laugh, you stimulate the part of the brain associated with problem solving and creative thinking,” said Reid.

The playful workplace

Later, meeting up with the comedian who scripted the British sitcom Car Share, and helps workplaces loosen up through the culture change practice We Do Things Differently, you ask why it is important for organisations to be more playful.

“When people are relaxed and are themselves, they are more imaginative and come up with bold ideas,” says Reid, who has helped companies like the BBC, IBM and Molson Coors become less starchy.

Isn’t Friday dressing, going out for drinks together at a pub all part of loosening up? Don’t organisations do this already?

Reid says, yes, all these signal the right intentions and help break down hierarchies and promote out-of-the-box thinking. “We have seen how leaders come up with some great strategy decisions while teeing off at the golf course. Which is why, I say, bring your weekend brain to work,” he says.

But, he stresses, you should go beyond forced fun. The whole culture has to be an open one. Bosses should not say, hey, you are not at your desk. Everyone should be given time, space, and feel empowered.

If the culture is serious, how do you change that? Is there a mechanism or a tool to unleash laughter?

Reid says it starts with getting certain behaviours in the room. For starters, people should be more nurturing and accepting. They should not close ranks, but be receptive to new ideas, however absurd they are.

Normally, Reid says that his intervention is done over months. But there are places where he does a day’s workshop with a dozen people.

It could be in the form of a challenge, asking those gathered to improvise on a situation to explore a problem. “For instance, if you want to reinvent a bank, and make it more adventurous. I ask them — how would it be if Batman were to run a bank or Elvis Presley were to run a bank. Put yourself in the shoes of Elvis and tell me how the bank will be run.”

Participants have to get up and impromptu outline a scenario. “They don’t know what they are going to say. And they improvise and often it may be utter nonsense, but sometimes some great ideas come out of it,” says Reid.

Occasionally, Reid also uses props — “I have a bag full of random things, a pack of cards, a thimble, a moisturiser — I give it out and force them to create a link between these objects and the work they do,” he says. What emerges is riotous.

“What we must not have is a culture that is afraid of being funny,” says Reid, adding that laughter is also a form of catharsis .

Can playfulness lead to bad ideas? After all, people have equated Brexit and Demonetisation with non-serious thinking.

Well, what playfulness leads to is original ideas — good or bad, responds Reid. “But, finally, it’s up to the judgement of the organisation or leader to implement those ideas. When you have ideas, they do feel absurd. Which ones to put into practice needs serious thinking. But to generate ideas, you need playful thinking."

Don’t take yourself seriously!

Two days after the IAA event, one meets up with Bryan Lamkin, EVP and GM Digital Media, Adobe, at the company’s office in Noida, and Reid’s prescriptions come to mind. The 6’7 tall executive, who spearheads the tech company’s Creative Cloud & Document Cloud business, is a master of puns and known for his dry wit.

“You should see a team meeting with Bryan,” says Amelia Hansen, senior manager, executive communications. “There is this room full of engineers and business people, discussing things heatedly and in the middle of it Bryan cracks a joke. Suddenly, there is more air in the room. It’s a way of saying ‘let’s step back and get some perspective’,” she says.

“Humour can loosen the team. As a leader it is telling the team, ‘hey, I am serious about the work we do, but I am not taking myself seriously here’,” chips in Lamkin. He says the culture at Adobe is one of great productivity and drive to achieve. But laughter is a release valve to ease the pressure at work. “You are not going to keep doing it unless it is fun doing it,” he says. Teams that have a stronger social fabric know how to release that pressure, he says.

Fundamentally, as he points out, humour is a form of creative expression, and helps teams realise that it is not just about what they do but how they do it.

As for himself, Lamkin says he is contextual and spontaneous with his humour. “Not everybody gets my jokes. But at the minimum I keep myself entertained,” he says dryly.

Well, go on then, unleash your inner clown at work, and watch the ideas flow. Don't overdo it, though.

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