p.3 Play is a natural human activity that has been widely acknowledged to have significant emotional,
social and cognitive benefits, yet its role in organizations has not been comprehensively researched or understood.
p.5 through play the individual develops an ability to make and understand meaning within
cultural contexts that are framed by more or less complex and explicit rules.
p.14 In play, people imagine the world differently, constructing alternative frames for meaning
and interaction as well as alternative forms of individual and collective identity. In organizations, play activities
may involve imagining different forms of organization, exploring alternative modes of sense-making and social interaction,
and constructing new forms of possible identity for the organization itself.
p.17 if people organizations play in order to adapt or transform, then the activity has a determinate or
'real' goal, and it cannot be considered as play.
p.17 Ashby's law of requisite variety suggests that management theory itself may need to
become more playful (1956). This basic tenet of complex adaptive systems theory states that a system's ability to
compensate for change in the environment depends on the variety of actions which are available to it internally.
p.19 sustaining competitive advantage requires continuous learning throughout the organization (Senge, 1990).
p.20 we suggest that whenever play is conscripted in the name of 'creativity' to produce strategic innovation,
it ceases to be playful at all.
