It hit me this week end, the Finns have another advantage in their educational system - they encourage play. In stead of expecting students to sit in class all day, they send students out side to play. Year round. In the far North. It helps the students get more out of the classes. It lets them see the sun every day.
I also realize I'm using the same techniques at home. I've been helping my son learn to play violin. We play violin games together. Notice we don't practice. Practice is a bad word for what we are doing. We aren't doing drills. We are playing games - we're throwing dice, picking cards, and drawing pictures. There is candy and rewards. We make up insane competitions that remind me of Calvinball. I always lose. Some days we do a lot. Some days we do very little. All in the service of working through a difficult complex task. Of course, I am trying to teach him that often something that takes effort is worth doing and can be fun and rewarding.
Using play to teach something or to learn something is not new. I believe there is no reason to keep it out of the workplace. Foldit is a game that helps scientist understand protein folding, by turning the problem into a game. The game players have help scientists find likely solutions faster than they could find them with out the help of the game players. There are computer simulations for everything from flight training to stock market trading. Some companies have "white space" time for software developers and engineers. Can we give white space to front line workers?
Why don't we turn some of our challenges into games and engage employees to play and solve them? Why don't we let our factory workers and call center employees take a crack at rebuilding our processes or finances by letting them play a simulation? Front line workers might just find a solution the specialists and mangers can't. What would be wrong with that?
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