Work as play and companies as the playgrounds

Observing my parents as a child I picked up this idea of working for money.

I often experienced from them a level of dissatisfaction and complaint around their work, which resulted in me framing work as something cumbersome and filled with unpleasant struggle.

In short the concept of working for money resulted in a level of suffering. In my view it was based on a lacking alignment between their work and their larger life purpose - a sense of alienation.

Since 2019 I’ve been exploring this idea of work as vehicle for self-actualisation. It’s beautiful.

In Design Thinking we often speak about approaching problems with „beginners eyes“, as if we’re seeing it for the first time. This makes business problems fun, exciting and playful by inviting new ways of thinking. There is a sense of adventure, which for me inspires and gives me access to large reservoirs of energy.

Companies to me are playgrounds for adults and business is the game - it‘s the vehicle to build the version of reality we can imagine in our most beautiful dreams.

As such companies are the containers to facilitate growth and evolution of the individual, based on the company-specific boundary conditions. At times we outgrow companies and it’s time to move on, to make space for someone else to develop themself.

The relationship is mutual. As the company provides opportunities for transformation and development, equally each and everyone who ever worked on/in the company transforms the structure/organisation itself. Its a remarkably beautiful co-creation process.