In an age of soft power, complexity is the name of the game.

2. In an age of soft power, complexity is the name of the game. If a project fails - be it in business, government or the home - we no longer look for a single culprit One of the genuine shifts in recent years has been a much better understanding of the individual and the key role that individual’s complex functionality in the success of any system Keywords such as happiness, fulfilment, authenticity, ownership, all signal a willingness to consider that an individual’s capacity to deliver cannot be taken for granted. New Integrity therefore always approaches its consultancy projects - whether it be in the form of training, problem solving or visioning - with a 4 quadrant analysis….

3. individual Practice Person your experience & sense of self how we act upon & in our world internal external People Policy the laws & structures of our society & institutions our shared meanings & values, culture plural

4. Having worked in a number of different places - from social work reform for the government, to business consultancy for Microsoft or NGOs, advertising agencies and the media, it is our conclusion that we need a New idea of Integrity. One which not only seeks an inner cohesion - a person at one with himself - but a vibrant connectivity between our new sense of ourselves as complex individuals with the new sense of what is now possible in our globalised world. Without fail, paying attention to individuals and giving them space to imagine forms which could actually harness a creativity and energy they know they have, big new ideas arise. What big new idea could begin to capture the spirit of their new adventure? Cue The Play Ethic…

5. A Great Leaders / Good Leaders question… What kind of experience at work would you want your workers to have?

6. Work is… Comments from participants, 2nd October, 2004 Satisfaction, inspiration, purpose, fun, creativity, meaning Responsibility, ownership, Fulfilled – and challenged, respected, peaceful, Acknowledged, needed, loved Meaning-full, accepted, fully human, in touch with themselves, Motivated, stretched, heard, appreciated, excited, wealthy and healthy,happy,

7. Fatboy Slim, ‘Weapon of Choice’ (Spike Jones, 2002)

8. An view of work… Work is exhausting, alienating, oppressive (Leadership is too) And every worker/leader dreams of sheer escape, transcendence, joy What is the mentality that can help to align imagination & aspiration with action & context ..Particularly among younger generations (X & Y)?

9. PLAY – a core human capacity that we underestimate Science: it’s what complex mammals do to learn how to survive, thrive, interrelate (95 million years!) Culture: Indo-European root of play is ‘-dlegh’ – to engage, to exercise yourself … the Puritans were wrong! Play means passionate activity and engagement (Participant: ‘Play is also catharsis – the drama that transforms a life’) Play also means ‘to take reality lightly’ (Schiller, Huizinga) – not living in fantasy, but embracing openness and possibility in your everyday life – a real spirit of enterprise Yet the legacy of the Puritan work ethic has polarized our attitudes to play – as something we do in leisure, to escape work

10. Bartle Bogle Hegarty, X-Box campaign 2003, ‘Champagne’

11. Bartle Bogle Hegarty, X-Box campaign 2003, ‘Mosquito’

12. How does play relate to business? • Much business culture over last 30 years (maybe longer) has been dabbling with various forms of play • 70’s-80’s - Scenario Planning (Pierre Wack, Arie DeGeus, Shell/GBN, ‘Art of the Long View’ • 80’s-90’s - Use of sports/peak experience to emphasize ‘team play’ • Mid-90’s - New Economy/dot-com @ play - books like Jamming!, Serious Play, The Pursuit of WOW!, Funky Business – foosball in the boardroom… • Late 90’s - Use of drama and music to emphasize collective creativity (Benjamin Zander, Micheal Gold), storytelling and improvisation to demonstrate collective knowing (Steve Denning) • Now, even using toys - Lego’s Serious Play

13. How does play relate to business? Forms of play used to improve ability of companies to respond creatively to the volatility of markets, socio-cultural trends, disruptive technologies. Play helps a complex organism – and complex organisation - to develop its “response abilities”, its adaptability So play forms have become legitimate and effective in improving business performance… … but is that all there is to play? Is it just a performance enhancer?

14. How does play relate to spirit? • Like spirituality, play is about a means of transcendence in the everyday - another ‘breath of life’ (pneuma) that animates fixed situations, accepted boundaries - puts things ‘in play’ • Like spirituality, play is about embracing possibility and change rather than fearing it – because play is grounded in a deep common reality for humanity

15. How does play relate to spirit? Play is a double (or triple) consciousness – we can juggle and live with different realities when we are ‘at play and in play’ • Players can play both finite and infinite games (J. Carse) • Finite games: playing to win/defeat others, close the deal, complete the project (zero-sum) • Infinite games: playing to learn, to improve the rules of the game, to bring more people into the game (non-zero sum)

16. How does play relate to spirit? Play expresses our paradoxical nature – how we are both deeply individual, and deeply connected The seven rhetorics of play (Sutton-Smith) • In our daily experience, play has both its modern forms • play as intense experience (hedonism, ‘flow’) • play as development (child’s play/education) • play as imagination and creativity (arts, media, science)

17. How does play relate to spirit? Yet we also know play in its most ancient forms 4. play as power and contest (agon, sports, fight or flight) 5. Play as group identity (festivals, corporate rituals) 6. Play as fate & chaos (gambling, stock market, luck) 7. …not forgetting play as laughter, subversion, the wise fool or shaman

18. How does play relate to spirit? To be literate in play, its forms and traditions is to widen our frameworks of perception Play consciousness is a radar system that can help us to track how complex our lives and aspirations are Note: Think of the playful myths at the heart of many of the great religions – “Let there be light” (Christianity), Dice game of the Mahabharata, Lila the playful god (Hinduism), Bodhisattvas emerging from the Earth dancing (Buddhism), Sufism’s poetry… Play’s diversity, paradoxes and pluralism is a manifestation of the creativity that arises from interconnectedness

19. Here’s a tool we use to demonstrate the practical use of a playful consciousness – ‘the fear and love loops’ Life is full of paradoxes leading to compromise… Age & Experience Individuality Discipline & Mastery Profit and gain Hard power Youth & Freshness Collectivity Free expression, unpredictability Altruism and gift Soft power A playful approach will allow these contradictions to exist as two truths in a flexible relationship with each other…

20. 1.”Fear/fear loop is also interesting. I have discomfort when in groups in work. I was being paid for it, so I didn’t look for withdrawal. ‘Not the job I want’ – yet I persisted in staying on. Fear kept me there.” “After this experience, I now conduct much of my work in love loop. It’s about diversity, playful, doing it together (even though I’m paid)” 2. “In order to jump the loop, you have to realise that love is quite tough, not sweet, gritty. “ 3. “Life is full of paradoxes - full stop. These loops represent the balance of it. The biz leader who sits and says ‘ommm’ is interesting – but she must also check that wages are paid. Perhaps these loops are three dimensional – the movement is held in the whole form. Play is indeed a wonderful link between hard and soft – it’s about applying and releasing tension - tough now, and then something different.”” If you want to be successful holistic CEO that’s ok. But deliver too” Comments from participants on the Fear and Love Loops at SIB, 2nd Oct, 2004 5. “An recruitment situation, where the move was from love to fear. The candidate stated that ‘work isn’t fun’ . (Why hadn’t I explored this attitude?) ‘Fun is outside work”. Ok, let’s test this – do you have a favorite opera? Let’s sing it together. He blushed, we sang. I watched him come in and out, from fear to love. ‘Don’t ever do that again”. Try again? I asked. And then he sings, beautifully.” 6.” The middle point between the loops is the point of choice, the difficult moment of truth. Awareness of this choice is a major empowerment.” 8. “Micro and macro here – fear is the lower consciousness. Love is the higher – most lives 80% f, 20% love. To shift it round implies a different consciousness level 9. “Diversity is important. If see yourself as diverse,it’s easier to see commonalities with others in their diversity.” 9.” Should we dichotomise these things? We fear the fear, perhaps we should try to accept it. Can play help us to love fear?” 4.” Discipline in life is important. There can be playfulness and humour – as long as playfulness allows a different question: it should be a constant spin.Most orgs have 80% of people turning up, 20% being present. Imagine if we shifted that?”

21. “The capacity to think and act as part of the larger whole is emerging as the ultimate value driver for the organisations of the future. Any organisation which wishes to succeed and sustain itself in the long run will need to respect and operate in accordance with this newly revealed reality: hence new ways of knowing are required for business executives to be genuine and effective leaders” Sander Tideman, ‘Spirit in Business: towards a new paradigm in economics and business

22. individual Practice Person your experience & sense of self how we act upon & in our world internal external People Policy the laws & structures of our society & institutions our shared meanings & values, culture plural

23. PERSON QUADRANT • UPPER LEFT - THE INTERNAL LIFE OF THE PLAYER • Ever developing, keen to change and be more, sees self as the project and the environment as a reflection, a context or even a compassionate extension of the self - every bit as worthy of attention and nurturance. For the prize to be worth winning, the game has to be good. • Valuing autonomy and authenticity. Seeking the tools - emotional, psychological, spiritual intelligence as well as strategic capability. • Demanding connectivity - play is engagement. The more complex s/he becomes, the more s/he needs a complex response. • Focus on creativity - using the whole self • Non-attached - ie prepared to lose the game to win the experience. There’s always the next game individual internal

24. internal • THE VALUES AND THE CULTURE THAT DEVELOPS FROM PLAY • The right to self determination based on interdependence • The importance of desire as a route finder for a career / life trajectory • Beauty for beauty’s sake • Logic of networks and sharing of information • Freedom to play matched with time / space to care • Finite games within infinite gaming • Soft power - everything is connected in a link of causation, it changes as we change - the joker, the chameleon, the role player. Play is the software for transformation • Moving towards a post-work, more automated, more animated society. plural PEOPLE QUADRANT

25. THE ACTIONS OF A PLAYER • Many of the practices of Generation Y • Searching for the means and skills to become employable for life but not within one career or one company • ‘Gold dusting’ - gathering good credentials for the CV by doing what s/he can for one company then moving on • Flexible working practice, shorter working weeks, sabbaticals and leave • Substantial lives away from work - this is not leisure, it is a hunger for experience and growth • Active attention to the inner state - how do I feel? Is this right? Like chess players and sportsmen / women • Subjectify their surroundings - it is a canvas for their art • Plus sides: able to confront and transform difficulty individual external PRACTISE QUADRANT

26. external • WHAT IS A PLAYER’S SOCIETY/INSTITUTION? • Global and networked - players want the biggest possible canvas for their play • Connected, integrated, co-optive • New groupings of companies, offering their players a diversity of experiences • Creative commons • New connectivity between business, public services and NGOs - each benefiting from the skills the others can offer potential employees • Citizens income - creating space and opportunity in peoples’ lives to develop ideas and skills that don’t fit into the labour market - adding to the sum total of social capital • Public services taken out of political realm and run by communities plural P0LICY QUADRANT

27. Indra Adnan,Pat Kane, Directors New Integrity 38 Fitzjohn’s Avenue London NW4 5NB t: +44 (0)20 7443 9404/9417 E-mails: indraadnan@newintegrity.org patkane@newintegrity.org Website: http://www.newintegrity.org http://www.theplayethic.com