Child's Play

As children, our days were filled with exploration, play, fun and adventure. This is how we learn and grow. This is how we express ourselves. At some point in our maturation, most of us abandoned these labels of play for a more serious endeavor: life. How sad - and I believe, a collective social mistake. Giving ourselves permission to have fun with our lives, to create and expand through often reckless experimentation is the core of successful innovation.

Perhaps without us realizing, the innovation structure within "serious" business endeavors relies upon this creative spirit. It is not enterprise innovation directives, creativity incentive plans, or even well-researched user needs that drive successful innovation. I believe that it is our individual yearning for fun and our loosing the shackles of corporate and customer requirements that provide each of us with the power and inspiration to create effectively and prolifically.