Play Works Better: Playground Strategies for Better Mental Health
May 25, 2025
What would life be like if you looked forward to workdays like you do the weekend? If you anticipated Monday as much as Saturday?
I bet you're thinking, "Get real, Dr. Joey. That's impossible."
But is it?
Jeff Harry challenged this very notion when I interviewed him on the Work Positive Podcast. Jeff combines positive psychology and play to heal work cultures, help teams build psychological safety, and assist individuals in addressing their biggest challenges.
"When I say play," Jeff explained, "I describe play as any joyful act where you forget about time. It's where you're in flow, and when you're in flow, you're actually five times more productive."
That's right—five times more productive. And yet, how many of our work environments actively discourage play, viewing it as unprofessional or unproductive?
Serious Results from "Non-Serious" Activities
Admit it. Play sounds frivolous to you. You work in a world of quarterly targets, stakeholder expectations, and competitive pressures. "More play" seems naïve at best and irresponsible at worst.
Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, found that play is not the opposite of work—it's the opposite of depression. His research shows that play profoundly impacts brain development, social bonding, and creative problem-solving.
For adults, play serves crucial functions that directly enhance mental health:
- Reduces stress by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Stimulates creativity and lateral thinking.
- Nurtures social bonds through shared positive experiences.
- Catalyzes psychological safety for risk-taking and innovation.
Avoid the "Forced Fun" Trap
Jeff made an important distinction: "Forced fun sucks."
"What is forced fun?" he continued. "It's getting people to have fun or getting people to play when they don't want to. Stop taking your staff to an escape room and thinking Samantha's gonna like Chad after you leave. No, they're gonna still hate each other."
Just because you say to a team member, "You will have fun" doesn't mean they will. True play requires psychological safety as a foundation, voluntary participation, and freedom to experiment without punishment.
Three Steps to Create a Play Works Better Culture
Ready to foster good mental health with play that works better? Try these practical steps:
- Remove the Toxic Person
Jeff was direct with his Do One Thing (DOT) advice: "Find that toxic person at your company and figure out what is the plan to address this person so that everyone can enjoy work once again."
A single toxic presence poisons the entire work culture and makes play impossible.
- Lead with Play
"How are you playing? You want to model for other people, then how are you taking risks? How are you showing that I can take a risk and fail and it's okay?"
When leaders demonstrate playfulness, they create permission for others to do the same.
- Foster Safe-to-Fail Spaces
"A friend of mine used to work for NASA, and she would say, 'I go to work every day trying to break the Mars rover,'" Jeff shared. "My goal is to actually have it fail because I want it to fail here so that when we send it a million miles away, we'll know how to fix it."
Your Play Works Better Challenge
Ready to bring more play into your good mental health culture? Here's your three-part challenge:
- Observe Natural Play: Notice for a week where play already happens in your company. When do people light up? When do they lose track of time?
- Remove One Barrier: Identify one policy, practice, or cultural norm that inhibits playfulness. How can you modify it?
- Create One Playground: Designate one meeting, project, or space as explicitly play-friendly where experimentation is welcomed.
Taken from Dr. Joey's forthcoming new book, Good Mental Health Works Better: 6 Culture Strategies that Grow People and Profits.
What's your question about creating a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here.
Subscribe to the Work Positive Newsletter
Get the latest blog, podcast, and other resources weekly that help you Work Positive.
We detest SPAM and guard your information carefully. Unsubscribe any time we violate your trust.
