Mind Games

Where is it written that important assignments must be carried out with an air of grim determination? That breakthrough ideas can only emerge in a business-as-usual environment? That work must always feel like, well, work?

Here's a glimpse of the creative process at Play, a boutique marketing agency tucked in the historic Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia: The corner office is usually called the "playroom," but a hastily scrawled sign has temporarily dubbed it the "hall of justice." The 20 or so staff members in the room are instructed to invent their own superheroes, create costumes for them, figure out their superpowers, and invent Clark Kent-like alter egos. "You have 10 minutes," declares Courtney Page, 27, who's leading the exercise. Page starts by trading the blue, furry Grover hat that she's been wearing -- complete with googly eyes -- for a custom-made construction-paper headdress. Robert Throckmorton, 36, looking resplendent in a purple velvet shirt, draws a lighthouse on his white jacket made of Tyvek (that papery, indestructible stuff that's used in mailing envelopes and for housing insulation) to become Beacon Boy, whose mission is to banish evil and darkness. Geof Hammond, 29, tapes a 12-inch red rubber ball to the top of his head using strips of masking tape that are secured under his chin. Henry McCoy, 37, decides that the day job of his superhero, Ennui Boy, is whipping up lattes at Starbucks.

These folks aren't goofing off. They aren't fooling around. They're not even acting strangely. They're actually engaged in real work for an important client with a tight deadline. But they are trying to be creative -- which means, they insist, that they can't sit in boring meetings, in boring conference rooms, and expect to generate much beyond boring ideas. Indeed, this brainstorming session, which included several people who would be labeled (and dismissed) as mere accountants or support staff at most other agencies, was the beginning of an afternoon that generated more than 70 ideas for Play's client, the Weather Channel, which wants Play to come up with a marketing campaign that focuses on a specific cause.

Play's undeniably playful workplace reflects the company's overall approach to the hard work of creativity. Cofounder Andy Stefanovich, 33, says the basic idea is simple: When you turn work into a place that encourages people to be themselves, have fun, and take risks, you fuel and unleash their creativity. The best ideas come from playful minds. And the way to tap into that playfulness is to play -- together. "Creativity is not a solitary occurrence," he argues. "It's very much a collaborative effort. One person is as creative as the next. That creativity just needs to be discovered within each person. What we're doing is building a creative community -- not mystifying creativity as a special talent of a chosen few."

A diverse and demanding group of clients are finding themselves at Play. This small (31-person), fast-growing organization delivers creative concepts, marketing and branding campaigns, promotional products, and event strategies to the likes of American Express, Calvin Klein, Nationwide Insurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oscar Mayer, and Disney. What's more, about 30% of the agency's business comes from teaching companies to be more creative themselves by using Play's methods.

Just how creative is Play? The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), the only non-business-school institution to make Business Week's top-20 list of executive educational programs on leadership innovation, recently evaluated the firm using a tool that rates a company's ability to foster creativity. Play not only beat CCL's benchmark model, but it also beat all of the companies in CCL's database. "Its scores were off the charts," says Bill Howland, product manager for CCL. "I have not seen another company with such an open and creative environment in my six years with the center." Indeed, stop by Play on any given afternoon, and you might find that a UPS guy has been pulled into a brainstorming session, or that a visitor has been asked to join a role-playing exercise. Most significantly, this anyone-can-do-it philosophy suggests that creativity can be learned.

Charlie Kouns, 46, who sometimes calls himself the unofficial conscience of the company's brand, likes to talk about play as both a process and a movement. His less-than-covert agenda is to absorb the firm's clients into its creative community, to infect them with a reverence for playing that will, over time, have an impact on how business in general approaches the creative challenge. "When people feel phenomenally valued and respected, their creative passion and energy can erupt all over," Kouns says. "That energy is infectious. It's wonderful to watch clients play ball and do other 'silly' things. And before you know it, you've got 22 ideas that are 10 times better than anything you could have come up with if you hadn't approached the project that way. The simpler you get, the more open and the more creative you become. We just want to share that."