Why your best strategy often lies in the sandpit

What does a tower of building blocks have to do with production planning, developing new products or solving stubborn logistics problems?

The answer is as simple as it is radical: children's playful and unbiased way of thinking is the most effective weapon against operational blockages and the dogma of ‘We've always done it this way!’.

We're not talking about superficial gamification here. We're talking about a deeper truth about human creativity in the face of complex challenges. 

When we were children and experimented with LEGO building blocks, dolls or just mud, there was no formidable opponent called ‘conventionality’. There was only the goal and the boundless freedom to constantly reinvent the way to get there. We called it playing. 

Today we call it innovation.

Spoiler alert: if your company is stagnating, it's rarely because of the market. It's because you've weaned your employees off thinking games.

The ‘paperwork’ in your head

Everyone talks about the ‘paperwork’ that prevents employees from adding value. But let's be honest: don't we also have this phenomenon in our heads? After years on the job, shaped by regulations, process manuals and the latent fear of making mistakes, adults lose their most important ability: the childlike imagination that sees a problem not as an immovable mountain, but as a malleable mass.

A child building a tower of blocks is not interested in how the tower was built yesterday. It asks the rhetorical question: ‘What happens if I leave this block out or pull it out?’ 

It is the direct route to the prototype, to the first, unadulterated idea, without weeks of meetings questioning the ‘why’.

But now comes the uncomfortable question that affects us all: is this approach allowed in our companies, or is it unconsciously suppressed?

The Achilles heel of bureaucracy

We invest heavily in processes and structures in the hope that complexity will organise itself. But structure can become a shackle if it stifles creativity. When employees' actions are inhibited by micromanagement and a culture of fear, even the best ideas are nipped in the bud before they are voiced.

We suppress childlike imagination when:

• Analysing a challenge is more important than finding a solution
• Adhering to the process description is more important than the result
• We see employees as workers, not as co-creators who are called upon to collaborate on an equal footing
• Every new idea is immediately met with a catalogue of risks instead of a curious ‘Give it a try!’, illustrated by vivid anecdotes and examples

We stifle the authenticity and personality of employees and turn them into cogs in a system, instead of empowering them to improve the system itself.

The opportunity to rethink

True people-centred leadership means creating an environment in which adults are allowed to ask questions that may seem naive at first glance. It is the appreciation of the beginner's mind that says, ‘That's totally awkward! Why are we doing it this way?’

We must free ourselves from the illusion that professionalism always has to mean sterile objectivity. Young talents today are not just looking for a job, but for a place where they can be creative. We have to give them the ‘mental building blocks’ and say, ‘Build it better. Show us how it's done!’

Because in the end, the building block tower shows us that the simplest solution is often the best. And that doesn't come from a manual, but from an unbiased, curious joy of discovery. Take this opportunity to rethink and unleash the best ideas that are already in the minds of your employees.