254. Unleashing Creativity: Turning Work Into Play with Mick Spiers

What makes a team truly creative? It's not beanbag chairs or forced brainstorming sessions—it's about creating an environment where play becomes the engine of productivity.

Drawing from the wisdom shared by ex-Pixar executives Jamie Woolf and Dr. Chris Bell, this solocast explores how psychological safety, ownership, and freedom transform workplaces from control centers to creativity hubs. The distinction is powerful: work doesn't need to feel like work when people are in flow.

Remember the piano stairs experiment in Stockholm? When regular stairs were transformed into musical piano keys, people abandoned the escalator en masse—not because they suddenly learned stairs were healthier, but because taking them became fun. This same principle applies to our teams. When we create conditions where exploration feels natural and failure feels safe, innovation flourishes without force.

True inclusion means moving beyond token representation to genuine agency—people don't want to merely attend the party; they want to help plan it. Creativity emerges not from chaos but from stillness, those moments when our minds settle and make space for insight. And perhaps most importantly, creativity isn't restricted to your design team—it's the procurement specialist finding a novel cost-saving approach, the team leader redesigning workflows to reduce stress, the frontline worker identifying a customer pain point no one else noticed.

What would your organization look like if every team member felt empowered to play, experiment, and truly belong? The answer might transform not just your culture, but your results. Ready to create those conditions in your team? Listen now and discover how to unlock the creative potential hiding in plain sight.

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Episode Transcript

Mick Spiers (00:01):
What if the reason your team isn't more creative
isn't because they lack ideas,but because they lack oxygen.
What would happen if work feltless like a grind and more like
flow, fun and freedom? And whatif inclusion isn't about being
invited to the table, but beingtrusted to move the chairs in

(00:23):
today's solo cast. I want tobuild on the incredible
conversation we just had withJamie Woolf and Dr. Chris Bell
from creativity partners,because something said really
stuck with me. Play is notoptional. If you want to get
work done, that line hit hard,and that's what we're going to
explore today.

(00:44):
Welcome back to The LeadershipProject. I'm your host. Mick
Spiers, today is going to be asolo cast where I unpack my key
takeaways from the conversationwith Jamie Woolf and Dr. Chris
bell of creativity partners, twoex Pixar executives who taught
us about what it means to createa culture of creativity. So I'm

(01:09):
going to unpack my key takeawaysfrom that conversation and add a
few of my own experiences inhere. So I'm going to give you
six practical takeaways hereabout how you can create
creativity in your team. KeyConcept number one is when work
is fun, it doesn't feel likework. Think about a time you

(01:30):
were completely in flow. Maybeyou were solving a problem,
brainstorming a wild idea,building something from scratch,
and you looked up and realizedhours had passed. That is when
work becomes play. It's notabout ping pong tables or bean
bags. It's not about pretendingto have fun. It's not something

(01:52):
that can be forced. And we'veseen lots of organizations doing
things like that, thinking thatyou're putting ping pong tables
or bean bags or whatever it is,and that's what's going to
create creativity It's notsomething that can be forced.
It's about psychological safety,ownership and the freedom to
explore without fear of beingwrong. The reality is, most

(02:18):
workplaces are wired forcontrol, not for creativity. And
when we remove fun, spontaneityand playfulness, we don't just
make work boring. We make itunproductive. Fun isn't the
opposite of work. Fun is thefuel of work when it gets done,
right? Have a think about thiswhen you know, for anyone out

(02:40):
there that does a bit of sport,running on a treadmill, for most
people, is dead boring. In fact,it's quite often called a
dreadmill. But if you find thesport that you love, time seems
to fly by.
For me, it's tennis. I'll playtwo hours of tennis without any

(03:01):
hesitation, and I won't evennotice the time going by. I'll
be so immersed in what I'm doingthat time seems to fly past
without noticing it. For you, itmight be dancing, whatever it
is, whatever that fun activityis, where you just lose yourself

(03:22):
in the moment, and nothing feelslike hard work anymore. It's
just amazing. And you get thework done, you get creative, you
start trying different things.
There was a great experimentsome psychologists did in
Stockholm in Sweden called thepiano stairs. And what they did
in a metro station with a lot offoot traffic, where everyone was

(03:44):
taking the escalator, theyexperimented by converting the
stairs next to the escalatorinto some musical stairs. Every
foot that you took, or everystep that you took up these
stairs was a different note of apiano and a piano would play,
and they used time lapsevideography to be able to show

(04:05):
that before they put the musicalstairs in, nearly everyone was
taking the escalator. And whenthey put the stairs in, everyone
started to gravitate towards thestairs. In fact, in some cases,
people wouldn't be just takingthe stairs, but they'd be
literally playing their way upthe stairs. They'd be going like
taking steps up, taking takingsteps down, and because it was

(04:30):
fun, people did the work andthey took the stairs. And we
know that taking the stairs isbetter for our health. We know
that. So it's not a lack ofinformation that led to people
taking the escalator, but onceit was more fun to take the
stairs, there was a huge shiftin how people behaved. So think

(04:50):
about that in your workplace,whether it's my tennis or
dancing example, or whether it'sthese. Yano stares, what can you
do to make work fun again andwithout forcing it, just making
it so people have got theability to be themselves and

(05:10):
lose themselves in the momentand get themselves into a state
of flow.
Okay, Idea number two, the powerof inclusion, ownership and
belonging. One of the mostpowerful ideas Chris shared with
us was this, we're not in thebusiness of making people feel
included. We're in the businessof making people be included.

(05:34):
There's a difference. Beingincluded means having agency,
having voice, having ownership.
When people are part of shapingthe workplace, not just
participating in they show updifferently. They take pride,
they take responsibility, theytake initiative. Belonging isn't
a warm and fuzzy extra, it's thefoundation of performance.

(05:58):
People don't give their bestwhen they feel like guests. They
give their best when they feellike owners. The metaphor that
Chris used was really powerful,the one around a party. You can
have a party and invite peopleto be part of the party, and
they'll feel included. They'llturn up, they'll listen to your

(06:19):
music, eat your food that you'vepicked out. They'll have drinks,
whatever the case may be. But tobe included, they would have
taken a role in selecting themusic, in selecting the food, in
selecting what was going to bedone. So to be included means
that you're part of it. You'repart of the solution, and you
take ownership.

(06:43):
Idea three fun can't be forced,and neither can creativity.
Here's the trap a lot of wellmeaning leaders fall into. They
try to manufacture fun or demandcreativity. We're going to do a
trust fall. Let's brainstormright now. Be more innovative.
All of that doesn't work, and itbackfires, because creativity

(07:06):
doesn't live in pressure. Itlives in permission and fun
doesn't happen on command. Ithappens when people feel safe,
feel seen and feel trusted. AsJamie said, there's a difference
between strategic play andgratuitous games. Play should be
intentional. It should beconnected to purpose. It should

(07:30):
meet people where they are. It'snot about putting on a show.
It's about creating space. Ideafor a still mind is a creative
mind. Here's something I've beenreflecting on. Personally, we
think we need to push harder tobe creative, but often the
opposite is true. When our mindsare racing, filled with

(07:53):
pressure, expectations andnoise, there's no room for new
ideas to land. Creativitydoesn't arrive in the chaos. It
arrives in the stillness itcould be in the shower on a walk
after a breath. When we give ourminds a moment to settle, we

(08:14):
create space for insights asleaders, part of our job is not
to fill every silence but toprotect space for thinking,
imagining and wondering. Thisapplies to ourselves, our own
thinking process. We can't beGo, go, go. 24/7, we need to

(08:36):
give ourselves time, time tothink and time to clear the
mind, to still the mind, socreativity can come and the same
applies to our teams. We need tobuild space and time for them to
do their very best thinkingwhere they're not worried about

(08:58):
the next milestone, the nextdeliverable, the next meeting,
they need time to still theirmind so they can think clearly.
Have a think about thisyourself. Think about when your
best ideas have ever come to youin your life, and I can pretty
much guarantee you it's notgoing to be in the middle of

(09:20):
something where your mind isracing at a million miles an
hour. It's going to be at sometime where you were at peace,
where you weren't thinking about27 other things. It came at a
time where your mind was stillthere's been a lot of scientific
research about this, wherethey've used functional MRIs to

(09:41):
measure brain activity andwatching what different parts of
the brain fire at differenttimes and when you're thinking
about 100 different things, thatis not when creative thought
lives. It's when you're able toget your mind into a still state
where you're not worried aboutthings like. Eye of all, you're
not worried about what to cookfor dinner tonight. It's these

(10:05):
moments where your best ideascome. So what can you do in your
schedule, in your diary, tobuild some rituals where you can
have a still mind, and what canyou do to create the same for
your teams.
Idea number five, creativitycomes in many forms. One of the

(10:26):
biggest myths we need to bust isthe idea that creativity only
belongs to artists and designersor the marketing team. Everyone
is creative, and everyone can becreative, the procurement person
who finds a new way to savecost, the team leader who
redesigns a workflow to reducestress, the parent who figures

(10:48):
out how to get the kids toschool and make it to work on
time. That's all forms ofcreativity, not about the
medium. It's about the mindset,and when we expand the
definition of creativity. Weexpand who gets to contribute,
and that's when the real magichappens. So have a look in your

(11:10):
workplace. How do you rewardcreativity? Innovation Awards
always going to the engineers,or are you looking across the
business and realizing thatinnovation and creativity can
come from all walks of life, Ialso challenge you that you need
that diversity of thought inyour creativity and in your

(11:32):
innovation. So you might havesome people in the room when
you're looking to problem solvethat are not directly connected
to the task, someone that canhave an another perspective, an
outsider's perspective that noone in the room has thought of
before. I remember a clearmoment in my career when we're

(11:55):
trying to solve a problem aroundpassageways for parents that are
trying to go through a subwaysystem with children in
strollers. And the people thathad the best ideas in the room
weren't engineers at all, but Itell you what they were. They
were parents, and they wereparents from the HR department,

(12:17):
from the finance department, butby tapping into these people's
diverse perspectives, we wereable to find solutions that we
would never have found by just apure engineering process.
Idea six, empowerment unlockscreativity. Ultimately,

(12:39):
creativity is a leadershipissue, because it thrives in
environments of empowerment,when people are trusted, when
they're given room to move, whenthey're treated like adults who
are capable, resourceful andfull of potential, they rise.
People don't need constantdirection. They need conditions

(13:00):
to thrive as a leader. Askyourself, Am I creating those
conditions? Am I empoweringpeople to bring their full
selves? Am I giving people spaceto play, to think, to fail and
to try again? If the answer isyes, creativity will flow.
Remember you do not have to haveall the answers. In fact, if you

(13:23):
have all the answers, that's areal problem, because you're not
creating space for others tobring up ideas and new thoughts.
So this is once again, aboutdiversity of thought, but now
it's the empowerment, empoweringpeople so that they feel
trusted, so that they feelcapable and resourceful, and

(13:45):
they will come up with ideas,and they will blow your mind
with the innovative and creativeideas that they'll come up with.
So here's the invitation for youtoday. What would it take to
make work feel like play again.
What would it look like to builda culture where creativity isn't
forced, it's freed, and whatwould happen if every person on

(14:09):
your team truly felt like theybelong? That's the world Jamie
and Chris are helping leaderscreate as the kind of leadership
we need now more than ever. Sowhat action will you take today
to make that happen, to findthat play, to find that freedom,
and to ensure that everyone inyour team and in your

(14:34):
organization is included andfeels that they belong.
Okay, that's it for today. Inthe next episode, I'll be joined
by the amazing Kyle McDowell.
Now you've heard of Simon Sinekand the concept of start with
why? Well, Kyle is going tointroduce you to the concept

(14:57):
called begin. With we and it's areally powerful way of re
imagining leadership in a modernworld. You don't want to miss
this.
Thank you for listening to TheLeadership Project
mickspiers.com a huge call outto Faris Sedek for his video

(15:19):
editing of all of our videocontent and to all of the team
at TLP. Joan Gozon, GeraldCalibo and my amazing wife Sei
Spiers, I could not do this showwithout you. Don't forget to
subscribe to The LeadershipProject YouTube channel where we
bring you interesting videoseach and every week. And you can
follow us on social,particularly on LinkedIn,

(15:41):
Facebook and Instagram. Now inthe meantime, please do take
care, look out for each otherand join us on this journey as
we learn together and leadtogether.