This book is about the role of play and playfulness in creativity and innovation. We argue that play is an important form of behaviour that facilitates creativity, and hence innovation, in both the natural world and human society. Although the consequences of play are most obvious during the lifetime of each individual, play also affects biological evolution by enabling organisms to adapt rapidly to novel environments.

The essence of our argument is that playful behaviour and playful thought can generate radically new approaches to challenges set by the physical and social environment. While our approach grew out of observations of non-human animals by biologists, we argue that humans and organisations can exploit playfulness as a tool for fostering creativity and innovation.

'Play' evidently has many different meanings, some of which refer to aspects of behaviour and thinking that are very different from the playful mode of behaviour on which we shall focus. For example, rule-governed competitive sports are 'played', but they are rarely conducted playfully. Sports and many games are often treated as being deadly serious. Similarly, theatrical plays in which the actors are required to have learned their lines are not associated with the lightness of mood which we regard as being so important in playful creativity. Stage improvisation and ad libbing, however, may come closer to what we have in mind.