Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Kids, rules and work
I found this post by Steve Cunio on the UK Playworks discussion list and felt just about compelled to get permission to share it with you, without comment, in its, more or less, entirety, which I got and am doing, as follows:
Here we have the Yes people (kids) composing new events and taking advantage of new ever changing opportunities. They do not flinch at having to make up their own rules as
- rules don't have to be agreed at board meetings,
- rules are based on a hierarchy of good ideas, not people
- rules are flexible enough for fast change
- rules keep pace with the game, the game itself shows the need for rules
- no one wants too many rules, the simpler the better
- rules are flexible enough to allow anyone to join in or leave
- rules are loosely based on already established games
- rules from a variety of games form a recipe for a new game
- lessons learnt from previous play facilitate speedier rule making
- rules are good ideas that suit most
- rules that do not really suit most are disputed, altered or dropped
- rules have their own natural lifecycle
- rules grow from being explicit to implicit next time played
- rules are rationalised and generalised for new players
- making rules is childs play based on capabilities, resources and environment
- rules are not factoral rules at all but behavioural guidelines.
I was really looking to affirm my approach to systems development. (I also administer systems at (Lime Hospital Arts) An approach that is set not to add to existing complexity but to reduce that complexity towards simplicity, ironing out a root problem irons out all problems that may have arisen from that.
Adults generally have less flexible rulesets for play, now called work(!), that do not allow for tidal change based on new inputs. Neither can the rulesets be readily altered and as such are added to exponentially and with greater exasperation.
This is where adult play fails where childsplay suceeds.
We should seek to mirror childsplay more in the work environment with less stringent rules meaning far greater flexibility for change, reappraisal of situations in current environment and the ironing out of foreseeable problems.
Here we have the Yes people (kids) composing new events and taking advantage of new ever changing opportunities. They do not flinch at having to make up their own rules as
- rules don't have to be agreed at board meetings,
- rules are based on a hierarchy of good ideas, not people
- rules are flexible enough for fast change
- rules keep pace with the game, the game itself shows the need for rules
- no one wants too many rules, the simpler the better
- rules are flexible enough to allow anyone to join in or leave
- rules are loosely based on already established games
- rules from a variety of games form a recipe for a new game
- lessons learnt from previous play facilitate speedier rule making
- rules are good ideas that suit most
- rules that do not really suit most are disputed, altered or dropped
- rules have their own natural lifecycle
- rules grow from being explicit to implicit next time played
- rules are rationalised and generalised for new players
- making rules is childs play based on capabilities, resources and environment
- rules are not factoral rules at all but behavioural guidelines.
I was really looking to affirm my approach to systems development. (I also administer systems at (Lime Hospital Arts) An approach that is set not to add to existing complexity but to reduce that complexity towards simplicity, ironing out a root problem irons out all problems that may have arisen from that.
Adults generally have less flexible rulesets for play, now called work(!), that do not allow for tidal change based on new inputs. Neither can the rulesets be readily altered and as such are added to exponentially and with greater exasperation.
This is where adult play fails where childsplay suceeds.
We should seek to mirror childsplay more in the work environment with less stringent rules meaning far greater flexibility for change, reappraisal of situations in current environment and the ironing out of foreseeable problems.
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