When we were kids growing up in our part of Yorkshire, long before the age of smartphones, we would ‘connect’ with our mates by running from house to house, banging on the door and asking, “Are you laiking out?”
Laiking comes from the Old Norse word leika, meaning “to play.” This word brings back wonderful childhood memories from the 70s and 80s, and other sentences also spring to mind…
- “Stop laiking about and get on wi’ it!”
(Stop fooling around and get on with it.) - “t’Kids were laiking on t’field all day.”
(The kids were playing on the field all day.)
A few years later… In 2008, I was married to Elsa, we had two young children, and we were living and working in the Netherlands. At the time, I was an Engineering Manager with a large team of engineers working for several of the Automotive OEMs. It was a busy time and a time of serious business… of course, if you’re an engineer, there is fun in developing technical solutions and products, and developing my team was already a passion… but still, it was a serious time, and I was looking for a playful adventure.
One of the things I love about the Netherlands is their love of design. Dutch design is prominent on the global design scene, and every town has several interior design stores filled with beautiful products and objects for your home. The Design Academy in Eindhoven has been producing leading designers and brands for many years. I love it — and I also wondered if I could be a part of it…
I also have a childhood friend, the amazing artist Martin Smith, who creates sculptures — but not just sculptures — he makes sculptures that move: kinetic sculptures. I wondered if the many design stores in NL might want to sell his pieces, and I wondered if he’d like to set up a company with me to try this out. Of course I popped round to his house, banged on the door and… the rest is history.
We founded Laikingland together as a ‘creative collaboration’ and went on to sell his kinetic objects not just in the Netherlands but in many of the world’s best design stores, galleries, and museum shops. Not only this — we also collaborated with other UK- and Dutch-based artists to develop and produce their ideas.
It was a beautiful adventure for 6–7 years as we “played” together with other artists and created objects that no other company in the world was making. And we continue to this day to sell objects — even though Martin now spends most of his time in his own studio, and I shifted my focus into the world of Coaching and Team Coaching… my new field of play.
Now I’m playing with the concept of Skillful Collaboration and banging on the doors of potential partners… asking “Are you laiking out?”
Recently I ‘banged on the door’ of a my new friend Gideon, who knows more than a thing or two about partnering… he loves the idea of Skillful Collaboration and was happy to open the door to one of his good friends, Anne Lies.
Now there is a lady who likes to PLAY!!!
Within seconds of meeting her it’s evident — you feel her playful energy as she recounts story after story of ideas and experiences and fun and wonder and “aha” moments. She says “Ja ja!” all the time — like she REALLY agrees with you. She questions and thinks aloud and moves to action and then thinks aloud again and questions and agrees and moves to ACTION! Wow — I typed that so fast and so playfully just thinking about her.
Anne Lies is one of the business leaders at Windshift Catalyst — and you guessed it, they are a company who are EXPERTS in PLAY and, more specifically, in creating PLAYFUL team-building activities. Everyone knows that teams can learn when they play together, and Windshift offers playful team-building experiences to some of the best companies in the Netherlands.
Windshift is a brilliant company, and gets 5 star feedback for pretty much every event….. But often they also get the questions:
How much of the learning from play do teams take back to their everyday business lives?
How can we create learning that is easily transferable and easily practiced by teams back in the office?
How can we create more value from the playing & learning for teams and organisations?
Looking into these questions is the space that we will play.
I’m so looking forward to the coming weeks when we will have follow-up meetings with Gideon and Anne Lies to see how we can bring together the Skillful Collaboration concept and the playful team-building experiences of Windshift.
What a joy to learn and play, to talk about new adventures… oh, and share cake with new friends!
‘’Shall we taste both cakes?’’ said Anne Lies when I offered her the choice of which cake she preffered…. This collaboration is off to a fine start!
Let’s connect.
Let’s play.
Let’s learn.
Let’s skillfully collaborate!
