Questions. Perspectives. Movement.
Research, put to work.
Five recent studies on play at work and innovation, what they report and how Opopoï puts them to work in real workshops.
Research does not stay
in the journals.
At Opopoï, research materialises into concrete workshop decisions: the rules, the materials, the sequences. Here are five recent studies on play at work and innovation, what they report — and what we do with them.
Independent research, translated into workshop design. Below we distinguish the studies’ findings from our practical applications.
What the studies say.
What we do with them.
Original English titles; context, findings and applications translated by us. The summary is ours: read the article via the DOI link.
- 2026
Playfulness in everyday work
Siqi Wang, Yasin Rofcanin, Mireia Las Heras, Yuri Scharp, Arnold Bakker, Can Ererdi & Maria Jose Bosch — Applied Psychology (published online 7 July 2026)
From playful work design to playful family design: How personality and compassionate love shape playfulness across domains
Reported settingA 10-day diary study with 706 full-time employees across 9 countries (4,110 observations).
Plain-language findingEmployees who design play into their work report less job boredom and also tend to design play into their family life; the strength of these links varies with playful personality and compassionate love.
In our workshopsLeave participants a choice of difficulty and participation level, and make the link between the workshop experiment and real work explicit.
- 2025
Playful work design and creativity
Jian Zhu & Xin Wen — Journal of Psychology in Africa, 35(2), 199–205 (published 30 June 2025)
Playful work design, flow, and employee creativity
Reported settingA survey of 272 employees across various industries in China, measuring playful work design, flow, playful climate and creativity.
Plain-language findingPlayful work design is positively associated with creativity; flow mediates the link and a playful climate strengthens it. A correlational study, not a guaranteed effect.
In our workshopsProvide a clear challenge, room to experiment and focused working sequences to develop ideas.
- 2024
LEGO Serious Play as an interview tool
Stephanie Rose & Penny J. Furness — Qualitative Research in Psychology, 21(4), 578–609
Lego Serious Play in Psychology: Exploring Its Use in Qualitative Interviews
Reported settingQualitative interviews with 5 young adults in Hong Kong, exploring the theme of happiness.
Plain-language findingBuilding, sharing then listening supports reflection, self-expression, metaphor and access to tacit knowledge; the authors also discuss the time burden and the balance between participant-led and interviewer-led guidance.
In our workshopsEveryone first builds and explains their own model; collective interpretation only comes after listening.
- 2023
LEGO Serious Play in management education
Nathalie Benesova — Cogent Education, 10(2) (published 24 October 2023)
LEGO® Serious Play® in management education
Reported settingAn undergraduate management module including assessment, evaluated through qualitative analysis of student reflections.
Plain-language findingA participatory, co-creational approach; the author-facilitator reports benefits and challenges for management and employability learning. A learning context, not a workplace study.
In our workshopsConstruction, reflection and a debrief tied to an explicit business question.
- 2022
Defining playful work design
Yuri S. Scharp, Arnold B. Bakker, Kimberley Breevaart, Kaspar Kruup & Andero Uusberg — Human Relations (first online 10 February 2022; volume 76, 2023)
Playful work design: Conceptualization, measurement, and validity
Reported settingThree studies conceptualising playful work design and validating its measurement with employees.
Plain-language findingPlayful work design — proactively building fun (‘designing fun’) and challenge (‘designing competition’) into one’s actual work — is a distinct orientation, separate from job crafting.
In our workshopsChoose rules and constraints that serve the real task rather than bolting entertainment on top.
Your question deserves
more than an article.
We draw on these research areas to choose useful rules, materials and facilitation sequences for your question. What happens next takes place around a table, with your group and your challenge.
You bring
the question.
We give it form.
A question to clarify. A team to bring together. An idea to put to the test. Let’s start with a conversation.
Discuss your next workshop