Sitting at the newly renovated Madison Park Playground with my eldest son last week, and he noted that the playground was quite safe. I demurred a bit -- it's a big playground, with climbing hooks and surfaces everywhere, and things spin and tip when least expected. I was pretty surprised when it opened because it looked, to my eyes, risky. John launched into an explanation of what he called the danger equilibrium, in this case the way that playgrounds designed to be safe turned out to cause more injuries than those with a higher risk. Turns out that kids are always looking to push the limits of what they do at play. So if a playground is over designed for safety, the kids can't get to that point where they are pushing the limits of risk in any kind of officially sanctioned play, so they end up moving beyond the danger equilibrium and doing something really stupid that ends with a trip to the doctor. In a well-designed playground, the kids are allowed to find that equilibrium on the equipment.
It was a super interesting conversation, and made me think about the concept as it applies to work. In leading a team, and in working with clients, I'm always talking about the need to take risks, to push the envelope a bit, to try new things, to not be afraid to do something and fail. Like the playground, if the construct is not set up to allow for risk taking early, then imposing the concept of a risky idea on risk averse people is hard -- having no exposure to what might be considered acceptable risk means some ideas push the needle so hard that a trip to the communications hospital is pretty much assured.
I now have a new construct to consider. We live in a communications playground, and my job is to make sure it's designed in such a way that people/clients can find that danger equilibrium where they are proposing and trying new ideas, hanging from outside the play structure and using equipment in ways that startle, delight and surprise.