I'm Elise Hupe. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Today, an idea for a game or a test for your business to help future proof it. In his 2021 talk at TEDBCG, imagination advocate Martin Reeves, makes his pitch for this way to unleash the creativity of your employees for the

long-term success of your company.

Have you ever trodden on a Lego brick in your bare feet? You're tiptoeing through your lounge

late at night and suddenly that stabbing pain, the expletives and the inevitable question.

Why do we have so much of this stuff all over the place? Well, that's really quite simple.

Your kids love playing with it so you buy more. And a confession, I love to watch my kids play

with Lego. Especially good is when I see them inventing their own

rules and their own worlds. Kids at play inspire me. They're not afraid to ask what if and why not.

But what kids implicitly know that adults tend to forget is that play isn't just about fun.

Now, as a biologist, I know that play is spontaneous and pleasurable,

but also it accelerates and de-risks learning.

It helps kids to try out new behaviors, to refine those behaviors,

and to imagine what is not not but what could be or what

will be. As a business strategist dealing with adults, I still recommend play. In fact, play in business

is not just possible. I'd argue that it's essential and even urgent. And here's why.

Competitive advantage fades away faster than any time in recent memory.

In the 1980s, if you had a performance edge over your competitors,

you could reasonably expect to continue being a leader for around 10 years on average.

But now the half-life of that advantage has shrunk to just one year.

That means that short-lived success is actually still very common, but sustained success becomes

very hard and very rare.

That means that actually reimagination is the new execution.

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