If you want people to think differently, you have to give them a space in which different thinking is genuinely possible.
In 1938, the Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga introduced a phrase that has informed the way scholars understand play ever since: the magic circle.
He used it to describe the boundary that forms around any genuine game or playful activity. It could be a football pitch, a theatre stage, a medieval tournament or even a courtroom – anywhere in which a different set of rules applies and ordinary life is temporarily suspended.
Inside that separate, bounded magic circle, we agree to behave differently. For example, we will accept constraints we would otherwise reject, and take risks we might avoid in everyday life.
Huizinga’s insight was both cultural and anthropological; and it also has profound implications for modern organisations… The key point is that if you want people to think differently, you cannot simply ask them to do so while everything else remains the same.
Most senior leaders we work with are already thoughtful about culture and understand the importance of engagement, collaboration and psychological ‘safety’, as well as the value of thinking creatively about complex problems.
However, all organisations include powerful structures necessary for accountability and delivery – things like reporting lines and hierarchies, performance pressures and ingrained routines – all of which inevitably shape behaviour.
In ordinary working environments, people naturally and quite rightly filter what they say. They respect each other’s status and protect their own, and they take care to ‘read the room’, consciously calibrating their contributions according to who is present and how decisions are made.
This is simply how human systems function… But it’s also why many “away days” disappoint. Changing the physical setting does not by itself alter the underlying dynamics. Unless you address those, then people will naturally revert to the same conversational patterns and everyone will be cautious about what can and cannot be said.
If the psychological frame does not shift in some way then neither does the quality of thinking. A true magic circle, by contrast, is not just a change of location but a change of conditions.
Huizinga pointed out that entire cultures are built around such circles from the rituals of religion to the rules of sport or the formalities of the law.. A courtroom, for instance, is a highly codified magic circle, in which everyone knows their role and the language is specialised; we do not behave in a courtroom as we would in a café.
In the corporate context, a well-designed play experience works in a similar way.
Take global onboarding during lockdown. When thousands of new hires at a global investment bank were placed into breakout rooms for a competitive, game-show-style escape room, the Zoom grid became a magic circle, with simple rules and clear goals. The usual dynamics of hierarchy were temporarily suspended. What mattered in that circle was contribution and teamwork. When participants stepped back into their formal roles, they did so having already built trust through a shared endeavour.
Or consider a fully immersive experience such as 7 Secret Doors The moment participants are told that they are entering a story (with hidden clues and timed missions), the circle is formed.People who might normally sit back inhabit a new role and become active. They collaborate with unusual intensity because the space itself licences that behaviour.
When a space is clearly marked as physically and psychologically distinct, there are three important things that can happen:
1) A temporary softening of hierarchies
Hierarchy does not disappear completely (and nor should it; leadership remains essential), but within a well-designed playful structure, everyone is subject to the same light rules. In a true play scenario, a managing partner and a graduate recruit are simply teammates trying to solve a problem or achieve a shared goal. Authority therefore becomes contextual rather than absolute.
Interestingly, this tends to strengthen rather than weaken leadership. When senior figures are seen collaborating as participants, having fun and occasionally failing and trying again, their credibility grows in human terms.
2) An increase in authenticity
In play, there is little room for a corporate ‘script’. How someone responds under time pressure or how they support a colleague who is stuck is revealed quickly and truthfully. Teams often tell us they see qualities in one another during play experiences that never quite emerge in formal meetings.
3) More flexible thinking
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described the state of Flow as one in which challenge and skill are balanced so precisely that immersion follows naturally. In such moments, self-consciousness recedes and attention becomes fully engaged; people stretch their abilities without feeling paralysed by risk.
Flow rarely emerges in environments where individuals feel judged or constrained by status dynamics. But within a clearly defined magic circle, where the rules are explicit and the stakes are meaningful yet contained, people often find themselves thinking more laterally and collaborating more freely than they expected.
A misconception about play in business is that it asks organisations to become less serious. In reality, it asks them to create conditions in which serious thinking can happen more effectively.
Our work on the Transformational Power of Play identifies three structural elements that consistently produce valuable outcomes: Space, Connection and Flow.
The magic circle is an expression of the first of these, Space – but it only works when combined with genuine human connection and a well-calibrated challenge.
When these elements are present, we see predictable results of sharper problem-solving, deeper trust and renewed energy. Ingenuity increases because people feel free to experiment; Belonging is strengthened because shared experience accelerates trust; and finally Vitality rises because play reduces stress and creates new momentum.
None of this is accidental or fluffy, but is the product of carefully designed environments in which people are temporarily released from the narrow performance demands of everyday roles.
Modern organisations operate in conditions of constant complexity: they are required to adapt quickly and collaborate across silos. Technical competence alone is not enough; they need cognitive flexibility and strong, resilient cultures.
How do you create conditions in which people genuinely think beyond the familiar?
The answer is to create environments where ordinary structures are temporarily suspended. The magic circle provides a bounded, purposeful arena in which different behaviours are licensed and different perspectives can surface.
When people step back out of that space and return to their daily roles, they do so with altered relationships and fresh insights
The circle is temporary, but the effects can be transformational and long-lasting.
Read more about these ideas in our free white paper The Transformational Power of Play.
If you’re interested in exploring what a deliberately designed magic circle might look like in your organisation, we would be delighted to continue the conversation. Contact us here.
