At Urban Initiatives, we know play is serious.
For more than 20 years, our work has been grounded in a simple belief: sport and play are essential developmental infrastructure. In this excerpt from Dare to Think Differently: How Open-Mindedness Creates Exceptional Decision-Making, author Gerald Zaltman explores the concept of “serious play” and its role in learning and leadership.
Gerald Zaltman is an emeritus professor at the Harvard Business School, and a former member of the Executive Committee of Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative.
The findings are clear. Play is essential to learning, imagination, problem solving, and open mindedness. Through play, children practice the social, emotional, and practical skills they will need as adults. Play demands creativity. It requires risk taking. It invites reflection. It builds resilience.
Zaltman argues that serious play strengthens generative thinking. It helps surface hidden assumptions and mental models. It improves decision making in ambiguous environments. In other words, play is preparation for serious work.
This aligns directly with our model. On the field, young people learn teamwork, communication, emotional regulation, and leadership. They navigate conflict. They build confidence. They develop the cognitive flexibility needed to respond to challenge and uncertainty. Sport provides a structured space where youth can experiment, fail safely, adapt, and try again. That process builds capacity that extends far beyond the game.
It is encouraging to see research affirm what we have witnessed in communities across Chicago for more than two decades. When young people are given the opportunity to play with purpose, they grow in ways that last.
Play is serious.
