Leaders have no shortage of frameworks for understanding people. We measure personality, communication, behaviour, strengths and preferred ways of working.
Play Styles introduces a different question:
What naturally brings this person into a state of curiosity, energy and full engagement?
Developed by Dr Stuart Brown and the National Institute for Play, the framework is grounded in affective neuroscience, four decades of research and thousands of personal play histories. It identifies six broad pathways through which people naturally access play.
This is not a light-hearted label added to another workplace profile. It is a new lens for recognising something leaders frequently observe but cannot always explain: two equally capable and committed people can experience the same activity in completely different ways.
One becomes absorbed. The other withdraws. One sees an exciting challenge. The other feels exposed. One wants to create, while another wants to investigate, organise, imagine, compete or move.
The six Play Styles help us understand why.
What Does a Play Style Actually Describe?
A Play Style does not describe one activity a person enjoys. It reflects the underlying pattern that is most likely to lead them into a playful state.
Play itself is not defined by a game, sport or team challenge. It is a biological state associated with curiosity, absorption, intrinsic motivation and a sense that the experience is rewarding in itself. Our guide to what play really is explores this distinction in greater depth.
A Play Style is one pathway into that state.
Most people have a blend of styles rather than fitting neatly into one category. Each of the six styles also contains subtypes, recognising that the same broad motivation can appear in many different forms.
The framework does not attempt to explain everything about a person. It gives leaders and teams a language for noticing where playful energy may already exist and where it may be easily overlooked.
1. Creator: Play Through Expression and Making
Creators find play in bringing something new into the world.
That creation may be visual, practical, verbal or imaginative. It could appear through art, music, performance, storytelling, humour, design or building something with the hands. The playful energy comes from expressing an idea and shaping it into something that did not exist before.
In a workplace, a Creator may become absorbed while developing a campaign, designing a presentation, writing a story, prototyping an idea or finding an original way to explain a complex problem.
A Creator does not need to work in a traditionally creative role. Someone in finance might enjoy constructing a clearer reporting model. An operations specialist may find play in designing a smoother process. A leader may create through language, vision or the way they bring an idea to life for others.
What leaders may notice is an appetite for possibility and expression. What they should avoid is assuming every Creator wants unlimited freedom or enjoys public performance. Creation can be quiet, structured and highly technical.
2. Explorer: Play Through Discovery
Explorers are energised by curiosity and the pursuit of something not yet known.
For some, that means physical adventure or unfamiliar places. For others, it appears through research, tinkering, entrepreneurship, conversation or exploring ideas and emotions.
At work, an Explorer may be the person testing a new platform, researching an emerging trend, asking why a process works as it does or following an unexpected line of inquiry. They may enjoy the early stage of a project when possibilities are still open and there is something new to uncover.
Their questions can sometimes be mistaken for hesitation or resistance. In reality, the Explorer may be engaging with the work by investigating it more deeply.
Not every Explorer seeks risk or constant change. Some explore internally through reading, reflection and detailed research. The common thread is discovery. Their playful energy comes from finding out what lies beyond what they already know.
3. Competitor: Play Through Challenge and Mastery
Competitors find play in testing themselves against a challenge.
This can involve winning, but competition is not always directed at another person. A Competitor may be motivated by a personal best, a difficult puzzle, a measurable target or the satisfaction of mastering a skill.
In workplace settings, they may become energised when there is a clear goal, visible progress or an opportunity to improve. They might enjoy debate, strategy, games or solving a problem others have found difficult.
The healthiest expression of this style is not aggression at any cost. NIFPlay describes the Competitor as energised by games, mastery and fair contest. The rules, challenge and opportunity to stretch are part of the appeal.
Leaders should avoid assuming every Competitor wants a public scoreboard or a high-pressure sales environment. Some prefer to compete privately against their previous performance. Others are more interested in mastery than recognition.
The defining feature is the challenge, not the trophy.
4. Organizer: Play Through Order and Connection
Organizers find play in arranging, coordinating, collecting and bringing people together.
This style can be misunderstood because organisation is often treated as purely functional. For an Organizer, creating order can be genuinely enjoyable. The pleasure may come from seeing separate parts connect, shaping the experience or helping a group move towards a shared outcome.
At work, this may appear through planning an event, coordinating a project, curating useful information, building a system or connecting people who could benefit from knowing one another.
It can even show up through formal structures. Clarifying expectations within a service-level agreement, mapping a workflow or creating a carefully sequenced project plan may provide the same sense of satisfaction that another person finds in solving a puzzle.
Organizers are not necessarily controlling, highly social or suited only to project management. Some organise objects or information. Others enjoy directing experiences or shaping social dynamics.
Their playful pathway is the act of bringing order, people or ideas into a meaningful arrangement.
5. Dreamer: Play Through Imagination and Immersion
Dreamers find play within the possibilities of the mind.
They may be drawn to stories, fantasy, reading, role play, film, theatre or observing other people at play. A sports fan absorbed in a match can be experiencing play just as genuinely as the people on the field.
At work, a Dreamer may become energised when imagining a future, exploring a hypothetical scenario or becoming immersed in the story behind an idea. They may notice possibilities that are difficult to see when attention remains fixed on immediate tasks and practical constraints.
This style can be overlooked because its engagement may not be highly visible. A Dreamer might be quiet while building an intricate internal picture of what could happen next.
Leaders should be careful not to interpret observation, reflection or a need for thinking time as disengagement. Dreamers remind us that play does not always look active, social or loud.
Sometimes the richest playful experience is happening entirely within.
6. Mover: Play Through Physical Engagement
Movers access play through physical engagement with the world.
Their playful energy may appear through walking, dancing, hiking, yoga, sport, hands-on activity or the simple pleasure of using the body. Movement itself is rewarding, whether or not there is a competitive element.
In a workplace, a Mover may think more clearly while walking, prefer learning through physical participation or become more engaged when they can handle materials, change locations or interact directly with an environment.
A Mover is not automatically athletic, extroverted or highly competitive. Movement can be gentle, individual and accessible. The style describes where the person may find energy, not their fitness, mobility or physical ability.
This distinction is especially important when leaders observe participation. Someone who struggles to remain engaged during a long seated discussion may contribute differently once movement or hands-on interaction becomes possible.
For a Mover, thinking and physical experience are often closely connected.
Most People Are a Blend of Play Styles
The six styles are not separate rooms with locked doors.
A person might explore an unfamiliar problem, create a solution and then organise the people needed to deliver it. Someone else may combine movement with competition or imagination with creative expression.
Styles can also appear differently across contexts and stages of life. A person may experience play through mastery at work, movement on the weekend and imagination when reading. One style may be dominant without being the only pathway available.
The subtypes within the updated NIFPlay framework add further nuance. Two people who share the same primary style may still play very differently.
This is why Play Styles should begin a conversation rather than settle one. A result can help someone recognise patterns, but curiosity is still required to understand how those patterns appear in an individual.
The six styles offer a map, not a boundary.
A Leadership Lens, Not Another Workplace Label
Play Styles serve a different purpose from many traditional workplace assessments.
Psychometric tools may explore psychological characteristics, while behavioural profiles often focus on observable communication and behavioural preferences. Our comparison of psychometric testing and behavioural profiling explains how these approaches answer different organisational questions.
Play Styles focus on the natural pathways through which a person may access play.
They are not:
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Job types
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Measures of intelligence or capability
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Predictors of performance
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A hiring or selection assessment
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Instructions for how someone must participate
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Proof that a person will enjoy a particular activity
A Dreamer is not automatically the team’s visionary. A Competitor does not necessarily belong in sales. An Organizer is not automatically the project manager, and a Creator is not limited to artistic work.
When a reflective framework becomes a shortcut for predicting people, its value quickly disappears.
What Leaders May Notice Across the Six Styles
Play Styles give leaders permission to become more curious about engagement.
The person asking detailed questions may be exploring rather than resisting. The colleague creating structure may be playing, not simply completing administration. Someone sitting quietly may be deeply immersed, while the most visibly enthusiastic person may not be the only one engaged.
The framework also explains why visible compliance is a poor measure of play. A person can participate in an activity without entering a playful state. Another can appear still or quiet while experiencing intense curiosity and absorption.
For leaders, the immediate value lies in recognising that engagement has more than one expression.
It also challenges the belief that an activity is inherently playful. Competition, movement, creativity and imagination can all invite play, but none will do so equally for everyone. The pathway depends on the person, their motivation and the surrounding context.
This article is not suggesting leaders should allocate work or make decisions based on someone’s Play Style. It offers a different starting point: notice what draws people in before assuming everyone should respond in the same way.
If Play Styles Are Fluid, How Can You Use Them?
Fluid does not mean vague or unusable.
A Play Style does not need to predict every response to offer useful insight. Its purpose is to reveal recurring patterns: the experiences that tend to spark your curiosity, absorb your attention and leave you feeling more energised.
You may recognise several styles in yourself, but some pathways will usually feel more natural or appear more consistently than others. Knowing those stronger pathways gives you a starting point for reflection and conversation.
This is why NIFPlay developed the Play Styles quiz. The assessment helps people identify their most prominent pathways into play while still allowing for blends, subtypes and the influence of context. It turns a broad framework into something personal enough to explore.
For leaders, the result is not an instruction manual for managing someone. It is an invitation to become more curious about what helps that person engage and where their energy may already be visible.
It is also why Corporate Challenge Events is working with NIFPlay to develop a new premium Play Styles experience specifically for workplace teams. The experience will take teams beyond six individual results and help them build a shared understanding of how their different pathways into play show up together.
In our next article, From Quiz Result to Workday: How to Use Your Play Style at Work, we will explore the practical next step: how to turn this new self-awareness into something useful in meetings, collaboration, problem-solving and everyday working life.
Discover Your Play Style
The free NIFPlay Play Styles quiz takes approximately ten minutes and helps identify your dominant style and supporting influences.
Treat the result as an invitation to explore, not a final definition of who you are.
Through Corporate Challenge Events’ exclusive Australasian partnership with NIFPlay, we are bringing this emerging framework into workplace conversations across Australia, New Zealand and the wider region.
We will also be exploring Play Styles with NIFPlay CEO Mia Sundstrom in an upcoming Play Lab, before introducing a new premium experience created specifically for workplace teams. You can register here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/RclP_iLwSFGgHMUqZbBVgw
For leaders, the first step is self-awareness.
Before asking what brings your people to life, discover what brings you there.
