Organizations across Canada and the United States are struggling as up to seventy percent of their employees are disengaged – a leading cause of workplace failure and dissatisfaction – which costs these economies $500 billion in lost productivity each year. Yet the social technology to overcome this crisis exists – play. Play is essential to employee motivation, collaboration and creativity; all attributes that can help organizations innovate and better adapt to change. However, despite well-published and obvious evidence, organizations seem to have an inability to evolve their practices to pick up play – a ‘playphobia’. This MRP examines the behavioural sciences, history, philosophy, and economics to explain the causes of playphobia and highlight the market opportunity for tackling it. Using causal layered analysis, expert interviews and the K-J Method, the project presents seven design interventions managers can use to adopt play as a major tool in driving future growth and success.