A game can create laughter from a mistake that ordinary work would punish.

A game changes what a mistake costs. Drop the same catch at work and it becomes a mark against you; drop it in a garden on a Sunday and it is the funniest thing all afternoon. Nothing about the error changed, only the stakes attached to it, which suggests that shame belongs more to the setting than to the person. Play is one of the few places where being bad at something is comfortable.

Look for a corner of your week where mistakes are allowed to be funny. Then ask whether one of the serious corners could afford a little of that, without anyone pretending the work does not matter.