When was the last time you played with a toy? Ilana Ben-Ari\u00a0thinks it’s been too long.<\/p>\n
As the founder and CEO of Twenty One Toys<\/a>, Ben-Ari has spent the last six years designing, prototyping and selling toy TIME Magazine said will “shape classrooms of the future.”<\/a> But these\u00a0quirky little pieces aren’t just for young minds\u2014they can be found in workplaces, at team building events, on the desk at job interviews, and\u00a0really anywhere that values empathy and failure. Which, as it turns out, is quite a few places. And Ben-Ari is fine with that.<\/p>\n Leaning into the past to build the future<\/strong><\/p>\n It can be difficult to plan for how the world will change over the next few decades, but the experts all agree on one thing<\/a>: the best way to approach the future is to build skills rooted in communication, creative problem-solving, and strategic thinking. A lot of what Twenty One Toys built its name and products on is rooted in the thinking of a man named\u00a0Friedrich Fr\u00f6bel.\u00a0As one of the leading thinkers who influenced our current education system, Fr\u00f6bel realized playing could be a form of education and led his revolution with toys, resulting in the establishment of what we today call kindergarten.<\/p>\n “Play is a medium for learning, and for some reason, we\u2019re okay with that notion until kindergarten ends, then we’re like ‘nevermind, nope.’ It’s no longer how you learn, it’s the opportunity,” Ben-Ari told Techvibes at the QuickBooks Connect<\/a> conference, where she sat on a panel championing the growth of SMEs.<\/p>\n “Bringing back play is important for us to tackle really complex challenges.”<\/p>\n It’s this\u00a0opportunity of being able to tackle\u00a0difficult problems through play that led Ben-Ari\u00a0to found Twenty One Toys. Despite the company’s name, they currently offer just two toys, as the “Twenty One” relates more to how the toys deal with 21st-century skills.<\/p>\n The Toronto company’s first\u00a0offering is called The Empathy Toy and it\u00a0can be found in thousands of offices and schools around the world. The point is simple: use play to teach skills that are often forgotten as children become adults. It works like this: one person uses the shapes in the box to create a shape, and then the other person has to create the same piece. The trick is, they are both blindfolded. The players must communicate and deal with slow learners.\u00a0 The overall goal is to remind everyone who plays with it that creativity and empathy are not frivolous, but in fact an important part of life, whether it be an artist or investment banker who happens to be playing.<\/p>\n