Tag: play intelligence

The Beauty of Play

Have you ever wondered what happens when children play to their hearts’ content?

Now imagine what happens when adults get to play to their hearts’ content…

Wonder no longer! This is what we look like and what we sound like when a bunch of likehearted and openminded adults get together… we bring to life our full potential by tapping into our greatest individual and collective super power what Dr. Stuart Brown and I like to call True Play.

Playful Leadership: CREATION THROUGH PLAY ALCHEMY is a groundbreaking introductory course to the concept, practice and magic of Play Alchemy – a term coined by Portia Tung, the founder of The School of Play. Play Alchemy describes the process, tools and techniques for transmuting the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face into positive outcomes so that we can thrive and have fun making a living in a VUCA world.

JOIN US IN PLAYFUL LEADERSHIP ~ 7-9 May 2025

If you long to imagine at least six impossible things before breakfast and have realised a bunch of them by dinner time, this is the course for you. You’ll get to explore your relationship with play and creativity in community and experience deep joy as you regain your superpower of manifesting more of what you wish for like you used to as a child.

And we didn’t just co-write one song, we co-composed two! Special thanks to Stuart Cocks our music meister for putting music and video to our words of calm delight and sheer joy!

Song #1: Keep Calm Be Patient & Song #2: It’s Love Obviously #madewithlove #playfulleadership #playalchemy

by Categories: Play Alchemy, Play Now, Play Your Life, Playful LeadershipTags: , , , , ,

The Wheel of Time

“Can I read you a poem?” my new friend Di asks me just now as our video chat draws to an end. “It’s called Today by Billy Collins. I heard it on the radio earlier this morning and I thought you might like it.”

My heart giggles quietly with joy at being offered a poetry reading by an adult. I can’t, for the life of me, remember the last time this happened.

Meet Dianne Gammage, author of Playful Awakening – Releasing the Gift of Play in Your Life. I first came across Di’s soul-lifting book on play in the summer of 2023. The book resonated with me the moment it crossed my path and I’d been daydreaming about the kind of conversations we’d have over a cup of tea. So I wrote Di an email (I would have written her a letter if that were still fashionable) introducing her to my baby oak tree Querkie and telling her about my PLAY book.

As I move ever closer to completing the manuscript of my next book (next Thursday!), I cherish the many new and profound friendships I’ve made on my personal play adventure. It reminds me of what making true friends was like as a child. A time when I truly played and now that the wheel has turned – I am being invited to play again. And I extend that invitation to you.

You can find Di’s talk about Playful Awakening and play therapy here.

If you’d like to explore ways of experiencing more joy through play in your life – be it at work and/or at home, for you or with your team or with your family – let’s have a chat over a virtual cuppa.

by Categories: Play Now, Play Your LifeTags: , , , ,

Year 2022: Play – Make – Do You

What better way to celebrate what some are calling the “year of the new abnormal” by saying “Yay!” to play? You’re cordially invited to Four Seasons of Play, the School of Play’s freshest year-long programme where you’re invited to play, make and, most vitally, do you.

Through the unique practical mashup of the latest play science, psychology, neuroscience and coaching techniques, you’ll feast on fun and purpose towards transformative change, leaving each workshop feeling inspired and resourced to embrace all that 2022 has to offer. For you and those to whom you matter.

Enjoy each workshop as a standalone experience or as a combination of 4 modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, innovative ways to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as an individual and as a leader so you can thrive instead of just survive in what some folks are describing as “new abnormal” times.

Celebrate Each Season with Play

There’s no need to go it alone when it comes to creating the change you want to see or turning your dreams into reality. Experience the transformative power of play in the company of true leaders, adults who dare to play.

As American director and actor Orson Welles once said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends on, of course, where you stop your story.” Where will you choose to take your story?

by Categories: Four Seasons of Play, Play Now, Play Your Life, Playful LeadershipTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Laugh in the Face of Fear

Happy Beginnings Start with Proper Endings

Do you sometimes feel stuck in groundhog day in spite of your best intentions? Or perhaps you dream of escaping messy endings and long for better beginnings? According to one school of systemic thinking, the secret to happy beginnings are happy endings. Join us in a laughterful session on the secret to enabling happier beginnings and endings grounded in play science because transformative change happens when we laugh in the face of fear.

Upcoming Workshop: From Halloween to Festive Cheer – Towards Better Beginnings on 15 October 2021

Better prepare for new beginnings by joining us in a playful exploration of the vital themes of beginning, belonging and ending. In this highly interactive workshop you’ll have several chances to play at your edge on professional and personal topics of your choice in order to glean the necessary resources and learnings that make up the foundation of your new beginnings. You’ll be invited to explore core play memories that make up your play history and, in doing so, get the chance to reflect on, restore and resource your playful self. You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group in order to identify and connect with what’s truly vital for you to flourish in your next beginning.

This workshop is part of the Four Seasons of Play 2021 programme. Each workshop can be enjoyed independently or as a combination of modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, how to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as a person as well as a leader by becoming more resourceful, resilient and real in these unprecedented and transformative times.

Workshop Takeaways:

  • Play Theory: Play Personalities from Dr. Stuart Brown, Play Learning Cycle by Scott Eberle and the latest play change theory Bobul Mechanics by Portia Tung
  • Systemic principles for enabling healthy relationships from start to finish
  • Increased self-awareness of your relationship with beginnings, belonging and endings
  • A powerful set of additional or renewed resources to create happier endings and beginnings
  • Increased resilience when dealing with professional and personal change.

This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.

Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?

The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.

Where do you sign up?

Join us for a taste of summer and delight your colleagues, family and friends with playful leadership by the seaside. Sign up for the workshop here!

by Categories: Four Seasons of Play, Play Now, Play Your LifeTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

From Winter Chill to Daffodil Blooms

Spring Online Workshop on Friday, 30 April 2021 – 13.00 – 17.00 BST – Book your place here.

Riddle me this: What am I? The more you have of me, the less you see. It’s darkness, of course. One of the biggest taboos we face as individuals and in groups are emotions. When it comes to feelings, we are encouraged to “go dark” or in the words of Elsa the Snow Queen, “Never let your feelings show.” Yet it’s our awareness and ability to listen and respond to our emotions that enable us to lead, live and love authentically. In this workshop, we’ll visit the latest discoveries on emotions, from the role of emotions to how they’re made.

You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group as we explore our individual relationship with emotions and how we can play with our emotions towards better self-management and personal leadership through greater emotional intelligence.

This workshop is part of the Four Seasons of Play 2021 programme. Each workshop can be enjoyed independently or as a combination of modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, how to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as a person as well as a leader by becoming more resourceful, resilient and real in these unprecedented and transformative times.

Workshop Takeaways:

  • Play Theory: Emotional Intelligence, Play Personalities and Felt Sense
  • A body scan of your inner coherence
  • Deeper understanding of your relationship with play
  • Ideas for increasing your internal alignment and resourcefulness
  • Increased emotional intelligence in yourself and when working others.

This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.

Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?

The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.

Book your place here. We look forward to exploring the inner life of play together with you!

by Categories: Four Seasons of PlayTags: , , , , Leave a comment