S6 E9: Play Your Way to Inspiring Leadership with Kirsten Anderson

The Inspire Podcast

In this episode, Bart speaks with Kirsten Anderson about the power of play and how integrating play can make you a more effective and inspiring leader. Kirsten, a certified LEGO(r) Serious Play(r) specialist and consultant with The Humphrey Group, talks about why playfulness is so important for leaders, how we often miss opportunities to incorporate play into our work and how to go about adopting a playful mindset. She talks about how playful can not just be an add-on to the practice of leadership but the benefits of weaving it into everything from how you run meetings to how you develop talent and how you tackle goals together as a team. Kirsten draws on deep experience in this field to bring compelling examples and practical ideas to our conversation. 0:33 Show Intro 1:07 Introducing Kirsten 2:15 How Kirsten got started in her career 3:31 Toyologist 4:06 Resident play expert on global news 4:32 Sold the business 4:57 What were their play prescriptions 5:34 Kids stopping playing younger 5:51 Why were kids playing less? 6:32 How do we get adults to play? 7:18 Should we separate work and play? 8:04 Puritan work ethic 8:37 Playfulness and flow - are they related? 9:30 Play and playfulness 10:03 There is no creativity/innovation without play 10:24 Playful mindset for a leader 11:42 Fear of judgement 12:22 The stigma around being playful 12:59 Living in a VUCA world 13:45 Creating engagement 14:38 What about gamification in education? 15:50 Playwashing 17:07 Fun is different for different people 18:27 3 ways to infuse play into the work world 18:50 What is "The Employee Experience"? 19:18 Gratitude and recognition 19:33 Applied improv 19:53 How to bring play into a meeting 'check-in', for example 20:07 The 'weather report check-in' 20:59 Cat picture check-in 21:41 Communication to break down silos 21:57 Practice playfulness with low-stakes activities 22:43 Culture of continuous feedback 23:11 What is LEGO serious play 24:30 The importance of equal time 26:06 Prioritize creative problem-solving 26:30 Yes, and... practice 27:09 Playfulness can build psychological safety 29:49 Bart talks about Lego for adults 32:20 How can people find out more? 33:53 Outro