Emma chats to fellow ‘play’ expert Gary Ware. Gary is a creative and strategic Play Consultant who aims to make your life even better than it already is! By day, Gary helps companies and professionals level up their skills, and by night he’s an improv comedian. Gary works with corporate organisations to infuse more play into the workplace and shares how activities such as improv can really help navigate professional challenges. Gary’s book, ‘Playful Rebellion’ is out now.

In this episode, Emma and Gary discuss (with timestamps):

00:00 - Introductions

06:23 - Disappearance of play

08:25 - Feeling guilty about play

10:27 - Similarities in play styles from childhood to adulthood?

12:33 - Does ‘life set-up’ allow people to express their playful personality? 

14:16 - When you play, life just works better

15:55 - Misconceptions of, and barriers to play

18:52 - Peak Emotional Experience

20:37 - Inviting people to play

24:49 - Cynicism to playfulness at work

27:46 - Improv as a tool for changing work environments

33:12 - What actually is improv?

34:22 - Exercising performance muscles

38:16 - Warming up imagination

39:06 - Intergenerational play

45:05 - The Playful Rebellion

To find out more about Gary including his upcoming events, training courses and resources he recommends, check out the links below:

www.breakthroughplay.com

X - @garyware

Instagram - @garyware

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