The A-Players Path — our flagship programme for teams
See the programmeFor individuals
Almost nobody was. It is a skill like any other — how you explore, improvise, connect and recover — and most adults are running on whatever they picked up before they turned ten.
This is the half of The Playground built for one person rather than an organization. Some of it exists today. Most of it is being built, and we say which is which.
Why this is worth your time
Nobody loses the ability to play by accident. It goes because for twenty years the opposite is rewarded — seriousness, the result, the right answer first time. Which would be fine, except the capabilities that go with it are the ones the rest of your life runs on.
01
Playing well is a set of things you can be taught: reading what a group needs, taking a risk in front of people, keeping something alive when it stops being easy, knowing when the thing is over. Nothing there is a temperament.
02
Most of it only shows up in a room with other people. What you can do on your own is notice: what you actually do for fun, what you avoid, and which of the two you have been calling a personality trait.
03
In how a hard conversation goes. In whether an idea gets said out loud. In how long you stay with something you are bad at. None of that is filed under recreation, and all of it is trained there.
What exists, and what is coming
We would rather show you the map than pretend the whole thing is finished. Anything marked as being built is exactly that — no date, nothing to buy, and a way to hear first.
Available now
For people who will run this themselves — in their classroom, their team, their organization. Session design, running the room, and the part almost nobody teaches: how to close. You practise in front of the others and get it wrong somewhere it does not cost anything.
In development
The asynchronous version of what currently only exists in a room — for people not in Guatemala, or not in a position to pay for a facilitated session. Video, exercises that apply to your own week, and something to hand back.
In development
A way to understand how you actually play: what pulls you in, what you avoid, what you need from other people to enjoy something. Not a personality test with four letters — a description of your own play, in your own words, that you can hand to someone else.
In development
The whole argument, written down: why adults stopped playing, what went with it, and how it is taken back on purpose. Being written, slowly, by two people who also have a business to run.
Stay in the loop
One email when a thing on this page actually exists. Ticking a box is also the most useful thing you can do for it — what people pick is how we decide what to finish first.
Or start tonight
Everything above is either a course you take alone or a skill you take to work. If what you actually want is to play again, that is the community side of this, and it costs nothing.
Write to us