Podcast Guest: Sarah D. Moyle

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[ Introduction ]

 

Welcome to the Strategic Play Podcast.  Unlock Your creativity, expand your mind, and have good clean fun with Strategic Play founder and LEGO® Serious Play® Master Trainer, Jacquie Lloyd Smith, and creative force and curious mind, Mark Millhone.

 

Jacquie:

Hey Mark. How are you?

Mark:

I'm excellent. And I'm so excited for our conversation. We are going to look at a question that I have wrestled with many times. How do you, if you're a creative, not only survive but thrive in a large organization?

Jacquie:

Such an important question, and I am sure lots of people that are listening to this podcast are wondering the same thing. Because once you get into the world of work, there you are. And so figuring this one out is like—it is a big nut to crack.

Mark:

To help us answer the question of how to thrive as a creative in your organization, we'll be talking with Visual Story Teller and Creative Catalyst, Sarah Moyle, who is a Senior Business Consultant at Intel Flex, and of course, a Lego Serious Play Methods facilitator. She's a self-taught graphic recorder and graphic facilitator.

She loves to spark and encourage creative and visual thinking in others, and has introduced innovative facilitation methods inside of a Fortune 500 technology giant. In addition, she creates explanatory and marketing whiteboard animation videos on a variety of topics ranging from technology to policy.

Upon discovery of Lego Serious Play, she quickly fell in love. The uniqueness and engagement of the methodology is the perfect match for her social, creative, and playful spirit. Sarah loves designing thoughtful and effective sessions that yield the desired results and gets very excited about finding new ways to apply Lego Serious Play. As a bonus, spending so much time with Lego bricks is earning her mad building skills that will impress her toddler when he gets older.

On a personal note, she enjoys exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her family, traveling to new places and terrifying her Portland, Oregon neighborhood on Halloween. It's pretty easy to tell which house is hers every October.

Jacquie:

She is a lot of fun, and this is going to be a great podcast. So I'm pretty excited.

Mark:

Awesome. Let's go talk to Sarah.

Jacquie:

All right.

 [ Interview ]

Mark:

We are happy to welcome Sarah Moyle to the Strategic Play Podcast. Welcome.

Sarah:

Thanks. Happy to be here.

Mark:

Jacquie. What was the prompt that you gave Sarah?

Jacquie:

I asked her to build, using her Lego, and I know she has lots of it, a model that would tell us the story of how a creative inside a large corporation, i.e. Intel in this situation, but how a creative inside a large corporation could thrive. And so you built something, Sarah.

Sarah:

I did, and I had so much fun doing it because I tried to think about—I got to kind of reflect on my journey at Intel over the past 11 years now.

Jacquie:

Wow.

Sarah:

And about nine and a half of those I've been doing this creative work that I love. So what I built first was—just Intel, it’s that tall building in the background, and me kind of standing in front of the door. And right next to me, you'll see there's a treasure chest.

Jacquie:

Right.

Sarah:

And I built that because I think the key to being a really successful creative inside a corporation is you have to always keep thinking about how your work is bringing value back to the business. So putting the business first, and then how can you use your creativity, your creative skills, to magnify and make the business successful? So I actually never studied art or anything. Really, what I do now, it has ties into psychology, which is my major. But when I entered the workplace as an HR representative, I felt really starved for creativity.

So I started looking for ways that I could bring my creativity to my current role, be really excited to come to work every morning and do stuff that I love, but also bring value to the business. And so once you kind of hack that and figure out where you fit in, in the grand scheme of things with bringing value to the business, then you can start growing your garden, which is what I have in the front there. That's all colorful with flowers. Your garden of offerings, unique offerings, that you can provide.

And for me that has been through illustration, creative facilitation, and Lego Serious Play, in particular. And I am constantly—I kind of put these vines in there because I'm constantly trying to continue to branch out and look for new fun nuggets and tools to bring back and add to my tool kit that are increasing the creativity in those around me and sparking new ideas throughout the company.

Jacquie:

Wonderful. Okay, so let's just—let me ask a couple questions, if I may. I love this model, by the way. It's super fun.

Sarah:

Thanks.

Jacquie:

There's a lot going on. So folks at home will, if they are able to click the image, there is an image that we have that you can see the model. But I'm—we're going describe it to you. So we've got you standing. Is that you wearing a Strategic Play t-shirt?

Sarah:

Yes, that is.

Jacquie:

That’s so funny.

Mark:

That's awesome.

Jacquie:

And I love the glasses, too. Okay, so that's you. And then beside you is the treasure chest. Now, is that—tell me a little bit more about that treasure chest. What are the things in there?

Sarah:

It is just full of little gems.

Jacquie:

Okay.

Sarah:

Yes. To represent business value, basically.

Jacquie:

Ah, okay.

Sarah:

Jewels of wisdom and creativity.

Jacquie:

Beautiful. Okay. I love it. Okay. And then behind the Minifigure, which is you, there are two flags. So what is—and it looks like there might be a window or something behind, is that the doorway?

Sarah:

That’s the door into the building. And I just put a flag. They don't have a lot of symbolism. It's just all the Intel buildings have flags out front.

Jacquie:

Aha.

Sarah:

Yes.

Jacquie:

And then that is the high-rise of glass that's behind it, which is basically represented with the blue transparent Lego Duplo bricks, which is great. Makes a great tall building. Okay, so the big white pillar with the eye. Tell me about that.

Sarah:

Yes. So I put that there because I think it's really—so let me start by saying: Being a creative in an engineering company has afforded me tons of opportunities that I don't think I would have been granted if I had stuck with my traditional HR position. It has allowed me to meet executives, speak with teams and people all across the company, and expand my network, be involved in conversations that are probably way above my pay grade. And so it's given me a larger view and a lot of context into what's going on across the company.

So that's one meaning. And another is that being someone who's different in a company of engineers, I also have to be a little bit paranoid and a little bit extra vigilant to what's happening in the environment and where I'm at and what my relationships are with the leadership. Sometimes I like to say the corporate antibodies start coming after those of us who are different. Be aware, read the tea leaves, and know where your work is being valued and where it's maybe misunderstood.

Jacquie:

Interesting. So a little healthy paranoia.

Sarah:

Yes.

Jacquie:

Okay.

Jacquie:

So maybe you can tell us a little bit, because I see somebody looking out through a window of what looks like a bit of a tower with bats on top. And I know you love Halloween, and I'm just wondering. I see the spiders.

Sarah:

This is the monument to Halloween. No.

[ laughter ]

Sarah:

It kind of goes along with that, because sometimes it can feel isolating to be someone who's doing something different. And I've often been on teams where I've been the only one doing the kind of work that I'm doing. And so you do a lot of work alone. And you have to make your case a lot if your leadership team doesn't fully understand the value of what you're bringing. So it can feel isolating and a little bit scary sometimes. But to counteract that I have the group of people in the front. And those represent not only making sure you have a big wide network within your company or within your field, but also making sure that you take the time to make connections with people outside of your organization who do get you. So finding your tribe of like-minded folks, like I found with Strategic Play, who you can continue to learn from and share things with and who just get you and understand you.

Jacquie:

Yes. That's great. And I think that's so important, like the network inside, but the network outside as well.

Sarah:

Yes.

Jacquie:

And you've been really good at that. I mean, you have traveled and I know that you've been supported by Intel, which is super. But you've been able to travel and go to—I'm trying to remember now how many unconferences you've been to, but I'm going to say quite a few unconferences. You have attended quite a few of the Lego Serious Play advanced trainings, as well. And then you went to EPIC.

Sarah:

Yes.

Jacquie:

And you also came with the Strategic Play team to Alberta Innovates and did some graphic recording there and also was on a panel.

Sarah:

Yes.

Jacquie:

And I'm just trying to think. And then I guess a big one is that in a couple of weeks you're coming to Vancouver to do a Playsonality workshop with us.

Sarah:

Yes. And I got to meet the Surrey folks, too. That one year when I was super pregnant.

Jacquie:

Oh, right. Yes. You came and did the creative problem-solving workshop for leaders for the City of Surrey. So that, I mean, those are all really great examples, I think, of how you've been able to balance internal and external to maybe keep that garden growing.

Sarah:

Exactly. And it's so energizing as well to spend that time with like-minded, interesting, exciting, energetic people.

Jacquie:

Well, I think that for people that work internal to organizations, it can start to be—because it is all consuming. But then if you don't have stories from the road, we'll say, then everything is just referenced back to that same reference point wherein you're able to get out and about. Then I think it gives you that opportunity to cross-pollinate.

Sarah:

Yes. And I—something else that popped into my head that I didn't really put on my build, but I should have. One of the things that gives me the most meaning, being internal, is working to spread the goodness and share what I've learned with others and try to reignite that spark of playfulness and creativity in the people that I work with. Because we spend so much time at work, we forget what it's like to look at things with fresh eyes, I think, and in a different way.

Jacquie:

Well, I love the way that you just said make meaning, because I think that this is one of the things that all of us are challenged to do in our work. Mark and I were just talking about this. It's that meaning making and then being able to find your rhythm at work so that you can show up as your authentic self and do the work that's meaningful to you and value added for the organization.

Mark:

Yes. I'm wondering if you could tell us just a little bit more about the niche that you've created for yourself at Intel and how you serve to facilitate teams and how you use your Lego Serious Play, Strategic Play training in that process, and also the graphic interpretation that you do and facilitation that you do as well. How did that all become your unique niche at Intel and how does that look for you?

Sarah:

You want my origin story?

Mark:

Bring it.

Jacquie:

Yes, give it to us. Yes, let's hear it.

Sarah:

So I came into HR kind of by accident. I was a pre-veterinary student, decided I didn't want to become a veterinarian after working in a clinic and ended up with a psychology degree, but didn't want to be a therapist. So my dad had actually worked at Intel for 26 years and he said, “Come on in. You're smart. You'll be fine.”

So I came into HR and I landed on a small team that did user experience for human resources, products, and services. Got to do some creative work. We were standing up like a virtual assistant internally for HR questions. So I got to do the design work on that project and it inspired me and made me realize HR doesn't always mean strictly processing or handling employee engagement issues or whatever.

And so I started thinking about what I would want to do in an ideal world. What would get me really excited to come to work every day? And I put together a pitch for my boss about a job, which I kind of described as an explainer role. So initially it was whiteboard animation videos, infographics in plain English type communications that were highly visual. And he said, “That's really cool. But I just took a job outside the company, so good luck.” And it took them about four months to hire a new manager for our team. So in that time period, I started reaching out to my network, finding folks that had projects that would be a good fit and were interested in letting me use them as a test case. And so by the time we had a boss, a new boss, I had all these examples of where the work had been really well received and successful. And I was able to turn it into my full-time job. And I kept that up for several years, moving around as leadership changes. And leaders were more or less supportive of what I was doing.

And then, gosh, Jacquie, I think it's about six years ago that I first took the intro to Teams and Groups, the first Lego Serious Play training. And from there got really interested in play and facilitation outside of graphic facilitation, and I have just gone from there. Now I like to say my personal mission is to ignite and inspire employees to tap into their creativity and playfulness. So I do three kind of primary things day-to-day. I do illustrative things, whether it's explanatory video, a strategy map that's illustrated. Sometimes I do short quippy comics that have a message that we're trying to communicate in a different way. I do facilitation, and a lot of that is Lego Serious Play or graphic facilitation, where I I draw or I encourage the participants to draw. And I call it in my little document of “What Sarah Does,” I call it: I Inspire. So I teach workshops on visual thinking and I give talks about the power of play and creativity. And I host small workshops where we do creative things to try to get people to tap into their in inborn creativity and playfulness.

Jacquie:

That's great.  I have to say, I love this, “My boss left and so then I had four months.” I love that part of the story, because it's kind of like, “So I looked around on the network to see like who needs what and how can I.” I love that part because it really speaks to an entrepreneurial spirit inside an organization.

Sarah:

Yes. And I could have just sat there and done the bare minimum that we had going on, but I saw it as an opportunity to change my stars and do something else. And it worked out really well.

Jacquie:

So what if you were going to give,  if there's someone listening to this podcast right now and there's— we know that lots of creative people listen to it, and there's somebody that's inside an organization that would like to be doing more, what would be your seeds of wisdom? What would you say?

Sarah:

I would say, one, just start doing it in small ways here and there. And because a lot—it's hard to describe it to someone. Often, someone needs to see it and how it works and how it's impactful before they can fully understand. And people learn in different ways. There's a lot of science around how we learn, how we take in information, how we process that information, how we retain that information. So there will be some people that never get it, because that's just not how they relate well with the world. But I guarantee you there are people, probably more than not in your organization, that will resonate and appreciate what you create.

Jacquie:

Right. this idea of just doing it in small ways, this is the same advice that I give to management consultants or people that are already out there that are doing consulting work that want to add more creativity and play into the work that they do.

I give them the same advice. Start small. Start with putting Lego bricks on the table for a boardroom. And you don't even have to say anything, just have them there and see if anybody picks them up. Chances are pretty good somebody's going to start building. But even just doing like small little 20 minute, sort of, I call them openers. A lot of people like to call them icebreakers. I hate that term because it makes it sound like people are icy; and really, it's an opener. It's like opening up your mind to something new. So doing a small 15-minute little activity, whether it's with Lego or with something else, because of course we love the idea of play. So Lego just seems to be our go-to.

But even drawing, even just paper and a pencil or even just an interactive activity where people are speaking to each other, but there's some kind of a question. Those kinds of things, what we discovered is when we started doing them, people started asking for more and more. And that was an indication of how much people were hungry for this kind of work.

But you can't do—a lot of times people want to do play, but it has to be purposeful play. There has to be—it has to be connected to work and it has to have business value.

Sarah:

There has to be an output.

Jacquie:

There has to be an output, so I think you're right. There are some people that do not see how it could possibly lead to a business output. And we don't try to convince those people ever. We don't try to go and change their mind because we know, like you say, everyone learns in a different way. And then there's other people that just want to do like crazy play, art stuff, and then forgot that there has to be a business output. So there has to be a “so what” at the end of that. So linking those things together is the formula.

Sarah:

Yes. And once—people don't even know a lot of times that there's another option that there's another way to do these things. So they didn't even know until they see it in action that it's something that they needed or wanted. So when I started doing this work, I've had to do very little marketing or self-promotion for my services.

It's all been word of mouth. And there have been periods where I've had like a two quarter wait list. So that just speaks for itself that once you start doing it, people see that you're good at it, you'll manifest your own opportunities once people start seeing it.

Jacquie:

The other thing too that I just  have to commend you on, is that you're probably one of the best integrators of information, out of anyone I know. You do such a good job of listening to content and then turning that into those outputs. So I just want to say that, that's sort of your, I don't know whether we would call it a superpower.

Sarah:

It's one of my superpowers.

Jacquie:

Okay, there you go. It's a superpower.

Sarah:

Yes. It’s one of my superpowers.

Mark:

It certainly is. I mean, I've had a chance just to observe the superpowers in effect at EPIC, where you were doing  simultaneous, I guess you call it graphic—

Sarah:

Graphic recording.

Mark:

Graphic recording. And it's stunning. Like for someone who has not seen this, it's like watching someone do sign language next to a speech. It's that simultaneous and it's bringing visual integration and expression to the ideas as they're coming out of the speaker's mouths. Was that challenging to do the first time? Was it kind of like, “Oh my gosh. I can't believe I'm doing this,” or like—what was it like the first time?

Sarah:

So the very first time I was very nervous. And the client, customer, who was a friend, was also nervous because I had never done it before, and it was at a leadership summit. So we went through the materials ahead of time and planned it out. And so then it was easy, once we had a plan. But now it's just like I'm a conduit. It just flows through. And it's funny that you made that reference to a sign language interpreter, because I have actually been at a conference and had that conversation with a sign language interpreter that our jobs were the same.

Mark:

Oh, wow.

Sarah:

It’s just a different language.

Jacquie:

I think the interesting thing too, is that when you are listening to a speaker and there is somebody next to them that is drawing, it is such a different experience than let's say if the speaker was flipping slides on a PowerPoint. Because what happens is as you're watching somebody draw, you are so filled with—and I think that it's called mirror neurons, are formed in your brain.

When you're watching them draw, you have that same reaction like you're drawing. And you just start feeling so pulled into the artwork and the visual nature of it, and listening to a speaker at the same time, it's fascinating. It's just a fascinating, as Mark was saying, like just if you can see it unfold. And I know, Sarah, that you're so good at this because you've done some real time, not necessarily graphic facilitating, but maybe it is. I was just thinking about when we played that game Pass the Brick and you illustrated it. It just is a beautiful document at the end of some kind of an activity as well, if you have it turned into an artifact that you can keep. So yes, your work is just stellar.

Sarah:

Oh, thank you. Yes. It serves two purposes, like you said. It's there during the session to help pull people in, and it's also a great thing to send out after a session as a pass-down material. I get a lot of questions about, “Oh, will it be distracting to have you up there? Will it distract from the presenter?” And I always tell them, “People's eyes are going to wander. At least they're having the content reflected to them again when they wander over to me.”

Jacquie:

Exactly

Mark:

Yes. And my memory. I observed you do the interpreting for Joe Rohde at EPIC. And for those of you who've not had the pleasure of listening to Joe Rohde speak, he's an Imagineer at Disney and is one of the most ferociously brilliant design minds I've had an opportunity to witness. I think that you being there and integrating the ideas as they flew out of his mouth actually made it possible to make that keynote as legible for me as it was.

Sarah:

Yes

Mark:

It really integrated all that information in real time in a way that allowed me to follow what it was, because he was just so ferocious and so fast in how he articulated what he brought forward. It wasn't a distraction at all. It actually made it possible for me to really track the detail and integrate it into this larger design of thought that he had created.

Sarah:

So I need you to write me references now.

[ laughter ]

Jacquie:

Well, you can just use this podcast. There you go. Send it out all over the world, Sarah. That's what we want.

Sarah:

Oh, that was perfect. I loved that keynote. And when I heard him speak, I was like, “That's what I want to be when I grow up!”

Jacquie:

I know, we all want to work at Disney. Let me ask you a question about the Lego Serious Play, if I may. I'm just going to jump in. So I know that your title is Visual Storyteller, and that's your informal title I know that you use. So when you're using Lego Serious Play and you're working in an organization that are full of engineers,  how do they respond? How do these very, very smart people that are technically so competent, how do they feel about playing with Lego? What has been your experience?

Sarah:

So the biggest barrier for me is getting them to set aside enough time to really tackle the bigger problems that we’ve said I would love to tackle, because they're so accustomed to trying to solve these challenges in an hour-long meeting.

Jacquie:

Right.

Sarah:

So if I can get them to sign up to that, then it's wonderful. I always get, coming in, kind of three different reactions. There's the people that are super excited, because they love Lego or they're a creative person and they are just excited to play and do something creative. There's people that are kind of intimidated or scared or worried they're not going to be good enough at it.

Jacquie:

Right.

Sarah:

And there's usually, it's like a 50-year-old white man, sorry, who walks in with their arms crossed.

Mark:

I resemble that remark.

[ laughter ]

Sarah:

And they're like, “Why are we doing this? This is stupid.” But the funny thing is, and I don't know if you experience this as well, but they often become the biggest advocates—

Jacquie:

Yes.

Sarah:

For it afterwards. Because you just see those facades that are up all the time break down and everyone becomes human.

Jacquie:

Right.

Sarah:

They’ll laugh, people share personal stories, and they connect so deeply. I get such rich stories and inputs and minutia details that I know wouldn't have been written on a sticky note that just come out of these builds that people do.

Jacquie:

That's so great. Because the people that walk in in the morning and they're like, “Oh, yay! Lego,” they're easy. You know you had them at hello. It's the people that come in like, “Oh. Well we've got real work to do. Why are we doing it with those people?” I did a workshop, when I first started, for an economic development group. And when I first walked in, I introduced myself and I said that we're going to do strategic planning today. And one of the people that would fit your description said, “Oh, great. And we'll all be shocked and amazed.” And I looked at him and I said, “You might be, because we're going to do it in 3D. We're building with Lego.”

And so then he just sort of like, ugh, kind of looked around and then that was sort of the end of those comments. At the end of the day, he was the person that stayed behind. As I'm cleaning up, he's following me around, “How long have you been doing this? Where else have you done it? I'd love to give your name to other people.” And he made a comment and said, “I've been on this committee for over five years and this is the very first time that I heard everyone speak.”

Sarah:

Wow.

Jacquie:

So he became a huge advocate. So I always say to people, “Don't be afraid of those people. Because by the end of the workshop, they could be your best friend.”

Sarah:

Yes. That's right.

Jacquie:

Okay. So I'm going to ask you another question. You did the Playsonality, and I know you know all about it, so I'm just going to put in a plug here on the Playsonality. Sarah has done the graphic art for it, so she has very kindly given her time, her precious time, and has made us some graphics, which we're going to get out shortly. So I know that you know all the eight different playstyles. Can you tell us which one you are?

Sarah:

I am a Designer.

Jacquie:

Ah.

Mark:

I'm shocked.

Sarah:

Surprise, surprise.

Mark:

Oh, okay.

Jacquie: a

A fellow Designer. Okay, Sarah. Tell us what part of that resonated with you?

Sarah:

I'll tell you which one made me laugh.

Jacquie:

Okay.

Sarah:

It’s the fact that you're a collector and a curator, because I have way too much stuff.

Jacquie:

Aha.

Sarah:

In fact, I had to build a whole shed in my backyard for my Halloween decorations.

Jacquie:

Right.

Sarah:

So that made me laugh and like, “Who's watching me?” But there really wasn't anything I didn't resonate with, honestly. Especially the part where you're always looking for a new project, always trying out new things. maybe have multiple projects going at the same time. Spend a lot of time working on stuff alone, but then really value the feedback of others. And creativity and design are kind of woven into all the areas of my life, both in a chaotic and an artistic way.

Jacquie:

Well, even your story. Such a funny story. “I started off in school, I was going to be a vet tech.” You prototype your life, right? You prototype this and you prototype that. And you're like, “Oh. I’ll try this out.” So even that part I thought was like you too.

Sarah:

Yes. And as a kid, I was always spending way too much effort on my school projects. And like we did one section in middle school where we mummified chickens, and I built a whole sarcophagus for the chicken out of paper mache.

Mark:

Well, of course. Everyone does that.

Sarah:

I mean, yes. So that kind of thing. And people were always like, “Oh, you're such a teacher's pet.” And I'm like, “No, I just like the projects.” And my dad likes to tell a story about how whenever I was creating something, I'd make a mistake and I’d just turn it into something else. So I think that flexibility and, like you said, prototyping and change, being able to be resilient and shift and not get locked down into an idea is something I resonate with really well, too.

Jacquie:

My funny story, when I was a kid. I was in grade five, so I think you're like nine or 10, and we were studying penguins. And so we were tasked with doing some kind of art project. And I have no idea why I thought this was a good idea, but I made these penguins, I drew them, but then I had them walking on eggshells. So I broke a bunch of eggs. I cleaned the egg shells and then like glued the eggshells all over the bottom of the paper, which sounds great,  because it looked like they were in the arctic walking on these pieces of ice. Anyhow, the next day the teacher came in and she said, “I got home and I had all of the artwork in the back of my car, and there were eggshells all over my car.” So sometimes being, yes, you're not always the teacher’s pet, because there's times when you take things to an extreme. Her name was Mrs. Breeney, and I quite liked her. But she wasn't happy with the eggshell thing. 

Sarah:

The eggshell incident.

Jacquie:

So yes. You have to break a lot of eggs when you're a designer. You don't really know what's going to work.

Mark:

How may people follow you or connect with you or learn more about your work?

Sarah:

You can find me on LinkedIn or at my website: sarahmoyle.com. Or I'm also on various social medias.

Jacquie:

In a big way. Just look for the person that is embracing Halloween, and you will find her. All right. Well, Sarah, this has just been a complete treat, and I so appreciate you giving up some of your precious time, because I know that you're a busy mom as well. And so to carve out some time to chat with us today has been just lovely.

Sarah:

I’ll always have time for my Canadian mom.

Jacquie:

Aha. That's right. Sister. Sister. Canadian sister.

Sarah:

Oh yes. Canadian sister. I only say that because your son's the same age as me.

Jacquie:

I know. And the two of them are almost like twins. It's quite scary, actually.

Sarah:

Evil twins.

Jacquie:

Evil twins. There you go. All right, my friend. Well, thank you so much and we will connect with you soon.

Sarah:

All right, thanks.

Mark:

Thank you, Sarah.

[ Conclusion ]

Mark:

Such a treat to talk to her, such a creative force. And I really loved how she took a challenge that I have certainly felt as a creative, which is: How is it that I make a home for myself in an environment which is not necessarily creative enough to understand where I fit? And then really made that part of her creativity.

Jacquie:

Yes.  I love the fact that she didn't just sit back going, someone should notice me. She actually thought about how she could get in there and continue to talk about creativity and then bringing it back to connecting it with business outcomes. So super smart girl. And just the fact that she figured that out, I just think that there's lots of seeds of great advice right there.

Mark:

Yes. One thing which I took away from it, which is how you can use the bureaucracy of a large organization. Where oftentimes your direct report to will get transitioned, and then there's that waiting time where you're wondering like, if you have a job, what your job will be, who you will report to. She took that challenging time and made it into her opportunity. So that by the time her new boss showed up, she was telling him, “Oh. This is my job.”

Jacquie:

Very clever. Very creative. I mean, it’s just beautiful. A couple other things that she said that I really loved, just the small ways of bringing in creativity and that people won't ask for it. They don't know what to ask for, so they're not going to call you and say, “Hey.” It's like Henry Ford said, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would've said faster horses.” And it's that idea that they're not going to ask for anything creative if they don't know about it. So find small ways to get it in front of them so they can see how it works.

Mark:

Completely. Completely.

Jacquie:

And then her last comment, well it was in there somewhere, but just really resonated with me, is that she has a half-year wait list. So when you think of that, somebody who had to try to get people to see what she was doing and then turn that into so many requests for work. I just think that's magical.

Mark:

Yes.  It's taking the challenge of being a creative in an organization like that and turning it on its head. The way that she can have unique value is by being one of a kind and then connecting her unique strengths to business outputs that the organization really needs.

Jacquie:

Yes. I loved it. And she is a Designer, which on the Playsonality we could use this as the poster for that kind of a playstyle, how it would thrive. Because this is just such a positive story.

Mark:

Excellent. Well, in terms of sharing positive stories, do you have a listener challenge to share with our audience?

Jacquie:

Well, I would love to know if there are people listening to this podcast who are resonating with the story that Sarah told. And I'm not assuming that there's people out there that have done this yet, but it might be a really good idea to think about how could we take some of the ideas that Sarah brought forward or some of her success stories, how could we then create our own path forward?

So from where we are right now to perhaps how we can be even more of who we are in whatever environment we're in, whether it's a corporate environment, whether it's a community where people are not super open to the creative techniques or the creative offerings that we have, but just sort of thinking about what is it that you could bring forward? What would your journey look like? And maybe have people envision that and build something. Or if people have already done it, tell us a story. We would love to hear your story, too. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're inside our community site, please go ahead and post it right in the chat.

If you are listening to this podcast and you're hearing it on our website, and you would like to drop us a line, we would love to hear your story. We would love to see a picture of your Lego model. Just go ahead and get your hands on some bricks. Build us something. Snap us a photo and send it off to hello@strategicplay.com, because we would just love to hear from you.

Mark:

Awesome. Well, I can't wait to hear what people share and to see their models. And I can't wait for our next conversation.

Jacquie:

Great. We've got some fun people coming up, Mark. So I will be chatting with you again soon.

Mark:

Awesome. Until next time.

Jacquie:

Okay. Take care.

[ Outtakes ]

Jacquie:

I was going to school. I was going to be a dental assistant.

Mark:

Really?

Jacquie:

Stop. Stop. Like, what am I doing?