If you want to change the world of work, you’ve got to throw a better party than your competition.
Dara Simkin is an expert facilitator, learning designer and Australia's leading play-at-work specialist.
As the founder of Culture Hero, a consultancy driving cultural change and experience design, Dara's mission is to ignite the human extraordinary through play.
She's worked with organisations like The LEGO Foundation and McKinsey & Co., as well as world-renowned play researcher Dr Stuart Brown and Silicon Valley's IDEO Play Lab. She is certified in the Danish learning methodology, KAOSPILOT, known for its innovative and dynamic approach to education and training, particularly in the fields of entrepreneurship, creativity, and leadership.
She is currently involved in a research collaboration with RMIT University, uncovering the benefits of a playful mindset in business as it relates to adaptability, teamwork and belonging.
Dara landed in Australia from the US in 2009 after winning a video competition that had her travelling around Tasmania in a camper van for 6 weeks -- and never looked back.
She believes play has the power to transform the way we live, work and lead and, in many cases, our collective future depends on it.
Talking Points
Adaptability at Play
Adaptability is said to be the number one competitive advantage in business, yet adaptability is really just play in a fancy suit. In the face of rapid change, playful agility and adaptability is not only a necessity but a vital resource. This keynote will help you tackle your biggest culture challenges of disengagement, quiet quitting and tech disruption by showing you how to energise your people, whilst teaching them how to navigate change with confidence, optimism and fun. Backed by research and behavioural science, Dara shares techniques of how to overcome fear of change and create more adaptable teams. Through the science of play, you'll learn why play is our brain's favourite way to learn and that the opposite of play isn't work, it's depression. Adaptability at Play
Funny, dynamic and experiential, "Adaptability at Play" gives your business the tools and techniques needed to play your way towards attracting and retaining the best talent, improving your people’s mental health and wellbeing, boosting productivity and collaboration, and amplifying creativity, motivation and innovation. If you want happier leaders, teams, customers and stakeholders, as well as better performance, better profits and a brighter future, you need to equip your people with a playful and adaptive mindset. We can't keep trying to solve the problems of the modern workforce with the same conventional thinking that created them, this talk will show you how.
Video
Dara Simkin | Saxton Speakers
Dara Simkin Keynote McKinsey Leadership Academy Keynote
Dara explores the importance of playful chaos as it relates to innovation and the need for more play in our personal and professional lives.Dara Simkin | Breakout Keynote
You often hear about resilience, perseverance, relentless.....not often you see all of them in one single individual. Dara has a relentless optimism that is infectious, the resilience of som ... keep reading Medibank
Dara has been incredibly influential to my approach to corporate life - in particular idea generation, change management and leading my teams. Her energy is infectious, her purpose is clear and she is next level passionate about helping people challenge the status quo and learn a new way of thinking. This is critical for any organisation in a world of growing complexity and constant change. In order to build an organisation that can shift, stretch and respond rapidly, you need a workforce that can deliver it. Dara's keynotes are the instrument to achieve this change in thinking.
I saw Dara present at a McKinsey conference. Her session made a real impression on me and I had plenty of laughs along the way. Dara provides plenty of practical tools and tips that executives can take back to their teams. One of my favourites is "yes, and". We have been using this technique in our teams since the conference and it has helped shift our dialogue in significant ways.
The feedback was outstanding. We have seen a number of the tools and takeaways continue to show up across our business to unlock new ways of collaborating and building on each other’s ideas. Our leadership team is now aware of the power of “Yes, And….”, and we have seen multiple teams introduce play into their organisational rituals.
Dara helped us identify the real anxieties that people needed help with, prioritised our objectives for the event and then came up with an innovative structure for delivering it. We realised the best thing was to roll with the ideas and put our trust in her. We’re very glad we did! The feedback from attendees was fantastic. The event was run several times and I was stunned by the impact that the play-based activities had on our teams.
Thank you for all the hard work, collaboration, and fun leading up to and organising the conference. Your dedication and playfulness were evident in every aspect of the event. Thank you for infusing the two days with your amazing energy and playfulness. Your dynamic presence and innovative ideas truly added a special touch to the conference, creating a memorable experience for all our leaders.
