Unlocking the Power of Play
Author Sarah HaasisCategories Savage Thinking
In preparation for Conscious Capitalism 2017 in Philadelphia, Savages attending the conference had the opportunity to define what "play" personally meant in a workshop with Corey Blake at Round Table Companies.
I was a bit nervous about sharing something so personal with others (I’m an introvert). But, hey, why not? What I got in touch with is that, to me, play has an element of getting messy, of spilling the toy box out on the table and then sifting through the pieces, finding a focus by moving some things away and elevating others to create something. At the time, I was hard pressed to think of an actual example, but a few others had the same feeling.
To prepare for the conference I did things far outside my daily norm such as go to WalMart, Target and the Dollar Store on a hunt for play balls, bubble wands and other random playful things.
My favorite task was at Home Depot on a mission to construct a puzzle comprised of nuts and bolts. At some point, I had a bunch of long screws, bolts and washers of various sizes spread out on the floor of aisle 16. While sitting on the floor sifting through the pieces and parts I realized I had dumped the toy box on the floor and was “playing” to make something creative of it. It was awesome.
At the conference, we hosted an event called Play Like a Savage where attendees were asked to do several fun exercises involving play-doh, markers and decoding quizzes. Yes, alcohol was involved although we nixed the Jello-shot suggestion from a Savage. Next year!? I witnessed a room full of mature adults unleash their inner child and get messy as they let down inhibition by sharing personal stories with strangers, constructing another person’s higher purpose out of colorful materials and literally running around the room to win a prize. It was relieving and enlightening to see that permission and encouragement to play lights up other people too. In it, doors are opened – or at least cracked – to tap into the fun, creative, youthful people we naturally are, but may have hidden away.
Sarah has built a dynamic career on the belief that there are no limits to what she can do. Her ability to embrace and balance lifestyles and cultures makes her an especially powerful player in the marketing field. As a brand strategist at Savage, her biggest motivator is helping companies find their true purpose—an endeavor that certainly requires the ability to step back, breathe and look at the big picture.
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