We learn best when we are actively building and creating. Think Legos! All coaching is fundamentally play, and purposeful play transforms leadership development. Today’s guest is a certified hands-on thinking coach who brings Lego bricks into executive coaching sessions. He shares the neuroscience and learning theory behind why play isn’t frivolous but is essential for discovery, practice, and innovation. Learn how to integrate object play and constructionism into your coaching practice to help clients move from abstract thinking to concrete insights, particularly with neurodiverse populations and leaders who live too much in their heads. Are you ready to discover new techniques that might transform your work with your clients? Join us to learn more!

Paul Sanbar is an Ingenuity + Leadership Coach, certified coach supervisor, and hands-on visual thinking facilitator. He has dedicated himself to the field of self-development and to effecting positive change through purposeful play, storytelling, and powerful conversations. He was a humanistic-Gestalt psychotherapist and is now an ICF-accredited Master Certified Coach, EMCC-accredited coach supervisor, and senior practitioner.

Show Highlights:

1. Play and coaching: How are they related?
2. “Coaching gives clients a chance to suspend reality and just play.”
3. Understanding “purposeful play” (also called “serious play”) in executive coaching, as it relates to how we played as children
4. The value of attunement play
5. Constructivism and constructionism
6. Paul’s method of introducing object play into organizational coaching (Understanding the liminal space between “what is” and “what if”)
7. Multi-modal learning helps us use multiple intelligences.
8. Metaphors allow us to relate to and understand the world.
9. Using Legos (and mini-figures) to build our thoughts and ascribe meaning to them
10. The hands-on thinking coach methodology
11. Feedback from coaches who are learning Paul’s play techniques as an enhancement to other coaching techniques
12. Modern consequences of play deprivation—for kids and adults
13. The truth: “We are all still kids.”
14. Paul’s key takeaway about play methodology

Resources:

Connect with Paul Sanbar

Linktree

LinkedIn

Connect with Meg:

Explore the STaR Coach Show Mentor Program. We are enrolling NOW for this spring!

Subscribe to the STaR Coach Show YouTube Channel!

Explore over 480 past episodes and other helpful resources at www.STaRcoachshow.com.

Explore the STaR Coach Community and see what’s available there for you!

Mentioned in this episode:

Enroll More Clients: Clarity Sprint

Do you love coaching, but when it comes to enrolling clients, writing your bio, or posting online, you freeze? Or fall into “coach speak” that doesn’t actually connect? That’s not a you problem. It’s a messaging problem—and it’s costing you clients. Join me for my free, live five-day experience: Enroll More Clients: Clarity Sprint. From March 16–20 at 9 a.m. Central, I’ll help you get crystal clear on your ideal client, refine your message so it actually resonates, and create a confidence statement that makes booking a call the obvious next step. No fluff, just clarity, you can use immediately. Grab your free spot at: https://starcoachshow.com/5day

Enroll More Clients: Clarity Sprint