ABOUT
Hey, I’m Aden
I help bold team leaders to unboring work and unlock energy within their team
I believe work can be play.
I’m a radical believer that teams do their best work when they’re energised, loose, and intelligently playful.
Leading a team of smart folks is tough. Smart people have seen it all. They’re absolute huge-brain experts at what they do. Competence in spades. The team runs smoothly, but you spidey-sense that there’s more there. They’re hanging out in their comfort zone (just a bit) and you aren’t sure how to nudge them over the line.
I help smart teams find a huge deal of extra through unboring training that respects their expertise, expands their comfort zone, and allows them to perform at the top of their intelligence.
I was the ratbag at the back of the classroom. I know what it’s like to be smart & bored.
When I was a kid, I graded my teachers. I drew a little thermometer on the bottom-right of every page: The ‘bored-o-meter.’ I told my teachers how bored I was with their lessons. I got yelled at (more than once) for this. I refused to believe that learning needed to be boring.
Things changed when I started taking improv classes in high school. Improvisation challenged me in a way that academic work didn’t. I needed to move. I need to think on my feet. I needed to connect with my team and make them look good. Improvisation felt like real life: messy, real, and fun.
I tried academia for a while, but improvisation had the biggest pull. I booked flights to Chicago, where I studied at the theatre that taught Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, and Keegan Michael-Key. I came back and opened a theatre school in Perth, Only the Human, which I’ve been running for a decade. I’ve taught around 1,000 people how to improvise. It’s brain-flexing, heart-warming, soul-stirring work.
Today, I’ve worked with dozens of organisations on unboring team development — from teeny-tiny charities to huge mining companies. What I’ve learned is that when we’re on the edge of our expertise, we’re all just making it up. Why not get good?
Does your team feel safe enough to take a chance?
Connection >
I seek to understand your team’s unique context and challenges — no cookie-cutter approaches. I want us the team to know why we’re here and why we need to do things differently.
Trust >
Training resonates when it meets people where they are. Poor trainers share their intellect. Excellent trainers discover the intelligence in the room. I scaffold trust within the team that unlocks collective intelligence.
Play
When we have connection and trust, we’re ready to experiment together. On this foundation, I use experiential, play-based methods that are engaging, memorable, and insightful. Fun without fluff (okay, maybe a little fluff).
In the news, mostly for good reasons.
I’m credible and incredible.
Safe and Trauma-informed (just enough woke)
Experiential, play-based training asks your people to expand. For your team, this might feel like a big risk to their ego. I support this by clearly framing participation, clarifying purpose, and integrating trauma-informed approaches. I offer risk the way a waiter offers a glass of wine: Cordially, respectfully and 100% capable of handling rejection.
Informed by Hot ‘n’ Spicy Evidence
Corporate training is mostly the mouldy off-cuts of leadership theory, and leadership theory is (usually) just second-rate cognitive science. My work draws from the latest cognitive science so that training works the way your people actually perceive, think, and act.
Engaging and Challenging
If we aren’t engaged, we aren’t learning. Some trainers treat engagement like a nice-to-have. It’s something that happens after we get through the ‘important material.’ Engagement is the brain’s light switch: Until it’s flicked on, we’re in the dark. I flip the switch (and the script) so that your people are energised and engaged.
Three ways we can work together
Experience
(Half-day)
Dive into unboring with a joyful, purposeful experience that connects your team. Open the space for creative courage and shift sticky behaviours with a half-day workshop.
Extend
(Full day)
Pull back the curtain and connect unboring training to new ways of working. Rediscover the wild human in your team with a full-day experience that brings the future of work to life.
Embed (Offsites/Bespoke)
When the future is constantly changing, we’re all improvisers. Refresh your strategy and embed new ways of working across your organisation with an offsite or bespoke program.
Shift Your Perspective.
I aim to change your mind on something important once a fortnight. If I don’t, you get your money back (but it’s free so 🤷🏻♂️)
Ready to unboring training and unlock your team?
Training for Teams
If you want a different outcome, you have to be prepared to do things differently. Unboring your team development and discover the collective intelligence that already exists in your team.