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About Kelsey

I didn't set out to make work more playful. I set out to have serious impact.

So I did what high-achievers do. I climbed. I optimized. I led teams, launched programs, earned the credentials, survived the meetings that absolutely could have been emails — and spent a decade doing it at Google, one of the most demanding and intellectually stimulating environments on the planet.

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Kelsey Kates Kelsey Kates
10 yrs at Google ✦ Recovering optimizer

Then something became easy impossible to ignore.

Kelsey facilitating a session Kelsey in action

And somewhere in the middle of all of it — the climbing, the optimizing, the back-to-backs — something became impossible to ignore.

The most impressive people I encountered were the ones where people felt genuinely safe — safe enough to say the uncomfortable thing, try the half-baked idea, laugh at the failure, and show up as actual humans rather than highly caffeinated performance machines.

For the past 20+ years — across startups, nonprofits, small businesses, and multinationals — I've been designing and facilitating experiences that help people reconnect with the human skills that actually drive performance.

The skills no algorithm has figured out how to replicate yet

These aren't soft skills. They're the ones that actually drive performance.

Trust Curiosity Creativity Psychological Safety Genuine Connection
The receipts

Basically, there's science behind the silliness

My background spans neuroscience-informed learning design, facilitation, leadership development, executive coaching, analytics and marketing.

B.S. — University of Denver

Where the climb began.

Master's — Northwestern

Deeper into how people actually learn.

Executive Certificate in Neuroscience — MIT

The brain science underneath the play. Plus 3 more courses, not at MIT.

Certified Executive Coach

Helping leaders find their edge with clarity and confidence.

LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator

Yes, the bricks are a real methodology — and yes, it works on executives.

Kelsey Kates off stage Off the clock
South Dublin, by the sea ✦

When not shouting about playfulness from the mountain tops

You'll find me somewhere between rescuing animals, worrying about the planet, and raising two small boys with my gorgeous husband in a seaside town in South Dublin.

It's chaotic, beautiful, and almost entirely unlike a back-to-back meeting schedule.

It's exactly the kind of life that keeps reminding me why the human stuff matters most.

ha! ✦ ✦ play

So that's my story. Let's talk about yours.

Every team has a version of it — the climb, the back-to-backs, the humans underneath it all. Wherever yours is stuck, that's usually exactly where the play goes.

✦ First class
South
Dublin

Bring your hardest team challenge. I'll bring the spark — and probably some bubbles.

— Kelsey

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Free discovery call · Zero pressure, all warmth and curiousity

Playfulness is a way of being — curious, connected, a little unserious about yourself. 

It gets you moving, gets you talking to people, lets you improvise instead of freeze, and leaves room for joy and a laugh at the right moment