The Lift

From the playroom to the boardroom: What leaders can learn from children's play with tonies’ CXO Ginny McCormick

May 26, 2026·35 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

No one loves a genuine truth bomb more than kids – unfiltered, no social contract, no concern for how it will land.Ginny McCormick has spent her career figuring out what that kind of radical honesty, and the play that produces it, can teach the rest of us.Turns out the principles that work in the playroom work just as well in the boardroom. We just forgot them somewhere along the way.Topic Highlights:– Why "clarity always wins over complexity"– The "first pancake" ritual: a team practice for normalizing failure that actually works– Why structured gamification at work is inauthentic and what real play actually looks like in an adult environment– What children's unfiltered feedback reveals about the feedback loops most organizations are missing– The one parenting skill that every leader should be stealing right nowGuest Bio:Ginny McCormick is the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at tonies, a screen-free children's audio platform operating in over 100 markets globally. She is a veteran of Disney, Mattel, and Hasbro.Episode Links:toniesPlay by Stuart BrownFull ArticleConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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