15. Elizabeth Davie on unlocking the power of play for researchers
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Episode show notes
Today’s episode is a deep dive with Elizabeth Davie, the coordinator of the University of Melbourne’s Complex Human Data Hub and an accomplished comedy performer, director, and teacher.
Elizabeth shares her insights on the critical role of playfulness in research communication and engagement. She brings unique perspectives from her experience in clowning, improv, and stand-up comedy, emphasising how these art forms can transform workplace culture and enhance researchers’ communication skills.
Join us as we explore how playfulness can lead to more authentic, engaging, and memorable research presentations and why it’s essential to incorporate fun into our professional lives.
If you have an important presentation, conference, or meeting coming up, this episode is a must listen! Elizabeth provides incredibly powerful and granular tips on how to be present and get in touch with your body during high stakes communications and engagements.
Our conversation covers:
The role of playfulness in professional settings and why it matters.
Elizabeth’s journey into clowning and how it influenced her approach to teaching and communication.
Practical tips for researchers to get comfortable with failure and use it to their advantage.
Techniques for becoming more present during presentations — including breathing, how to deal with nervous energy, and what to do right before you step on stage.
How to be playful about serious topics.
The importance of curiosity and how to foster it in your daily work.
Strategies for incorporating play and fun into research organizations to improve team dynamics and productivity.
Elizabeth’s insights on creating engaging and effective communication through humor and play.
- Public engagement
- Career development
- Team alignment
- Storytelling
- Your pitch
- Listening
- Mentorship
- Collaborating with professional staff
- Communicating in different formats/mediums
- Comedy
- Failure
- Stakeholder/audience mapping
- Philanthropic funding
- Relationship management
- Community engagement
- Making your work relatable
- Feedback
- Playfulness
- Talks and presentations
- Representing your discipline
- DEI
Credits:
Host & Producer: Chris Pahlow
Guest: Elizabeth Davie
Edited by: Laura Carolina Corrigan
Consulting Producers: Maia Tarrell, Michelle Joy
Music by: La Boucle and Blue Steel, courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Quotes:
“We’re human beings and it’s easy, I think sometimes to forget that in a professional context because we have these important roles and skills and jobs that we need to do. But the more we can remember that, and I think play is our essential nature, like it’s such a core part of us that it’s a way of waking that up.” - Elizabeth Davie
“I kept getting up and failing and getting up and failing. But I realized it was something I really needed because there is something about clown of being comfortable with failure. So that is part of the training because often the funniness comes from failure or acknowledging it.” - Elizabeth Davie
“Clown is a physical state, not a mental state. So it’s working through the body. And the mind follows.” - Elizabeth Davie
“Fear is excitement without breath. So if you can add the breath, not just tell yourself you’re excited instead of afraid. You actually need to add the breath because then your body’s like, Oh, I’m actually getting the air I need. I can function.” - Elizabeth Davie
“The more you can approach everything as a sort of playful experience, not that you don’t take it seriously, but that you have a level of lightness. I think it makes things so much easier from my own experience of like gripping very tightly and white knuckling my life to like seeing that there are opportunities for play everywhere and there’s opportunities for that looseness and relaxation and that it actually facilitates more serious discussion and deeper kind of thinking and wider connections if you can access that curiosity and play.” - Elizabeth Davie
“Curiosity is definitely the word of the day. I would say if there’s second billing, it’s getting in touch with your body, whether it’s right before you’re about to present, whether you’re actually on stage and want to feel grounded and get into your breath and get out of your mind.” - Elizabeth Davie
