Founder of BoredLess | Keynote Speaker | Workplace Culture Strategist | Employee Resource Group Advisor | Expert in Playful Work Design, Psychological Safety, and Employee Engagement
Where Curiosity First Took Root
Some people spend their careers searching for the next big idea. Acey Holmes has spent hers asking a simpler question: Why do we stop learning the way we naturally learned as children?
Long before she was helping organizations rethink workplace culture, Holmes was the child who eagerly cracked open geodes during recess, fascinated by what might be hidden inside. A year later, she unknowingly launched her first small business by selling handmade paper pinwheels to classmates. Looking back, those moments revealed far more than childhood curiosity. They reflected a mindset that continues to shape her work today.
“Those experiences taught me two lessons that still shape my leadership today: follow your curiosity, and don’t be afraid to create something different if you think it might bring people joy.”
That belief has remained remarkably consistent, even as her career has taken her from healthcare to education, entrepreneurship, keynote stages, and boardroom conversations about the future of work.
The Question That Changed Everything
Holmes spent nearly two decades as a speech language pathologist, helping children develop communication skills through play. Every day, she witnessed how curiosity, experimentation, and intrinsic motivation helped young people build confidence, solve problems, and grow.
Over time, one question refused to leave her.
If these principles are so effective during childhood, why do workplaces often strip them away as people become adults?
As organizations wrestled with burnout, disengagement, and declining connection, Holmes noticed that many were responding with more processes, more meetings, and more productivity initiatives. Few were addressing the human needs beneath those challenges.
Instead of accepting conventional thinking, she turned to neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral research in search of a better answer.
“Play isn’t about games in the breakroom or forcing people to have fun. It’s a biological and psychological process that supports creativity, resilience, problem-solving, trust, and innovation.”
That insight became the foundation for everything that followed.
Turning Human Behavior into Better Workplace Design
Holmes founded BoredLess with a belief that workplace culture should never rely on slogans, perks, or occasional team-building events. Instead, organizations should intentionally design environments where people feel trusted, connected, and motivated to contribute.
Today, she partners with HR leaders, Employee Resource Groups, leadership teams, and organizations that want to build stronger cultures through science-backed strategies rooted in play, flow, and psychological safety.
Her work includes keynote presentations, interactive workshops, consulting engagements, and practical frameworks that help organizations improve collaboration, communication, resilience, and employee engagement.
Rather than asking leaders to make work more entertaining, Holmes encourages them to make work more human.
Why Employee Resource Groups Deserve a Bigger Seat at the Table
One of Holmes’ strongest convictions centers on Employee Resource Groups.
While many organizations continue to view ERGs as community-building initiatives, she believes they represent one of the most valuable sources of cultural insight inside a business.
“The organizations that truly empower Employee Resource Groups treat them as strategic partners rather than social committees.”
For Holmes, that distinction has meaningful business implications.
ERG leaders often understand belonging, communication, employee experience, and trust in ways that traditional reporting structures cannot fully capture. Organizations that invite those perspectives into conversations about leadership, culture, and innovation gain far more than stronger engagement. They gain better decision-making.
This perspective has positioned Holmes as a trusted voice for organizations seeking practical ways to strengthen culture while creating environments where people genuinely want to contribute.
Building Frameworks That Continue the Conversation
Interestingly, Holmes never set out to build a collection of workplace frameworks or leadership tools.
BoredLess originally began as a consulting business. Workshops soon followed. Those workshops led to speaking engagements, which naturally evolved into keynote invitations. Along the way, recurring conversations with clients revealed patterns that became practical resources, including FlowPrint, Personal Play Identity, and the Playful Strategies and Playful Breaks card decks.
“There wasn’t a dramatic shift from one thing to another. It was more of an unfolding.”
That philosophy reflects the way Holmes approaches leadership itself. Rather than forcing change, she creates conditions where people can think differently, communicate more openly, and collaborate more effectively.
It is an approach grounded not in theory alone, but in years of observing how real people learn, adapt, and grow.
Designing Work People Want to Be Part Of
For Holmes, the future of work has little to do with office perks or performative culture.
It depends on whether organizations are willing to rethink the systems that shape everyday experiences.
Her work continues to challenge assumptions about motivation, engagement, and leadership by reminding organizations that people perform at their best when they have room to be curious, adaptable, and authentic.
Perhaps no sentence captures her philosophy better than the one she repeats most often.
“Forced fun is never fun.”
Simple on the surface, it reflects a deeper truth that has guided her career for more than two decades: meaningful workplaces cannot be manufactured. They must be intentionally designed around the people who bring them to life.
Acey Holmes is the Founder of BoredLess, based in the Denver Metropolitan Area. She helps organizations, HR leaders, and Employee Resource Groups create more human-centered workplaces through science-backed approaches to play, psychological safety, and employee engagement.
