Consulting Services
About Us
Tony Dumas, Ph.D., is a Resilience and Growth Strategist who helps individuals and teams reframe mistakes as opportunities for personal and professional growth. With over 20 years of experience in higher education, performance, and research, he combines applied improvisation and growth mindset strategies to help participants build resilience, reframe challenges, and develop sustainable habits for lifelong learning. Through this process, Tony supports others in strengthening their emotional intelligence and thriving in both personal and professional settings.
As a dyslexic and a divorced father of two teenagers, Tony has faced his share of challenges, navigating the uncertainties and lessons that come with mistakes. These experiences have deepened his understanding of resilience and shaped his approach to helping others turn setbacks into meaningful growth. By meeting people where they are, Tony focuses on guiding them towards clarity, strength and the confidence to embrace their journeys with compassion and purpose.
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Overview
Empowering Growth and Innovation through Emotional Intelligence
Playing Through Mistakes Consulting, LLC (PTM) empowers individuals and teams to embrace mistakes as opportunities for growth. Our services include workshops, consulting, and assessments that build emotional intelligence, resilience, and innovation. PTM’s tools—such as the Mistake Style Assessment (MSA), Energetics of Mistakes Assessment (EMA), and Change Resilience Index (CRI)—help clients navigate setbacks with confidence.
- Mistake Style Assessment (MSA): Identifies your dominant and blended mistake-response styles, providing insight into how you react to mistakes and guiding personalized growth strategies.
- Energetics of Mistakes Assessment (EMA): Analyzes how you channel energy after mistakes, helping optimize recovery and focus for better decision-making and resilience.
- Change Resilience Index (CRI): Measures resistance to change across emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual dimensions, offering strategies to build resilience and ease future transitions.
Our Story
From Fear to Growth: The Journey of PTM
Playing Through Mistakes (PTM) began with a simple yet powerful email. A student reached out, afraid of making mistakes in class. This corresponded with a time of increasing student anxiety and decreasing engagement, a trend that was further amplified by the onset of COVID. That fear of failure sparked something bigger—a recognition that mistakes are often seen as obstacles, rather than opportunities. In response, I developed the first PTM course, designed to assist students in embracing mistakes as a natural part of learning and growth.
What started as a classroom initiative has grown into a comprehensive approach that benefits a wide range of the population. Today, PTM serves schools, corporations, and individuals across Western New York, helping to transform cultures of learning and leadership. Whether in a classroom or a boardroom, PTM empowers people to reframe mistakes, develop resilience, and create environments where learning from setbacks is not just accepted but celebrated.
At its core, PTM’s values are fostering emotional intelligence, resilience, and innovation, turning misjudgments into stepping stones for personal and professional growth. From that one email, PTM has evolved into a guiding force for organizations and individuals seeking to build a healthier, more dynamic approach to learning.
