UNIVERSITY WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS

Spirit of the Game (SotG) Workshops and Seminars stimulate thinking, encouraging participants to examine the root causes and justifications of human behavior. Each one is tailored to address specific, relevant issues to the host organization. Our workshops include provocative discussions which ideally lead to new solutions within your organization, as well as helping the individual participants who want to make more of an impact in their life and work.

Leadership Development

In the Leadership Development workshops, we create a space for participants to challenge themselves and each other. We lead a group through a competition to see who can come up with the most innovative solutions to tough problems. Note: We are able to tailor this workshop to specific topics at your request, but have a number of general scenarios ready.

By starting with exercises to help them view familiar subjects through the lens of Personal Accountability, we provide the foundation for them to explore these topics through vigorous yet respectful debates. These workshops are designed to be followed up by specific action steps and a commitment to TryStorm (Cultivating a mindset that accepts failure as part of the process) Appropriate Audiences: Clubs, Committees, and existing Leadership Development programs

Student Life Engagement and Team Building

These workshops follow a similar format, but generally at a more relaxed level of engagement as the goal is typically to encourage a shift in long term patterns of thinking, again through the lens of "How can I best contribute" to the development of student culture on and off campus.

Our team-building workshops generally involve some level of physical activity, adjusted as needed to match the physical capabilities of all participants.
Our Workshops and Seminars help students develop their critical thinking and communication skills, and are also designed to lead to specific action steps or what we call "active TryStorming" Appropriate Audiences: These workshops are appropriate as an orientation exercise, as a regular part of student life, or as a follow up to the leadership workshops.

SotG Discussion Meetups

Designed for open enrollment by all students, these meetups take place at a regularly scheduled day and time, punctuated by occasional special offerings. In general each meetup will have a specific theme or topic for discussion, frequently linked together into a series.
Series Examples: - Work-life balance and juggling multiple commitments - Gender respect and dialogue cultivation - Introspection but not obsession - Trying on new habits

Format

A workshop typically starts with a SotG Quiz which will be used to guide the later discussions. A typical quiz will consist of several questions based around the theme of Personal Responsibility and the mission of the organization and/or specific reasons why the workshops is happening:

– Addressing ongoing obstacles and exploring for hidden issues
– Creative problem solving
– Workplace culture and change introduction
– Employee buy-in of Impact responsibility

After the Quiz, we explain the foundational principles of the Spirit of the Game Foundation as well as our origins. It is an option to include an Ultimate frisbee workshop at this point in the seminar, which can include actually playing the game or just learning new throwing tips.

Next, we do a general brainstorming session about the SotG principles and their potential impact or applicability to various sectors of society such as business, politics, interpersonal relationships, and interactions between NGOs and the private sector.

By the end of the brainstorming session we have compiled the results of the Quiz and we will lead an in depth conversation centered around each question where there was significant divergence of opinions. By offering participants with a minority opinion the opportunity to calmly explain their answer without interruption, we are able to get people to open up and create real dialogue even around controversial subjects.

As a final step, we encourage each participant to write down some concrete action steps they can take to increase their Personal Accountability, both within the organization and in the wider world at large, as well as a plan or timeline for those actions.

YOUR COACHES

Urs Bernhard

Coach | Mentor | Field Expert

Urs Bernhard is an international management consultant and executive coach with over 30 years of international experience across the US, Europe and SE Asia.

Urs has worked with companies such as Siemens, Philip Morris, NCR and AT&T and TATA India. He splits his time between Switzerland and Silicon Valley, as well as working as an Executive Coach in Paris, Singapore and Abu Dhabi for INSEAD.
He is fluent in English, German and French and is a pilot and skipper.

Besides that, he has climbed the Seven Summits, and is in the process of writing a book on how the lessons learned on the mountain translate into the executive coaching world.

Trent Simmons

Coach | Mentor | Field Expert

Management

Board of Trustees

Trent Simmons is the founder and President of 10 Million Discs, an international NGO which uses the unique sport of Ultimate frisbee to advance a wide array of social and humanitarian causes around the world.

His background includes a wide variety of start-ups, both operating and consulting, and he has utilized that experience to help 10 Million Discs develop a diverse global network with very low overhead. His vision is to put that network to use, taking Spirit of the Game pilot programs developed and tested in Switzerland and spreading them globally.

Trent is a US citizen, Swiss resident and lives in Zurich with his wife and 2 year old son.

Can you imagine a world where 'How much can I get away with' was replaced with 'How much good can I eventually do?
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Can you imagine a network who exists solely in order to help its members do more good?
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Can you imagine a world where Personal Accountability was the true measure for success?