References
from teams & organizations
Sandra Roth offers more than a productive leadership workshop with LEGO® Serious Play®
As part of a major administrative reorganisation of the city of Baden a year ago (2022), as the responsible head of department, I was looking for a way to develop a common vision of the future of our department with my new management team. In a roundabout way, Lego Serious Play and Sandra Roth were recommended to me. The workshop was a complete success. In a very short time, we as a new team were able to work out the commonalities and differences of our individual visions of the future through the intuitive method and the good moderation. We were able to formulate our common self-image, our self-demands and our development intentions quickly and clearly without any effort.
Against this background, it was important to me to pause again after a first joint business year in order to draw a first interim balance and to record the next development steps. It was obvious to work with Sandra Roth again for this process. In addition to the joint assessment of the current situation, the focus was also on interdisciplinary activities. For this year’s cadre retreat, we had the task of planning, purchasing and preparing our dinner together, organising a social programme and providing atmospheric decorations.
Sandra Roth was once again instrumental in the success of the event with her targeted and differentiated moderation. She distinguished herself through her great customer orientation, a high degree of professional flexibility and her extremely quick and differentiated perception. She always accompanied us in our change and development process in an attentive, solution-oriented, imaginative, humorous, confident and self-reflective manner in all situations. A representative statement from a participant can be recorded here, who describes Sandra Roth’s work as follows: “Getting involved with new methods in unfamiliar surroundings, the relaxed but hard-working atmosphere – the perfect mix for a unifying, shared experience was also to the credit of the event facilitator”.
Based on these two experiences, I can therefore only warmly recommend Sandra Roth.
David Müller-Weber, Head of the Department “Gesellschaft” (Society), City of Baden
(translated from German)
Developing leadership principles
In our search for a trainer for the joint development of our leadership principles, we found Sandra Roth. We found both the Collective Leadership Assessment™ and the LEGO Serious Play method refreshing and could well imagine working on these topics together with Sandra.
For the two workshop days, Sandra created the concept together with me and then successfully implemented it over the two days. The organisation and preparation were exemplary and her pleasant and open manner was also an asset in the entire cooperation. The days were extremely exciting and very instructive for all participants. In particular, the LEGO Serious Play was very well received by the managers and the joint reflection helped us to move forward.
Thank you very much, Sandra, for the good cooperation!
Nadine Spirig, Head HR
(translated from German)
Multi-year planning of the "Volksschule" Baden
In the context of a workshop, I, as the responsible head of department, was looking for a method to outline the multi-year planning of the “Volksschule” Baden with strategic goals in an unusual, intuitive and efficient way. In the process, I came across “LEGO Serious Play”.
Within one day, with the competent support of Sandra Roth, we were able to make the ideas of the various participants visible, generate ideas in a fun way and develop a common vision of our development steps in the next four years.
I greatly appreciated the needs-oriented approach, the perfect preparation and organization of the workshop, the professionally competent moderation of the workshop as well as the comprehensive follow-up by Sandra Roth. I felt greatly relieved as the person responsible for the content. I would choose this method and the support of Sandra Roth again at any time.
Mirjam Obrist, Head of the Education and Sports Department, Baden
(translated from German)
LEGO® Serious Play® Keynote for EMBA HSG
Although it’s called Lego Serious Play, we implemented it for having fun at a social event for the students of our Executive Education programmes. Since we were bringing together two classes who had not previously met, we were looking for a way to allow them to learn more about each other in a short time. The Lego activity proved to be an ideal icebreaker and communication starter among students. We’d like to thank Sandra for being our facilitator for the night and for introducing our students to this method of visualizing abstract life questions in a fun way.
Programme managers EMBA HSG
Foster teamwork, trust & collaboration with LEGO® Serious Play®
The “LEGO Serious Play” is a perfect way to get Teams to get to know each other`s in a very safe environment. It is not a competition on how build the best LEGO, but rather a way to explore different dimensions of a Team: collaboration, creativity, inclusion, diversity, listening, being heard….
It is critical to define a good framework to start with ( ” What” / questions), but more important is the “How” to achieve it. Sandra and her Team did a fantastic job on meeting all our objectives and expectations.
Building a LEGO on an abstract question seems challenging when thinking about it, but we have been nicely guided through a very well thought process which allowed us to first learn and secondly apply it to our objectives.
Plenty of energy in the room during the workshop, that energy stayed with us as we built further and kept the Momentum.
Especially If you have a new team, or you would like to bring new and fresh energy I really recommend anyone to leverage the LEGO Serious Play!!
Here below some feedback from the Team:
- Amazing Team spirit
- We strive towards one goal, approached from diverse backgrounds
- Building LEGO was a very good way to brainstorm about new ideas, explore creativity
- Great connection in the team, even though we don’t work always together
- Everyone has a voice and it his heard
- It is easy to get to know the true and authentic side of everyone when re-living their childhood game, and establish new connections
Best Regards
Emanuele Pozzoni
Sr. Finance Director
Janssen Business Services CH
Systems Theory & Resilience - LEGO® Serious Play® Keynote for irish business network, Switzerland
… Sandra started our workshop with a brief introduction to Systems Theory, how systems are inherently resilient and self-reinforcing which sometimes leads to involuntary effects, how this relates to our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world, how crises impact us and how we can build up our resilience and grow from adversity.
Basically, she condensed decades of research into a concise 15 minute presentation on the challenges we face and approaches to address them; personally, in our communities and in our businesses. Diversity is key to a stable and resilient system.
Sandra then continued with an introduction to LEGO® Serious Play®, building bridges, the relevance of metaphors, asking us to construct Lego models and the corresponding explanatory storytelling to share our collective wisdom. We answered key questions, first with our hands and subsequently via storytelling, on now we reinforce our personal resilience and how our organisations can help. The Lego models and Lego® Serious Play® Keynote structure were instrumental in facilitating connections and the sharing of deep insights, in our small groups and later during the plenary session.
All participants commented on the meaningful connections and insights generated by this workshop and of course, the discussion continued during the subsequent networking apéro.
A huge thank you, not only to our facilitator, Dr. Sandra Roth, but also to all our participants for so openly participating and sharing your creativity, experience, and insights.
Vision & roadmap building for SAAM - Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility
… I had often heard about “Lego Serious Play” and the concept behind it. I was now all the more curious to experience this form of thinking and problem-solving method for myself as a participant. Thanks to the professional moderation of Sandra Roth and Kristin Warnecke of the coaching agency “Savvista” and the guided preparation exercises, I was able to quickly put aside initial fears. It is amazing how quickly one succeeds in translating impulses and thoughts into the symbolism of Lego bricks and thus expressing them. I found the goal of using Lego bricks to design the elements for the creation of a SAAM roadmap for the next 2 years an innovative and, above all, very creative approach. The different teams designed their personal visions and presented them to each other in plenary. It was interesting to observe that many ideas are similar in essence and yet can be presented in so many different ways in the form of a Lego picture. Based on the impulses, the management team formulated the SAAM vision for mobility in Switzerland in 2035 just a few days later…
Read the full article on SAAM Blog
Ideal Collaboration, Values & Behaviors for PMI Switzerland Chapter
… So, the only efficient way to meet all of the other volunteers is to participate in several events of the Chapter. What was exceptional here is how fast the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® broke the ice between us. Building creative models, describing them, sharing the different points of view accelerated the interaction between each other.
In fact, PEOPLE CONNECTION was one key to success for this day.
Secondly, commonly it says that a picture is worth 1’000 words. Here it was: a model of LEGO® is worth 1’000 abstract ideas. We were able to “materialize” ideas, visions, values, strengths and behaviors. The LEGO® builds were used as a support for communication. I could see stars in the eyes of most of the members, when a builder was explaining what she/he wanted to show or demonstrate with her/his construction. It was very inspiring to see how well we expressed our feelings through these colored plastic parts.
In fact, CREATIVITY was one key to success for this day.
Thirdly, during the different sessions, the room was full of positive energy: music was played in the background, a tension was felt because of the time constraint of each session, but we were still doing our creations with lots of laughs, joy and pleasure.
In fact, FUN was one key to success for this day.
Finally, I thought of you, dear professional: in your business, in your company, in your project, if you have to define a mission, the values and/or a strategy of your business, of your department or in your project, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® could be a very interesting tool to consider.
If it arouses your curiosity and matches your needs, please contact Dr. Sandra Roth, she will guide you in this journey to achieve your goals, with high professionalism and full of enthusiasm.
Thierry Altenhoven, PMP
Find the full experience report here:
https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/publications/blog/1372-have-you-already-played-lego-but-seriously
Team building with LEGO® Serious Play® for Okomo AG
Sandra was very customer-orientated and ensured that we received the best package for our workshop. She is very well-structured and organised which helped us get through the busy day. The LEGO “Serious Play” was recommended, and it was a hit with the team. It was playful, yet some important lessons and guidance was taken from the eventful day. Many thanks,
Ralf Aring, Customer Success Manager, Okomo AG
Multinational pharmaceutical company
Department alignment towards new strategy with LEGO® Serious Play®
After the workshop the team leaders sent out a feedback survey concerning the whole team workshop. Following are the wordcloud and answers to the question “What did you like the most about the offsite?”
- Lego session was amazing, creative, productive and bonding.
- New experience with Lego Serious, as it gave a good understanding within my group how our work is linked to each other. Good results of each group
- Psychological Safety and LEGO were the top items!
- Lego series and how it enabled to discover synergies between our colleagues.
Multinational pharmaceutical company (requested anonymity)
References from individuals
Dr. Daniel Black
VP Marketing & Product Management, Centogene AG
Leadership Circle Profile Assessment
I have had the opportunity of being coached on my Leadership Circle Profile by Sandra Roth in 2022. I can highly recommend her to coach both young professionals as well as seasoned professionals along their leadership development path especially in regard to the Leadership Circle Profile assessment.
I am Daniel Black, VP Marketing & Product Management at Centogene AG. I have more than 15 years of experience working for a Multinational Corporations as well as Small-Medium-Enterprises. In this time, I have been fortunate to have had various leadership assessments and courses including the Leadership Circle Profile, yet Sandra’s ability to deep-dive into a candidate’s report and derive deep and impactful insights from it stand out. I remain impressed by her ability to drive me froward in my self-reflection as well as the insights gained from the Leadership Circle Profile report itself.
During the time we worked together, her skills as a Leadership coach, have positively impacted my personal and professional growth and allowed me to make the most of the time and effort spent on the Leadership Circle Profile.
User Experience Designer
Healthcare company
Zug, Switzerland
Career Coaching & Personal development
I had quite a few perplexing thoughts about my career, current job position, my future etc. swirling in my mind and did not know how to address them. Sandra’s patient and unconditional acceptance helped me to introspect and delve deeper into the core challenges I was facing, honestly.
Sandra gently guided me to prioritize the topics of importance and helped with simple yet effective techniques to achieve tangible results quickly. And the journey is still continuing….
Hallmark of Sandra is her genuineness and commitment to make difference in people’s lives.
User Experience Designer, large Healthcare Company, Zug, Switzerland
Usability Engineer & Data Scientist Healthcare Company, Luzern
Career Coaching & Personal development
Life often yields more opportunity than can be taken advantage of at once – both in professional fields as well as in private circumstances. There is virtual always the chance to develop new business ideas or to advance existing projects. At the same time, there’s almost always the opportunity to spend time with your family or catch up with a friend. How do you deal with all these tasks arising from the many opportunities? How do you prioritize? And, after all, how do you find time for yourself? Living in the times of self-optimization and self-awareness, I thought to know the answer from books, videos and workshops on the topic, on which I have spent considerable time! Nevertheless, the coaching sessions with Sandra empowered me to improve even more. I became much clearer about my professional and private goals and how to attain these – things I considered myself to be explicitly aware of. Similarly, Sandra led me to find solutions for problems that I had accepted as a given. The coaching sessions with Sandra were just right for me to get to the next level.
Usability Engineer & Data Scientist, Healthcare Unternehmen, Luzern
International Product Manager, Roche Diagnostics International
Career Coaching & Personal development
In my coaching session with Sandra Roth, I first worked out my strengths with the help of a creative “strength finder method” and intuitively divided them into groups. In the subsequent coaching conversation, I became aware of which talents I use in my job and which I also use privately. I spend a lot of my daily time on the job. The coaching made it clear to me that I would like to focus more on my strengths in my private life – also in order to reposition myself professionally. Through the action list developed in the coaching I was able to create more freedom for my private life and to develop a better work-life balance. So I can now pursue more private interests and am currently working on new networks. I not only find this inspiring for my private life, but I can also take a lot with me into my day-to-day work and break new ground creatively. Through the coaching I feel more balanced, more energetic and look curious about my future.
International Product Manager, Roche Diagnostics Int. (translated from German)
Project Leader Roche Diagnostics International, Rotkreuz
Leadership Coaching & Development
In my experience, there are rarely people with whom I cannot get along. However, I currently have to work with a colleague who repeatedly annoys me with his arrogant, stubborn and insulting nature and I feel helpless because I no longer know how to deal with him in order to motivate him for his tasks. His manager has similar problems with him, but tries to “promote him away” instead of developing him. I chose coaching with Sandra Roth to find a way for me to interact with the employee without being emotionally touched. In my first coaching lesson we looked at the topics which trigger negative emotions and Sandra Roth sorted them with me using a triangle method. With communication situations between the colleague and me from everyday life, we practiced on concrete examples of how I can control communication and thereby protect myself. The first interactions with the colleague after the coaching session were much more pleasant for me. In another coaching hour we looked at the progress together and analyzed individual situations again and tried to optimize my communication strategy. In the meantime, I can interact with the employee in a relaxed manner and achieve my goals in working with him much more effectively than before.
Project Leader, Roche Diagnostics Int., Rotkreuz (translated from German)
Aurel, Lawyer, Basel, Switzerland
Career Coaching
I (m, 43, lawyer) had for a long time and increasingly the wish to change my career. However, I just couldn’t see the next step. After 90 minutes of online coaching with Sandra, I suddenly realized what I really wanted to leave behind: It was not my professional activity itself, but a specific environment and an industry. That was a groundbreaking insight for me. It was before my eyes, but hidden from me. I regained focus for my reorientation that day. I have an interview next week and I go there feeling like I have a solid compass inside me. The coaching was obviously very worthwhile. By the way, it was also great fun.
Aurel, Lawyer, Basel (translated from German)
Manager, Roche, San Francisco
Career Coaching
Your self-developed tool for identifying personal potential was easy to understand and very effective. It is also wonderfully suitable for a virtual coaching session, which is a real plus in today’s world. It was particularly exciting to see how much self-reflection was stimulated on the basis of a few, clearly formulated and easy-to-perform steps. In the subsequent discussion and deepening, you managed to stimulate many very exciting trains of thought through your active listening and very professional reflection of my statements. The session really helped me a lot in raising a few questions and structuring ideas. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Manager, Roche, San Francisco (translated from German)
Elena, Team leader
Leadership Coaching
With her open and approachable nature, Sandra supported me with different issues. She was always able to give a name to my emotions and that helped me a lot to develop and believe in myself more. “Believe in yourself and you can do it”. Through Sandra, this phrase has become not just a saying for me, but an inner driving force.
Elena, Team Leader
Viola, Project Manager
Leadership Coaching
With her empathic nature, experience in various management positions in large companies and extensive methodological expertise, Sandra supported me in working on topics in a solution-oriented manner and changing things in everyday life.
Viola, Project Manager
Contact us
via email
mail@savvista.com
or phone
+41 76 327 3993.