Some of the most important shifts in how we lead don't happen at a desk. They happen when we step far enough away from the daily pace of work to see it — and ourselves — more clearly.

Organizational success increasingly depends on team effectiveness, yet many leaders struggle to know what brings out the best in a team — and many of the coaches and consultants who support them struggle to keep pace with the research and frameworks needed to help. This new two-day program brings GISC's Gestalt approach to team leadership to a strikingly beautiful setting on Norway's Skånevik fjord, giving leaders and practitioners from across Scandinavia and beyond a rare chance to slow down, reflect, and build that understanding together. 

This program is designed for two audiences at once: leaders who want to strengthen how they build and run high-performing teams, and the coaches, consultants, and other practitioners who support them. They learn side by side for most of the program, with role-specific sessions built in so each group gets exactly what it needs.

At the center of the work is the question, “what makes an effective team, and what does it take from a leader — in presence, awareness, and skill — to build one?”  We ground the program in Google's well-known Project Aristotle research on team performance, and go further, using Gestalt concepts and practices to help you understand why those conditions emerge and how to cultivate them deliberately. Practitioners will learn to look for what’s working well in the teams and leaders they support, and how to open up new awareness and possibilities in their clients.

Through experiential exercises, a live practicum in which practitioners coach leaders through real-life team challenges, and structured reflection, participants leave with practiced skill, a clearer view of their own presence and impact, and a concrete plan for putting the learning to work in their leadership, their coaching, or their consulting practice.

The program is delivered in English, with breakout sessions offered in both English and Norwegian so that native speakers can process the experience in the language closest to them. For those traveling from further afield, Skånevik also offers something increasingly rare: a true change of pace, a close-knit learning community, and the chance to experience GISC's work in a new cultural setting.

Benefits

Participants will:

• Learn the research-based conditions that distinguish effective, high-performing teams
• Deepen your understanding of psychological safety and practice concrete ways to build and protect it within a team
• Explore the relationship between psychological safety and accountability, and learn how to hold both without tipping into fear or avoidance
• Apply core Gestalt concepts and frameworks such as presence, contact and connection, multiple realities, and the cycle of experience to understand what's happening in a team
• Build awareness of your presence, use of self, and interpersonal patterns, and how each affects the teams and systems you're part of
• Practice recognizing and working productively with resistance, in yourself and others
• Leave with a practical action plan for transferring the learning directly into your work

As a Leader, you will:

• Gain a clearer, more honest picture of your own leadership presence and how your team experiences you, through in-class feedback, assessment data, and structured reflection
• Work through a real-life team challenge you bring with you, and get live coaching support from skilled practitioners
• Build practical skill in fostering psychologically safe, engaged, and accountable team environments through intentional leadership practices and communication

As a Coach or Practitioner, you will:

• Ground your practice in the research and frameworks your clients most need, and learn how to translate that research into interventions that can shift team performance
• Gain direct, supervised practice coaching a leader through a real-life team challenge, with faculty support, in the program's practicum
• Sharpen your ability to identify team dynamics and employ Gestalt-based interventions that strengthen team performance in the organizations you support
• Build your own presence and use of self — the instrument through which your coaching and consulting work happens

REGISTER FOR THIS PROGRAM

Participants

This program is designed for leaders reliant on and responsible for team performance — from managers to senior executives — as well as coaches, consultants, and organizational practitioners who support or work with teams and want to deepen their skill in applying a Gestalt lens to team dynamics. Leaders and practitioners learn together throughout most of the program; each group also has dedicated sessions designed for their specific role, including a practicum in which practitioners will have an opportunity to coach leaders through current, real-life team challenges.

No prior Gestalt experience is required. Some pre-work, including a short introduction to core Gestalt concepts and preparation of a current team situation to work with during the program, will be provided in advance.

The Setting

Skånevik is a small, storybook village on a Norwegian fjord — the kind of place that does much of the work of a retreat before the program even begins. Set apart from the rush of daily routines, it offers a genuinely restorative environment: space to think, room to reflect, and a close community of fellow participants to learn alongside. For this inaugural offering, GISC is partnering with our Norwegian network to bring the same rigorous, relationally grounded approach we're known for to a new international setting and to a new community of leaders and practitioners.

Program fee is all-inclusive for tuition, meals, and lodging. Participants are encouraged to book additional time for travel, exploration, or reflection. 

Add-on rate at the welcoming and comfortable Skånevik Fjordhotel available at 500 NOK for bed & breakfast.