Immersive Leadership. How Storytelling and Embodied Learning Will Give You New Tools to Lead

Professional Development Workshop

Time: 9:30-15:30
Cost: $65
Location: Hilton Prague, Room TBD
Stream: Arts & Leadership


Please Note: Ticket prices do not include any food or beverage. To keep registration costs accessible, no refreshments, snacks, or meals will be provided during the event. We encourage attendees to eat beforehand, bring in their own beverage, and take advantage of the scheduled lunch break to explore nearby dining options.

During this session, attendees will explore both individual and collective leadership qualities and challenges through narrative gameplay, embodied practices, collaborative storytelling and immersive exercises.

Developing collaborative leadership practices is often hindered by real-world constraints. This session uses narrative gameplay to transcend these limitations, providing attendees with an exciting environment to experiment, adapt, and refine their leadership and collaborate in ways that are critical to addressing leadership challenges in conventional settings.

Goals:

  • Create immersive developmental experiences using narrative gameplay and embodied role-play
  • Develop personal awareness about leadership roles and group dynamics in a challenging yet exciting environment
  • Illustrate how collaborative storytelling and problem-solving function as collective leadership practices. 

Learning Objectives:

  • Explore personal leadership archetypes and create characters to reframe leadership roles adapted from other contexts.
  • Practice collective leadership skills including improvisation, strategic decision-making, and collaborative storytelling.
  • Recognize personal growth reflecting on character embodiment and role-playing.
  • Hypothesize and plan to apply insights to everyday leadership situations.
  • Demonstrate and explain how to use gameplay to enhance leadership.

Speakers:

Speakers:

Joe Lasley, PhD. Assistant Professor of Leadership and Organizational Studies, University of Southern Maine. Leadership coach. Game designer.

Joe’s vision is to foster environments in which people experiment with new ways of being that lead to collective transformation and a socially just future. His research investigates play, game-based leadership, and group experiences in developmental environments with applications for leadership development. He specializes in qualitative methods that adopt interpretivist and constructivist orientations including phenomenology, narrative inquiry, grounded theory, and action research. Joe has expertise in group relations, adult development, college student development, adaptive leadership, game studies, role-play, social change, and organizational learning theory.

Gijs van Bilsen, Chief Imagination Officer at Live Action Learning. Keynote speaker, Leadership trainer.

Gijs is a born performer. From a young age, he was always drawn to the stage whenever there was a chance to entertain. But when faced with the choice between business studies and theater school, he opted for substance over spectacle. Over the years, he has made his mark in the corporate world as Chief Inspiration Officer at a renowned consultancy firm, author of multiple books, and a leader of transformation projects. Now, he brings it all together—the beauty of art, the creativity of play, and the depth of knowledge. Gijs uses his own imagination to grow as a speaker, trainer, and individual. During his lecture, you’ll meet two distinct sides of him, which he conjures through imagination: The Professor and The Jack Russell. Gijs travels the world in search of immersive experiences—from the Sahara Desert to the film set of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And now, he takes the stage to share what he has learned about imagination. For example, how he overcame his fear of heights—and how others can do the same

Cosmo Rahn, M.S. MBA. General Manager of Smugmug. Performer. Experience Designer.

I unlock the full potential of teams and organizations through evidence-based, values-driven leadership. I lead SmugMug, an e-commerce company that powers photography sales for professional photographers and businesses. I’ve helped reposition, redesign, and launch Google’s AdWords and Workspace (formerly G Suite), Coursera, Electronic Arts’ Pogo brand, Groupon, Auction.com, a feature film, and the Informatics program at Indiana University Bloomington. I advise startups, government agencies, and organizations worldwide. Key Competencies: Organizational Leadership, Change Management, & Team Building; Corporate Strategy, Management, & Innovation; and Storytelling. A background in business management, marketing, and strategy (MBA: Leadership & Entrepreneurship), product design and human-computer interaction (MS, Human-Computer Interaction), psychology, statistics, computer science, and philosophy (BS, Psychology, Minor: Philosophy), informs an evidence-based approach to leadership. In addition, I act in and create films, play drums, and run tabletop RPGs. My Top 5 Strengths (StrengthsFinder 2.0): Significance, Competition, Futuristic, Individualization, Command.

Event Agenda:

09:30 – 09:45 | Welcome & Introduction: Overview of the session, goals, and schedule.
09:45 – 10:00 | Warm-up: Interactive exercises to energize and stimulate creativity.
10:00 – 10:20 | Individual reflection: Identifying personal leadership goals.
10:20 – 10:50 | Collaborative worldbuilding exercise: Creating the fictional setting for gameplay.
10:50 – 11:10 | Archetypes & Character creation: Using personal goals to create characters.
11:10 – 11:30 | Character introductions & Role-play: Starter role-playing exercises.
11:30 – 11:45 | Break
11:45 – 12:30 | Tabletop gameplay (ACT 1): Scenario-based leadership challenges.
12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch break (lunch on own)
13:30 – 14:00 | Improv warm-up & ACT 2 preparation: Exercises to enhance spontaneity and creativity, setting the stage for embodied gameplay.
14:00 – 14:30 | Embodied gameplay (ACT 2): Embodied role-playing in the constructed world. Inhabiting, expressing, and developing roles.
14:30 – 15:00 | ACT 3 & Resolution: Bringing character and narrative arcs to a conclusion, Making meaning.
15:00 – 15:30 | Reflection & Debrief: Sharing insights, discussing practical applications, and gathering feedback.