Kasparov

A seminar with Garry Kasparov is a unique chance to get hands-on coaching from a man with a lifetime of high-pressure peak performance to share. These customized sessions focus on getting the participants to evaluate their own decision-making process, to find their strengths and weaknesses and, as Kasparov puts it, “to upgrade their mental software.” Working in groups and directly with Kasparov, the seminars are an instructive and entertaining tour through dynamic decision-making scenarios, each prepared especially for the client. Previous seminars have included examples from the worlds of business, politics, and even military history.

Kasparov challenges and inspires the participants with the same energy and charisma that have made him the world’s best-known chess player, a best-selling author, and political leader in his native Russia. Anecdotes from Kasparov’s remarkable career provide insight into the dangers of cliched thinking, conventional wisdom, and routine decisions. The participants will leave with new perspectives on strategy, preparation, decision-making, and how only constant challenge can avoid complacency.

Ideal for top management and especially for technology companies.

Full day or half day

1.   Seminars last from 2-5 hours. Best is a room with multiple tables and chairs to allow for inter-group and intra-group activities.

2.   A seminar begins with a brief introduction and statement of goals, without giving too much away.

      Depending on the size of the audience and length of session, groups of 4-5 people are formed.

      For smaller groups and shorter sessions, dividing into groups is not required.

3.   The seminar is based on the answers provided by the participants to Garry’s prepared materials

      and follow-up questions. This is the key, that the progress and to some degree the direction of the

      seminar is created dynamically, in real time. Instead of blindly following a script, the seminar is

      entirely interactive, making it more engaging and more useful.

4.   Anecdotes, case-studies, questionnaires, and role-plays are employed to create an entertaining and often startling live investigation into each participant’s abilities,                  prejudices, and self-awareness.

5.   At every step, Garry circulates through the room, moving things along but also asking and answering questions of the participants. This personal interaction is often                 where the biggest impact is made.

6.   The main objects of the seminar are:

       6.1.  To get the participants thinking about their own decision-making processes. First by having   

‘               them evaluate their own tendencies and then by a series of questions that reveals how accurate

                their evaluations were.

        6.2. To introduce a vocabulary of decision-making that trains participants to critically think

                 about their own mental processes and those of others.

         6.3. To show how our priorities, assumptions and prejudices interact when it comes to making even

                 relatively simple evaluations and calculations.

         6.4. To illustrate how wrong we usually are when evaluating the priorities and attitudes of other,     

                 and how we are perceived by others.

          6.5. To demonstrate the importance of clearing up these misperceptions, instructing others how

                 to manage them, and, when in competition, of exploiting them in others.

         6.6. To produce a performance and data by the participants useful to management in evaluating

                 the participants’ analytical and decision-making skills.