The Summer Offsite is when Sparq pauses. Not to celebrate what has already happened, but to understand what is needed now.
This year we invited Mauro Bergamasco. Not for a motivational speech, but for a conversation about what holds a team together when the context changes.
Eighteen years with the Italian national team, six coaches, injuries, suspensions and impossible comebacks. Mauro brought into the room something that usually stays in the locker room.
Four ideas keep returning in our conversations.
Trust can be observed. It cannot simply be declared.
It is not an act of faith—it is built through repeated behaviours and proven over time. Rugby players know this well: when you pass the ball without looking, you are betting on everything you have trained together. And trust can break in an instant.
Leader ≠ captain.
The captain wears the armband. A leader brings out the best in others, regardless of formal role. Mauro was never captain of the Italian national team, yet he was still one of the leaders in the locker room. In organisations, confusing these two levels means looking for leadership where there is authority and failing to see it where it truly exists.
A team is not a family. It is a group aligned around a goal.
You do not have to be friends to perform together. Mauro explained it with a precise example: the captain he clashed with most was also the first person he would have selected in the starting fifteen the next day. Friendship was not required. Alignment was.
From blame to solutions: the brain follows the direction you give it.
The person who made the mistake already knows it. Asking “what did not work?” is more useful than saying “you were wrong”—it moves attention forward instead of closing the relationship. Like a Formula 1 driver: if you look at the obstacle, you hit it. If you look at the road, you find it.
A team works when it never takes itself for granted. On the field and in the workplace.