Spielzeit is an „ordinary partnership of ideas“

Spielzeit’s main objective is to provide psychotherapeutic support that enables young people with mental and/or physical challenges, illnesses or psychosocial burdens to improve the quality of their lives.

The playfully applied term “partnership of ideas” is borrowed from the legal entity „Ordinary Partnership“ and refers to the combined efforts of various members to implement creative ideas. The voice and ideas of each member will be equally heard and assessed independent of how many hours they regularly work.

Periodically established subsidiary goals will be achieved by specific sectors: Therapy, Research, Public Relations, Fundraising, Administration and Legal Affairs. The fundamental premises underlying this model are codetermination and joint responsibility.

Dynamic Teamwork

As in its practice of therapy, Spielzeit also pursues a culture of teamwork in its administration: Managerial authority evolves in the course of the collaborative efforts of independent professionals seeking the most satisfactory possible achievement of any given goal in their sector.

At Spielzeit, the authority to delegate or execute tasks lies with the elected head of a sector (Daniel Zimmermann, Rachel Thoma) and is approved by the Team Management (Robin Mindell, Judith Lengwiler) with the exception of the sector „Therapy“ (by law, the Department
of Health of the Canton Zurich supervises all self-employed therapists).

Decentralized organization

Responsibility is carried jointly by the heads of sectors and Management, in that they are accountable for the effects of their actions and agree to answer to any queries arising from said actions at a later date. The advantage of such a „flat hierarchy“ is a decentralized operation in which each of the eleven Spielzeit team members can organize his or her activities independently. When management levels are kept to a minimum, the ensuing structural simplicity furthers the development of a small and strong team.