YOUR NATURE IS PLAY
Life is not a game, the pathways to success are neither clear nor linear. But many aspects of life can be condensed and distilled into board games - the lessons gained from playing, failing fast, and trying again can be directly assimilated into how you live and work in the real world. This philosophy of work, life, and play lies at the heart of PLAYTONIK.
With Shihui as your playmaker and coach, discover your unique talents and leadership style through board games that reveal how you strategise, communicate, collaborate, and adapt when faced with novelty, uncertainty, and complexity.
OBJECTIVE 1:
UNBOXING
This introductory group session is perfect for first time participants who are new to coaching or those who are somewhat familiar but are keen to engage in a purposefully distilled experience that utilises board games as an instrument to better understand how they respond to different circumstances or process information.
Format: Group of 4 or 5 players
Duration: 2 hour session
Fee: $100 per player
Emphasis on:
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Unpacking how you play
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Finding parallels in work
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Experiencing the learning impact of board games
Ideal for:
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Clients who are new to coaching or looking for a coach with the best fit
OBJECTIVE 2:
READY PLAYER ONE
Participants who have experienced UNBOXING would typically progress to personalised one-on-one sessions that are designed to help players identify or prioritise specific areas in their work/life that they want to better adapt to or excel in, keeping in mind the endgame goals that they want to achieve instead of rolling the dice and leaving the outcome to chance.
Format: 1-on-1
Duration: 2 hour session
Fee: $400 per session
$2000 for 6 session package, to schedule within 6 calendar months
Emphasis on:
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Understanding and evaluating your decision-making processes during play
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Experimenting with different and non-characteristic ways of playing/strategising
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Applying new ways of playing to similar situations in your work/life
Ideal for:
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Clients who know what they want to achieve and are ready to commit to change
OBJECTIVE 3:
TOPPING THE LEADERBOARD
Participants who are laser-focused on career or work related goals will be well-placed to master the boardroom with lessons learnt from board games. Participants have the option of A) journeying one-on-one with your coach to become the leader you would gladly follow, or B) forming a squad with 1 or 2 other similarly motivated individuals to support, level up, and make winning moves together.
OPTION A:
Format: 1-on-1
Duration: 2 hour session
Fee: $600 per session
$8000 for 14 session package, to schedule within 1 calendar year
Emphasis on:
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Overcoming imposter syndrome
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Managing resources
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Honing powers of persuasion
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Identifying alternative pathways to victory
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Knowing and meeting win conditions
Ideal for:
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Clients who are stepping into new roles or leadership positions, or seeking to redefine the meaning of their work in life
OPTION B:
Format: Group of 2 or 3 players
Duration: 2.5 hour session
Fee: $600 per player
$8000 for 14 session package, to schedule within 1 calendar year
"It was novel, there were gaming and competitive elements. Through board games, my habits and ways of strategising naturally arose. It was helpful to trigger coaching topics when I did not have something to talk about.
From what Shihui observed and raised, she intuitively picked up on a topic that was most present for me. I appreciated the gentleness in facilitation and how she checked in on me to see if the coaching was still helpful at various points.
Board games are a simplified model that reflect complexities of life, it helped me gain awareness and insights about myself."
Investment Research Professional, 42 y.o., male
OBJECTIVE 4:
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
The PLAYTONK experience can be extended to larger groups of people who have no background in coaching or playing board games but want to benefit from the methodology. Tapping on quick-to-learn games with simplified rules/goals that can be effectively applied to specific training objectives, players will enjoy a taste of what it means to learn through meaningful play. Sessions will be conducted by a coach and her team of trained facilitators.
Format: Group of up to 40 players
Duration: 2 hour session
Fee: $6,600
Emphasis on:
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Drawing quick insights from different parts/levels of an organisation in a fun and engaging way
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Eliciting personal observations from players and allowing them to cross-pollinate
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Manifesting group learning in real-time
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Challenging expected notions of what corporate training should be
Ideal for:
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Organisations or departments that want to create a memorable and effective corporate training experience
OBJECTIVE 5:
CO-OPT THE CO-OP
Special squad-based sessions will see players taking on different in-game roles and setting in-house protocols. By trying, failing, and transcending a range of co-operative games, players will learn to play to each other's strengths and stretch the limits of what is collectively imaginable.
Format: Group of 4 or 5
Duration: 4 hours
Fee:
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$1,500 to onboard and evaluate each team member's strengths pre-session
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$1,900 per team session
$10,500 for 6 session package to schedule within 6 calendar months
Emphasis on:
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Honing team dynamics
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Navigating open and hidden movement/information
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Mastering speed, chaining, and timing for maximum effect
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Securing nodes and bottle necks
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Building networks and coalitions
Ideal for:
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For new teams hitting the ground running, or existing departments aiming to set new performance records (on the track or in the market)
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For organisations seeking to build trust between members
Before starting her own coaching practice, Shihui spent twenty years driving impact in the public-private-people sectors before a frustrating loss in a casual tile-laying game of Azul revealed to her in mere minutes what years of diligent work did not - she was great at following frameworks but struggled with navigating ambiguity and open-ended challenges.
Armed with this revelation, she continued studying hundreds of board games to develop PLAYTONIK, a coaching curriculum for leaders and teams that taps on analogue games and human-centered tools like Smol Tok to unlock strategic thinking, emotional agility, and creative confidence.
Master's of Engineering - MEng and ACGI, Aeronautical Engineering, First Class Honours
Imperial College London, 2001 - 2005
Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®)
The Coach Partnership, 2013
Master’s Degree, Tri-Sector (Public, Private, People sectors) Collaboration, Dean's List, Summa Cum Laude
Singapore Management University, 2015 - 2016
Leadership Embodiment Levels 1 and 2 (Wendy Palmer)
Leadership Embodiment Asia, 2016
Certified Coach Training Programme (Ontological Coaching)
Newfield Asia, 2016 - 2017
Education Intensive, Identity Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy
IOPT Events Ltd, 2020 - 2021
Advanced Coaching Program, Level 1: Foundations of Unfoldment
Aletheia Coaching, 2025