ABOUT STEVEN
I create spaces where people can become more fully human together.
I am Steven Asei Dantoni Nkoué—an educator, speaker, and facilitator exploring Ubuntu and relational intelligence across sport, education, and leadership. For more than 15 years, my path has moved through classrooms, research, communities, and high-performance environments. The context changes. The human question remains:
How do we create environments where people feel seen, find meaning, and thrive together?
The human work beneath performance
I have seen talented teams struggle when their relational foundations are too fragile to hold pressure. I have also seen classrooms and organizations come alive when people understand that their stories matter. I believe that change becomes possible when people feel seen. When they can speak honestly. When they understand their purpose. When they know their presence is valued. This is the human work beneath performance, learning, and leadership.
Ubuntu: faire humanité ensemble.
I approach Ubuntu not simply as a theory, but as a practice—a way of listening, recognizing, and remaining connected. Humanity is not only something we possess. It is something we practise. It takes form through the quality of our relationships and the responsibility we accept for one another. The question is never only: What are we achieving? It is also: Who are we becoming together?
From Great Teacher Steve to ASEI DANTONI
My journey began as Great Teacher Steve—an educator who believed in the power of the classroom to transform lives. That conviction remains central to my work. My earlier experience as a high-level basketball athlete in France and the United States also taught me about pressure, identity, adaptation, and the relationships behind collective performance.
BANTU Sport Leadership grew from the belief that athletes must be seen as human beings first—and that sustainable performance depends on an invisible architecture of trust, belonging, and collective identity.
Today, ASEI DANTONI brings these paths together: sport, education, leadership, research, spirituality, and storytelling. Different spaces. The same inquiry into how we become more fully human together.This work is also expanding into practitioner research on Ubuntu, relational intelligence, movement, and human development.
How I work
I partner with sport organizations, schools, universities, and communities through keynotes, workshops, residencies, and learning design.
My approach draws on relational intelligence, embodied facilitation, storytelling, and the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method to help people slow down, examine what is happening beneath the surface, and imagine what they might build together.
SPEAKING & KEYNOTES
Exploring the relationships and systems that shape performance, hope, identity, and belonging.
WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES
Strengthening trust, collective identity, and shared responsibility under pressure.
EDUCATION & LEARNING DESIGN
Creating human-centred learning experiences through movement, story, reflection, and participation.
Experience at a glance
More than 15 years across education, facilitation, research, and leadership
Former high-level basketball athlete in France and the United States
International work and learning experience across Europe, Africa, North America, and Latin America
TEDx speaker and international educator
Certified facilitator in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method
Founder of BANTU Sport Leadership
Co-founder of ASEI-SALEHI
Faire Humanité Ensemble
I am currently writing Faire Humanité Ensemble, a book exploring how personal stories, spirituality, sport, education, and Ubuntu may help us understand collective transformation. At its heart is a simple question: What helps people become more fully human together?
Collaborative Practice
I am also the co-founder of ASEI-SALEHI, a human-innovation consultancy created with Safiyeh Salehi Mobarakeh. Together, we partner with organizations and institutions to explore culture, identity, belonging, and the conditions that allow systems to thrive. It is a shared practice: two perspectives united by a commitment to placing humanity at the centre of transformation.
Let’s start a conversation
Meaningful change rarely begins with a ready-made solution. It begins with listening. With understanding what is happening beneath the visible challenge—and what kind of space may need to be created.
