Listen before designing.
A conversation with the manager sets the challenge. Brief conversations with each participant reveal how it appears in their daily work.
PUT ASSUMPTIONS TO THE TEST
Take a closer
look at work.
Five instructor-led workshops are designed to help teams examine a real problem, practise a method and frame a decision they can test. Each session is shaped around the people and work involved.
Explore the five workshops Arrange a team session ↗The preparation
Before we meet as a group, the instructor speaks with the manager and each participant. Those conversations shape the questions, examples and exercises explored together.
60–90minutes of live instruction
Five workshops. See the work.
Choose a workshop to work through a designed workplace case, practise the method and see a decision artifact take shape.
Fixing the Wrong Problem · Live, 60–90 minutes · For managers and cross-functional leaders
Workshop 01 / Applied example
The backlog keeps growing.
Everyone blames the team.
Use Causal Inference in Fixing the Wrong Problem to test competing explanations before choosing an intervention.
The problem3
Candidate explanations: missing skills, insufficient capacity, or approval delays. Each requires a different response.
01 / Question
What actually drives delay?
A growing queue is an outcome, not a diagnosis. Separate active work from waiting before attributing the cause.
02 / Exercise
Compare explanations.
Trace a small sample of delayed and timely cases. Record work time, approval waits, staffing and demand. Use patterns to refine—not prove—competing causal explanations.
03 / Decision
Test before prescribing.
If approval waits emerge as a plausible bottleneck, trial a bounded escalation rule. Compare case mix, completion time and rework; treat a short pilot as provisional.
Example session output: A documented hypothesis, an intervention owner, and a two-week evidence review—not an untested training program.
Where Work Gets Lost · Live, 60–90 minutes · For operations and cross-functional teams
Workshop 02 / Applied example
Every department is on time.
The customer still waits.
Use Organizational Behavior in Where Work Gets Lost to trace the customer journey across team boundaries and locate the sources of delay.
The problem95%+
Each team's tasks meet their service target. The customer's issue takes nine days to resolve across three teams.
01 / Question
What is really delayed?
Team completion and customer resolution measure different things. A good local score can conceal end-to-end waiting.
02 / Exercise
Trace the handoff.
Follow a few contrasting cases. Mark transfers, waiting, reopens and ownership; look for evidence against as well as for owner gaps, early-closure incentives and unreported exceptions.
03 / Decision
Run a bounded test.
If waiting concentrates between teams, trial a named case owner. Review handoff waits, end-to-end resolution, reopened cases and added workload before adopting the change.
Example session output: a traced process, a reasoned intervention, an accountable owner and a measure that can reverse the decision.
When the Dashboard Lies · Live, 60–90 minutes · For managers and performance owners
Workshop 03 / Applied example
Lead volume is up.
Qualified opportunities are down.
Apply Measurement & Operationalization in When the Dashboard Lies to test whether a metric captures the outcome that matters.
The problem↑ / ↓
Marketing meets its lead-volume target while sales-ready conversations decline. The number counts activity, not necessarily business value.
01 / Question
What is being measured?
Distinguish the intended outcome—qualified opportunities—from the easier-to-count proxy of submitted leads.
02 / Exercise
Audit the proxy.
Follow comparable lead cohorts from capture to qualification. Check changing definitions, reporting lags, conversion by channel and whether incentives favour quantity.
03 / Decision
Repair the measure.
Keep volume visible alongside a consistently defined qualification rate and disqualification reasons. Check cohort timing and whether the revised measure predicts useful downstream outcomes.
Example session output: A revised metric definition, a named reporting owner, and an explicit review of volume versus opportunity quality.
Why Change Doesn’t Stick · Live, 60–90 minutes · For people leaders and change sponsors
Workshop 04 / Applied example
The new process went live.
The old spreadsheet returned.
Explore Path Dependence in Why Change Doesn’t Stick to examine the everyday friction that keeps an old workflow alive.
The problemWeek 3
A new CRM workflow is introduced, but staff still duplicate records in spreadsheets to finish their work.
01 / Question
Is this resistance—or friction?
Old habits may persist because the new workflow adds steps, hides information or conflicts with existing rewards. A week-three workaround alone does not establish historical lock-in.
02 / Exercise
Trace one real task.
Observe how a deal moves from entry to review. Mark duplicate work, missing permissions, workarounds and incentives.
03 / Decision
Remove one barrier.
If task tracing identifies unnecessary duplication, trial a simpler handoff without weakening controls. Check usage, record quality and compliance, and revisit sustained adoption later.
Example session output: One observed adoption barrier, one reversible workflow adjustment, and a decision to retain, revise or reverse it.
Plans That Keep Slipping · Live, 60–90 minutes · For project and delivery leaders
Workshop 05 / Applied example
The launch is still Friday.
Two dependencies remain unconfirmed.
Apply Forecasting & Uncertainty in Plans That Keep Slipping to expose dependencies and make delivery confidence explicit.
The problem2
The date is approved, but readiness depends on two outstanding external inputs with no confirmed completion dates.
01 / Question
What must be true?
A delivery date is not evidence that prerequisites will arrive. Define the release criteria and critical dependencies.
02 / Exercise
Make uncertainty visible.
Name dependency owners, examine similar past deliveries where available, distinguish data-based ranges from judgment, and identify early-warning signals.
03 / Decision
Set a conditional gate.
If a critical input misses its checkpoint, reforecast or split scope. Record the trigger before the deadline slips.
Example session output: A dated readiness decision, accountable owners, and a pre-agreed trigger for changing scope or commitment.
The experience / From preparation to practice
The work begins
before we meet.
Put ideas under pressure.
During the live session, participants compare explanations, work through situations and make choices they can explain and defend.
Refine your next move.
The instructor responds to each group's reasoning. Participants revise a diagnosis, decision or approach and leave with a method to try at work.
Each workshop develops decisions that participants can test at work. Follow-up application and measured outcomes establish what transfers. Read the scientific foundations and evaluation approach ↗
About the instruction
Teaching is
personal work.
The instructor has delivered more than 100 corporate workshops for Apple. Every engagement begins by getting to know the people in the room, the expectations they carry and the challenge they want to understand.
A focused 60–90-minute online session makes space for discussion, guided practice and feedback. Cases and supporting material are prepared for the group's circumstances.
For managers and organizations
What is your team
working through?
Your team may recognize one workshop problem—or face something crossing several. A first conversation establishes the challenge, participants and intended outcome.
The next conversation
For Teams explains the preparation and provides the workshop inquiry form.
Discuss a workshop Professional Learning engagements are scoped individually.