Workshops & Programs
Practical programs for consequential decisions
Some decisions are difficult because the answer is not obvious. Information may be incomplete.
People may see different parts of the situation. Priorities may compete. And the consequences may extend well beyond the immediate choice.
I lead interactive workshops that help leaders, families, boards, and advisors think more clearly in those situations. The programs are practical and case-based, with an emphasis on applying the ideas to decisions participants actually face.
Programs can be adapted for leadership teams, professional firms, family enterprises, family offices, boards, associations, and advisor groups.
INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
Better Judgment in High-Stakes Decisions
Thinking clearly when priorities compete, perspectives differ, and consequences are real
The flagship program: a case worked in stages using the COImpAct framework, showing how a decision changes when the situation is framed more carefully.
TYPICALLY FOR
Leadership teams, professional
firms, boards, family enterprises,
and family offices
TYPICAL FORMAT
75-90 minutes, interactive and case-based
FAMILY OFFICE PROGRAM
High-Stakes Investment Decisions
Improving judgment when risk and family dynamics intersect
For family offices, where a sound investment recommendation can become entangled with legacy, control, liquidity, trust, and authority.
TYPICALLY FOR
Familiy offices, investment committees, CIOs, trustees, family members, and wealth advisors
TYPICAL FORMAT
45-90 minutes, conference session to workshop
LEADERSHIP TRANSITION WORKSHOP
Preparing Future Leaders Through Past Decisions
Retrospective Decision Mapping for Leadership Transition
Uses a completed consequential decision to make accumulated judgment visible, then turns what surfaces into requirements for the next leader.
TYPICALLY FOR
Founders, next-generation leaders, family enterprises, boards, and advisory teams
TYPICAL FORMAT
75-90 minutes, half-day, or custom in-houes
INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
Better Judgment in High-Stakes Decisions
Thinking clearly when priorities compete, perspectives differ, and consequences are real
High-stakes decisions often become difficult before anyone begins comparing solutions. The problem may have been framed too narrowly. Different stakeholders may be working from incomplete perspectives. Emotionally charged language can push people toward positions before the underlying concerns have been examined.
This interactive workshop introduces the COImpAct decision framework:
Context Desired Outcomes Options Implications Decision / Action
Participants work through a common case in stages, with small-group discussion and brief share-outs, and experience how the quality of a decision changes when the situation is framed more carefully, desired outcomes are made explicit, credible alternatives are compared, and downstream implications are considered. The case can be adapted to the audience while the decision process remains the same.
Participants learn to:
-
Recognize when framing is contributing to the difficulty
-
Separate charged language from the substantive issues
-
Clarify what a good decision must accomplish, preserve, or avoid
-
Compare alternatives before narrowing prematurely
-
Examine immediate and downstream implications
Participants leave with a one-page COImpAct decision map they can apply to a live decision after the
session.
Relevant for: leadership teams, professional firms, boards, family enterprises, family offices, and organizations facing consequential decisions. Applications include strategy and capital allocation, leadership and succession, governance, philanthropy, and investment decisions.
Typical format: 75-90 minutes, interactive and case-based.
A USEFUL QUESTION
Before asking, "What should we do?", ask, "What do we need to understand first?"
FAMILY OFFICE PROGRAM
High-Stakes Investment Decisions
Improving judgment when risk and family dynamics intersect
In a family office, an investment decision is rarely only an investment decision. A recommendation
may also raise questions about legacy, control, liquidity, stewardship, trust, authority, and rising generation voice.
Technical investment analysis remains essential. But analysis alone may not settle what the family is
actually deciding.
This program helps families and investment teams make the non-technical dimensions of an
investment decision more explicit. Working from a familiar family-office case, such as concentration
risk, participants consider how the family frames the question, whose interests matter, what the
capital is meant to accomplish, what credible alternatives exist, and what would cause the decision to
be revisited.
Participants learn to:
-
Surface the non-technical factors shaping an investment decision
-
Clarify what the capital is meant to accomplish, protect, or make possible
-
Identify whose interests and time horizons matter
-
Move from advocacy to selection among credible alternatives
-
Make tradeoffs explicit and establish when the decision should be revisited
Participants leave with a practical discipline for helping families understand the decision, own the tradeoffs, and know when to revisit it.
Relevant for: family offices, investment committees, CIOs and investment teams, trustees, family members, wealth advisors, and other family-office professionals.
Typical format: 45-90 minutes, from conference presentation to interactive workshop.
CORE IDEA
Approval is not ownership.
A family can approve a recommendation without fully understanding what it has decided, what tradeoffs it has accepted, or what would cause it to reconsider.
LEADERSHIP TRANSITION WORKSHOP
Preparing Future Leaders Through Past Decisions
Retrospective Decision Mapping for Leadership Transition
Succession often transfers titles and responsibilities before it transfers judgment.
Retrospective Decision Mapping uses a consequential past decision to make some of that accumulated judgment more visible. Participants reconstruct how the decision actually unfolded: what was considered, who was involved, what information and relationships mattered, where authority sat, what remained uncertain, and where people understood the same events differently.
The mapping process is the same in every setting. The decision can be drawn from the group’s own
experience or from a case adapted to the audience.
The group then turns that history into requirements for future leadership.
Participants work to:
-
Reconstruct a consequential decision in a neutral sequence
-
Surface the judgment contributed by the current leader
-
Identify the information, experience, relationships, and authority boundaries that shaped the decision
-
Examine where participants understood the same decision differently
-
Translate those observations into requirements for the next comparable decision and the leadership
transition
The process can help clarify which decisions a future leader might begin owning now, what should
trigger consultation or escalation, and which future decisions could provide supervised practice for
building judgment. It also leaves the group with a framework that can be reused as succession
unfolds.
Succession is partly the transfer of decision capacity. The objective is to make enough of that
capacity visible that it can be developed, shared, and gradually handed off.
Relevant for: founders, next-generation leaders, family enterprises, family offices, boards, and advisory teams preparing for leadership transition or changes in decision authority.
Format options: 75-90 minute workshop, half-day facilitated session, or customized in-house program for leadership teams, boards, or family groups.
CORE IDEA
Titles transfer faster than judgment.
A successor can hold the role without knowing which decisions are now theirs, which still require
consultation, and what the last leader was actually weighing.
Adapting a Program for Your Group
Each program can be adapted to the audience and setting. A conference session may use a common case and focus on a small number of practical ideas. An internal workshop can allow more time for discussion, application, and connection to decisions the group is actually facing.
If one of these programs seems relevant to your organization, I would be glad to discuss the audience, the situation, and what would make the session useful.
Paul Edelman, PhD, PCC
Executive Coach & Family Enterprise Advisor
508-947-5300