A one-day workshop for your teams
Critical thinking training for leaders
A recommendation can be clear, confident and well presented while leaving its most important assumption untested.
Good Judgment is a one-day workshop for leadership teams and experienced managers. Your team practises examining the reasoning behind an analysis, identifying what needs verification and deciding whether a recommendation is sound enough to act on.
Critical thinking runs through the workshop’s connected approach to framing problems, structuring analysis and reaching a decision. Participants apply that scrutiny to business recommendations, including work produced by AI.
Pricing on request for teams. An initial conversation, with no commitment.
Look closely at the reasoning
A leadership team may receive a market assessment, a business case or a transformation proposal that contains plenty of information. The challenge is to establish whether that information supports the action being recommended.
Which statements are facts? Which are interpretations? What has been assumed? Does the conclusion depend on a causal claim the analysis has not established?
This critical thinking training gives participants a practical way to examine those questions. You work through an executive case, discuss interpretations with colleagues and receive feedback on the reasoning you use.
The aim is to make your assessment precise enough to guide the next step: accept a conclusion, ask for a specific check or reconsider the proposed action.
Identify what is missing and what would change your mind
Participants practise separating a recommendation into elements they can examine:
- The question: is the analysis addressing the problem that needs to be solved?
- The evidence: what information supports the conclusion, and what are its limits?
- The assumptions: which beliefs carry the argument from the evidence to the recommendation?
- The missing checks: what could materially change the assessment?
- The decision: are the available grounds sufficient to act, given what remains uncertain?
These questions help the team move from a general feeling of confidence or doubt to a more useful discussion. A colleague can see exactly which part of the argument you accept, which part you question and why.
An example: does the evidence support the explanation?
Illustrative situation. A business report notes that customer retention improved after a new onboarding process was introduced. It recommends rolling out the process across the organisation, attributing the improvement to the change.
The sequence is worth examining. It does not establish on its own that the new process caused the improvement. The customers acquired during the period may have changed, or another initiative may have affected retention.
A useful review makes the next questions explicit. Were comparable groups observed? What else changed? Which evidence would strengthen or weaken the explanation?
The team then considers the recommendation in light of those questions. It may have enough grounds to proceed, need a targeted check or decide that the proposed action is premature. The review connects the strength of the evidence to the choice being made.
Apply the same scrutiny to AI-generated work
When AI contributes to an analysis, leaders still need to assess how the answer was reached. A plausible response may address the wrong question, hide an assumption or draw a stronger conclusion than the evidence supports.
During the workshop, AI-generated work provides material to examine. Participants review the problem framing, the structure of the argument and the proposed recommendation. They identify which elements can be used and which need verification or further work.
This is an application of judgement to the work in front of you. The exercises require no coding or technical AI background. Their focus is on evaluating the reasoning and deciding what to do with the answer.
Practise with feedback on a connected case
Good Judgment follows one executive case through five disciplines: framing, structuring, prioritising, synthesising, and challenging the answer before deciding.
That progression matters for critical thinking. It gives participants a basis for asking whether an answer addresses the right question, whether important parts of the problem have been missed and whether the conclusion follows from the analysis.
You alternate individual work, small-group discussion and feedback from Adrien Foucault. Participants compare their assessments, explain the checks they would request and examine what would lead them to revise their view.
A review checklist to use in your work
The programme includes a checklist for reviewing recommendations and AI-generated work. It sits alongside a problem-framing template, a structured problem-solving framework, a hypothesis and prioritisation method, and an executive synthesis format.
The checklist provides prompts for examining the question, assumptions, evidence and remaining uncertainty. It can help structure the review of a proposal or the preparation of questions for a leadership discussion.
At the end of the day, participants consider how to apply the approach to a question from their own work.
Led by Adrien Foucault
Adrien is a former McKinsey consultant and Harvard MBA. He advises senior leaders on strategy and transformation through Spaik, the firm he founded. He also lectures on AI in business at HEC Paris and Sciences Po.
The workshop draws on this experience of executive work and teaching. These credentials describe Adrien’s background; they do not imply institutional endorsement or partnership.
Bring the workshop to your team
The workshop is designed for 8–16 participants, with delivery in English or French, in person or online.
Customisation is available. We discuss your objectives and participants, agree the relevant adaptations and practical arrangements, and prepare a quote for your team.
It can support leadership development or a team’s need to examine business recommendations more carefully as AI becomes part of its work.
Frequently asked questions
Senior leaders, leadership teams and experienced managers who review analyses and make recommendations or decisions. L&D, HR and transformation leaders can arrange a session for their teams.
The Good Judgment workshop connects critical thinking with problem framing, structured analysis, prioritisation and clear communication. Participants work through one executive case and examine its recommendations as the day progresses.
AI-generated work is used as material to examine during the day. The underlying questions also apply to recommendations written by colleagues or external advisers: does the reasoning hold, what is missing and what should be checked?
Yes. We discuss your needs and agree the scope of any adaptations before the session. The workshop can be delivered in English or French, in person or online.
Yes. Select “For myself” in the enquiry form to register your interest in future open sessions.
A workshop for your company
Give your team time to examine how it reaches a conclusion
Tell us about the recommendations your leaders need to assess and the capabilities you want to develop. We will discuss the workshop and prepare a quote.