A one-day workshop for your teams
Strategic problem solving training for leaders
Before your team commissions another analysis, it needs a clear view of the problem it is trying to solve.
Good Judgment is a one-day workshop for leadership teams and experienced managers. Participants practise turning complex business situations into clear questions, testing hypotheses and focusing on the evidence that could change a decision.
Structured problem solving is a central part of the workshop. Your team follows one connected executive case from the initial question through to a recommendation it can explain.
Pricing on request for teams. An initial conversation, with no commitment.
Give the analysis a clear purpose
A growth plan is falling short. A transformation is proving harder than expected. A business unit has more possible initiatives than it can reasonably pursue.
Each situation can generate a long list of things to investigate. Without a precise question, it becomes difficult to judge which work matters, what belongs together or when the team has enough evidence to recommend an action.
This problem solving training gives leaders time to practise the steps that make an investigation useful: define the problem, break it into answerable questions, form an initial hypothesis and decide what to examine first.
The approach is relevant to the people who conduct an analysis and to the leaders who commission and review it.
Frame the question before building the answer
Participants begin by distinguishing a broad business concern from the specific problem they need to address. They clarify the decision, the scope of the work and what is already known.
This changes the questions that follow. A concern about weak growth could lead to an investigation of demand, customer acquisition, retention or delivery capacity. The starting frame determines what evidence the team looks for and what it may overlook.
During the workshop, you compare different ways of framing a situation and examine how each would direct the analysis.
Build a structure you can test
An issue tree is a map of the questions an investigation needs to answer. It helps the team see how individual lines of analysis contribute to the overall problem.
You practise building a simple structure, checking it for gaps and overlaps, and choosing categories that help answer the question. This is the practical use of MECE thinking: examining whether the parts of an analysis fit together coherently.
Your colleagues then test the structure. What is missing? Which questions overlap? Is a branch interesting but unlikely to affect the decision? Their feedback helps you revise the plan before committing more effort to it.
An example: where should the team investigate first?
Illustrative situation. A business has entered a new market, but growth is below expectations. One proposal is to increase marketing expenditure. Another is to change the offer.
The team first asks where the shortfall appears: reaching potential customers, converting interest into purchases or retaining customers after the first sale. It then identifies what would need to be true for each proposed action to help.
If the main hypothesis concerns conversion, the next useful investigation may examine why qualified prospects decline. If customers leave soon after buying, the investigation will need a different focus.
The purpose of the structure is to make those choices explicit. It gives the team a reason for selecting its first analyses and a way to explain what the findings would change.
Use hypotheses to focus the work
A hypothesis gives the investigation direction and something to challenge. Participants practise stating what would support their initial view and what would lead them to abandon it.
You then choose the analyses with the greatest bearing on the decision. The workshop uses 80/20 thinking to help focus effort, while examining what a shortcut could miss.
This is a practical exercise in prioritisation. You explain why one question deserves attention before another, what evidence you would seek and how the answer would affect your recommendation.
One case, with practice and feedback throughout
The Good Judgment programme connects five disciplines: framing, structuring, prioritising, synthesising, and challenging the answer before deciding.
Individual thinking, small-group work and instructor feedback give participants opportunities to compare and improve their reasoning. As the case develops, the team turns its findings into a concise recommendation. AI-generated analysis becomes material to examine along the way.
The programme includes a problem-framing template, a structured problem-solving framework, a hypothesis and prioritisation method, an executive synthesis format and a recommendation review checklist. 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. Through Spaik, the firm he founded, he advises senior leaders on strategy and transformation. He also lectures on AI in business at HEC Paris and Sciences Po.
Good Judgment draws on that experience in consulting, executive work and teaching. These credentials describe Adrien’s background; they do not imply institutional endorsement or partnership.
Arrange the workshop for your team
The workshop runs over one day for 8–16 participants, in person or online, with delivery available in English or French.
Customisation is available. We discuss your objectives, the participants and the relevant adaptations before agreeing the scope and practical arrangements. Team pricing is provided by quotation.
Frequently asked questions
Leadership teams, senior managers and experienced professionals working on strategy, transformation and other complex business questions. L&D and leadership development teams can arrange a session for a group of 8–16 people.
Tools such as problem framing, issue trees, hypotheses and prioritisation are applied to an executive case. Each tool serves a specific purpose in the investigation, with opportunities to test it and receive feedback.
Tell us about it during the initial conversation. We can discuss possible adaptations and agree how your context can inform the workshop.
Yes. It can be delivered in person or online, in English or French. We agree the practical arrangements with your team.
You can register your interest to hear about future open sessions. Select “For myself” in the enquiry form.
A workshop for your company
Bring a shared approach to your team’s next problem
Tell us about the questions your team faces and the skills you want to develop. We will discuss the workshop and prepare a quote.