MASTERCLASSES
A masterclass is not a longer keynote, it is a different, deeper kind of work.
Where a keynote delivers a thesis to an audience, a masterclass puts that thesis to work with the people in the room.
The frameworks are applied to real situations. Questions are asked, not just implied and the thinking developed in the session is owned by the group by the time it ends, not carried away as a takeaway to be implemented later, but tested, adapted, and embedded in how the group already thinks.
These sessions are for senior leadership groups who want to do more than hear. They want to think.
The Two Masterclasses
Leadership Under Pressure: Applied
The distinction from the keynote: The keynote addresses the thesis. This session works it. Participants leave not just with a framework but having applied it to their own context, their own team, and the specific pressures they are currently carrying.
What this covers
- How pressure shapes leadership behaviour — the patterns that emerge, the ones that help, and the ones that silently undermine trust and decision quality when stakes are high.
- Application to the room's context. What sustained pressure looks like in this organisation, this team, this sector — where the patterns are visible and how they are being managed.
- Practical tools for staying present, decisive, and credible under pressure — built in the session, not delivered to it.
- Shared language. A common vocabulary for talking about pressure and its effects on leadership that teams can use in real time.
Format: Teaching segments alternating with structured group work. Small group discussions followed by whole-room synthesis. Live application exercises using real situations rather than hypotheticals.
What groups leave with: A shared understanding of how pressure affects their specific team and context. Practical tools they have already used once before leaving the room. Language for conversations about pressure and performance that the team needs to have and rarely does.
Suited to: Senior leadership teams on offsites or strategy days. Leadership development programmes for executive populations. Teams navigating change, growth, or sustained operational pressure.
Critical Decision Making: Applied
The distinction from the keynote: The keynote names the problem. This session builds the practice. Participants work through their own decision-making patterns, examine real decisions using the framework, and leave with a shared approach to making better calls as a team.
What this covers
- Decision patterns — how the group actually makes decisions versus how it thinks it does. The structural conditions that help or hinder good judgement.
- The decision framework applied to real decisions — surfacing assumptions, mapping consequences, and stress-testing conclusions.
- Building shared criteria for good judgement at this level in this organisation — a specific, agreed definition the team can use when the next significant call arrives.
- The conditions under which this team's decision-making breaks down — named honestly without blame, as a shared diagnostic.
Format: Structured teaching combined with live decision review and small group application work. Facilitated to create enough psychological safety for honest examination and enough rigour to produce real conclusions.
What groups leave with: A clearer shared decision framework already used before leaving the room. An honest picture of where decision-making in the group is strong and where it is vulnerable. And agreed criteria for what good looks like — language that travels into the next significant decision.
Suited to: Executive teams preparing for periods of significant decision-making. Leadership groups on strategy days or offsites. Boards reviewing their effectiveness and decision quality. Senior teams navigating transitions, restructures, or capital decisions.
Design and delivery
How masterclasses are built
Every masterclass is designed in response to the group's context. The framework is consistent. The application is specific to what the group is carrying.
Before the session I want to understand: Who is in the room? What are they navigating? What do they need to leave with? What has already been tried?
From there, I design the session backwards from those outcomes — not forward from a template.
Two hours at the minimum. Four hours for groups who want to go deeper. Half-day formats available for leadership programmes that want to integrate the session into a broader day.
Most effective with 12–30 participants. Larger groups possible with adjusted facilitation design.
In person strongly preferred. Virtual delivery available for groups with logistical constraints.
How this differs from Executive Offsites
Masterclasses are facilitated learning experiences. Executive Offsites are facilitated advisory sessions.
The distinction matters. A masterclass builds shared capability and shared language. An offsite works on live decisions, live tensions, and the specific strategic or organisational challenges the team is navigating.
For teams who want both, a common structure is a masterclass in the morning and structured working time on live challenges in the afternoon. That combination is available on request.
If you share the context, group size, and what you want the team to leave with, I will confirm whether this format fits and what the right design looks like.
Enquire about a masterclass