Executive Education

Building Judgment Under Uncertainty

Executive education programs for senior leaders navigating complex decisions

Where John has taught executive education

John Austin, PhD designs executive education programs that help senior leaders strengthen judgment, make sound decisions, and lead with confidence in uncertain environments.

Signature Programs

Each program blends research-based insight and real-world application to help leaders build judgment that holds up beyond the classroom. Below are John’s most requested executive education programs.

In an era of unprecedented volatility, executives must master the art of managing uncertainty rather than eliminating it. This 3-hour workshop equips senior leaders with a systematic approach to pressure-testing strategic decisions against multiple plausible futures, while continuously monitoring the evolving relationships between key uncertainties that shape their industry. Participants begin by experiencing an immersive simulation in one of nine possible futures, forcing them to grapple with both immediate tactical adjustments and long-term strategic pivots. The session shows how AI tools can democratize sophisticated scenario planning by dramatically speeding up the process. Leaders will generate comprehensive future scenarios in under 30 minutes, a process that previously required months of consultant time and substantial financial investment. Leaders leave with practical frameworks to embed uncertainty monitoring into their ongoing decision-making processes, ensuring their organizations remain resilient and adaptable in the face of constant change.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Use AI-powered tools to generate comprehensive future scenarios in under 30 minutes, dramatically accelerating the strategic planning process
  • Pressure-test current strategic decisions against multiple plausible futures to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities
  • Design an ongoing uncertainty monitoring system that tracks evolving relationships between key industry uncertainties
  • Distinguish between tactical adjustments and strategic pivots when responding to emerging future conditions

Rapid and regular organizational change is the new normal in many industries today. Simply put, managing change is a core skill needed across the globe in the present and the future. Today’s managers are not only are being asked to help drive change initiatives within their organizations, they are also increasingly expected to demonstrate personal acumen in change management. This session is designed to provide skills for the manager while also offering guidance for how to develop the change capabilities of their work team. This session is highly interactive and focuses on making change leadership relevant to each participant’s own organizational and career needs. Participants in this session will learn practical actions that they can consider to keep specific change initiatives moving and to also help make their organizations more resilient in the face of change. This session will be modified to address the core change needs of the audience.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Apply a structured framework for diagnosing where specific change initiatives are stalling and identify targeted actions to restore momentum
  • Assess their own change leadership strengths and development areas to enhance personal effectiveness during organizational transitions
  • Implement practical techniques to build change capability within their teams, creating more adaptive and resilient work units
  • Create a personalized action plan connecting change leadership concepts to their immediate organizational and career challenges

With the increasing speed of change, uncertainty, and complexity in today’s world, the ability to anticipate external shifts in the environment is more important than ever. This workshop will help your leaders improve their strategic foresight skills by offering tools for tracking trends, creating deep understandings of possible industry futures, and stress testing current initiatives against shifting contexts. It will include practical action items for helping your leaders see environmental shifts before others and set proactive, rather than reactive, strategies. Your leaders will leave the workshop with a deep understanding of the long-term possibilities of your industry and techniques they can use with their own teams to strengthen foresight and strategic thinking skills.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Recognize cognitive blind spots that limit strategic sensemaking and apply techniques to counteract them
  • Distinguish high-impact trend shifts from short-term noise using systematic filtering criteria
  • Facilitate team conversations that shift from attempting to predict the future toward anticipating and monitoring multiple plausible futures
  • Stress-test near-term initiatives against future uncertainties to design more resilient strategic actions

Most models of team performance assume tomorrow will look like today. How can your team thrive when the world around them is constantly shifting? Participants work through a team expertise tool as a framework for developing team process skills that allows their team to shift as the world shifts. The class uses the team situated expertise assessment to design and align teams to meet their unique immediate and future needs. The disciplined task/expertise/person framework often resonates with results-focused, quantitatively-oriented executives.  The situated expertise model is an excellent way to insert team dynamics into a program for participants who may be wary of “soft” skill training. This session draws from Dr. Austin’s seminal research on harnessing team expertise to drive superior performance.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Apply the situated expertise assessment to diagnose their team’s current capabilities and alignment gaps
  • Use the task/expertise/person framework to match team composition and processes to both immediate deliverables and anticipated future demands
  • Design team structures and processes that enable continuous adaptation as external conditions shift
  • Identify specific interventions to harness underutilized expertise within their existing teams

All programs are customized to your audience and aligned to your organization’s strategic goals.

Bring Clarity to Your Executive Program

Equip leaders to navigate uncertainty and make sound decisions in complex environments.