LIVE COHORT · STARTS WED 18 NOV
Learn to frame a project before the first gate.
Most project training teaches you to manage a project once it exists. Ours teaches you to define it first, so it reaches approval with a clear purpose and a team behind it. Join the live November cohort with one real project of your own. Enrollment closes Sat 14 Nov.
OPEN COHORT
Opportunity Framing Practitioner
A live cohort of nine labs for consultants, project leaders, sponsors and facilitators who shape projects before they start. You bring one real project and work on it every week. By the end you have a finished frame for it and a method you can repeat. You will also know when a project needs an experienced facilitator, and you can bring us in.
Wilson.biz can invoice your employer or work with a purchase order. Come to the first lab. If it's not right, I'll refund you in full.
WHO IT'S FOR
The independent consultant
Wants a framing method to use with their own clients, and an experienced facilitator to call on for the complex ones.
The accidental facilitator
A project or study manager, or an in-house advisor in risk, HSE or operations, told to "run a workshop" next month.
The governance owner
VP Projects or PMO lead who needs projects to reach the gate ready to decide.
The consulting firm
Engineering, project controls or advisory firms that want their people to frame client projects the same way.
9 live labs
Wednesdays 8–10 am CT, 2 hours each
PATH
4 phases · 12 steps · 11 tools
18 Nov
to 3 Feb. Enrollment closes Sat 14 Nov
THE METHOD
PATH: four phases, always in this order
P
Prepare
The right people, the right information and a session designed around the decision.
A
Analyze
Clarify the opportunity, define value and set the boundaries.
T
Target
Agree what success looks like, sequence the decisions and screen real options.
H
Handle
A roadmap to the next gate with key deliverables, dates, a stakeholders map and actions.
WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
Finished work, and a method you can repeat
1
Your completed frame
Opportunity statement, value drivers, boundaries, success measures and the decision hierarchy, with options scored against agreed criteria, for a real piece of your work.
2
A roadmap to the next gate
What happens next, when and by whom, and the evidence the next decision will need.
3
A workshop agenda and script
From the facilitation lab, for straightforward framing sessions. For complex ones, you can bring Wilson.biz in to co-facilitate.
4
The PATH workbook
All the tools, templates and worked examples, yours to keep and reuse.
THE SCHEDULE · EVERY LAB RECORDED · HOLIDAY BREAK 17 DEC – 5 JAN
Nine live labs, 18 November to 3 February
WED 18 NOV
Prepare: set up the conversation
Choose your opportunity and map who needs to be in the room.
WED 2 DEC
Analyze: understand the context
Sort the issues into givens, assumptions, risks and decisions.
WED 9 DEC
Analyze: value and boundaries
Write the opportunity statement, define value drivers, agree what’s in and out.
WED 16 DEC
Target: success and measures
Agree what success looks like and how you’ll measure it.
WED 6 JAN
Target: decisions and options
Build the decision hierarchy and score real alternatives.
WED 13 JAN
Handle: align stakeholders
Test the frame with the people who must support it.
WED 20 JAN
Handle: build the roadmap
What happens next, when and by whom. Complete the frame.
WED 27 JAN
Facilitation lab
Practice running a PATH workshop. Leave with an agenda and script.
WED 3 FEB
Capstone
Present your frame and roadmap and get feedback.
AFTER THE COHORT
Learn the method. Bring us in when the stakes are high.
The method and templates take you a long way on most projects. Complex, political or high-stakes projects also need advanced facilitation, which takes years to build. So graduates don't have to go in alone: you lead, and Wilson.biz facilitates alongside you.
TEAMS AND FIRMS
Private framing cohort
The Practitioner program for 6 to 10 people from one organization, using your own projects as the cases and illustrative examples. Your team leaves with frames for its live projects and one shared way of starting the next ones.
Or: block seats in the open cohort
YOUR TRAINER
Iwona Wilson
Iwona learned to frame capital projects on the front end of major projects at Woodside in Perth, and has since worked on projects in the UK, Australia and the US. She runs every lab herself and gives feedback on your frame each week.
QUESTIONS
Will I be able to facilitate on my own?
On most projects, yes: you'll have the method, the templates and a session agenda you've practiced. Complex or high-stakes projects also need advanced facilitation. For those, you can bring Wilson.biz in to co-facilitate.
What if I miss a lab?
Every lab is recorded, and you can catch up before the next one.
Does this replace our gate process?
No. Every gate process assumes the right problem was framed before Gate 1. None of them teach you how. Framing works with whatever process you use.
Is there a self-paced option?
The self-paced course, Mastering the Decision Gate Process, teaches the gate process, not framing. You can take it alongside the cohort or on its own.