SW AED Talent Pool Development Offers 2025 – Masterclass in Board-Level decision making
Development Offers 2025 – Masterclass in Board-Level decision making
To express your interest in this development offer, please complete the form here. Please note this offer is only available for the South West Aspirant Executive Director Talent Pool members. Registration will be confirmed via your acceptance to calendar invite for the training sent by the SW Leadership & Talent Team. As some development offers have limited slots, we cannot guarantee that you will receive all the offers you select, however a waitlist will be developed (where appropriate).
Invitation: Masterclass Workshop on Board-Level Decision Making
Tackling Real Issues. Building Real Capability.
Dear SW AED Talent Pool Members,
We are pleased to invite you to an intensive and highly practical masterclass workshop on board-level decision making Thursday 31 July, 9:30-16:30 in Taunton. This masterclass is designed specifically for aspiring executive directors seeking to enhance their impact and effectiveness in today’s increasingly complex environment.
Why this masterclass?
Board-level decision-making is both an art and a discipline — one that directly shapes the strategic direction, resilience, and success of organisations. However, many new and future board members step into these critical roles with insufficient training in how to make effective decisions at board level.
While individual expertise and leadership experience are valuable, board decisions require a unique skill set: balancing long-term vision with short-term realities, navigating ambiguity and complexity, and aligning diverse perspectives under pressure. Our work across sectors, especially in complex environments like the NHS, shows that boards often struggle not because of lack of intelligence or intent, but because they lack sufficiently structured and rigorous approaches to decision making.
Without targeted development, boards tend to default to maintaining the status quo and focusing their attention on urgent/today delivery issues — risking inertia of strategic goals just when adaptability is most needed. Our training equips future executive directors with the frameworks, tools, and practical experience to contribute and lead confidently and constructively, ensuring that boardrooms become places of real strategic leadership.
Our experience in developing senior leadership teams and boards has shown that real, lasting effectiveness depends on working at three key levels:
- The individual – understanding each board member’s strengths and leadership style.
- The team – developing the board as a cohesive unit, focusing on relationships, interdependencies, and dynamics.
- The organisational challenge – ensuring both the board and its members are equipped to meet the actual complexity and pressure of the issues they face.
In stable and predictable environments, the first two levels of leadership capability may be sufficient. However, in today’s rapidly changing and often unpredictable landscape – particularly within an organisation as complex and multifaceted as the NHS – the third level becomes essential.
This workshop is dedicated to developing that third level: equipping board members with the practical tools, techniques, and strategic frameworks needed to navigate the real-world, complex challenges they are likely to encounter. It also reinforces and builds upon the individual and team capabilities cultivated through the broader executive development programme, ensuring a cohesive and integrated approach to leadership in complexity.
What you’ll experience
This is a hands-on, high-engagement workshop using live and typical board-level issues.
You will:
- Consider how a board functions as a whole – where it might be strong, and where vulnerable.
- Determine a board’s ability to maintain the vital balance between stability and change – a balance we find is often missing, even in high-performing boards.
- Work through live strategic problems that your board or organisation is currently facing – with expert support and guidance throughout.
- Learn advanced approaches for handling complexity, specifically tailored for the kind of challenges leaders in the NHS and public sector are now expected to manage.
Our philosophy is simple: the best way to build effective boards is by working through actual problems together. This develops trust, cohesion, and the practical skills boards need to thrive in the long term.
*Please note that this session differs to the Board Simulation as this session has a stronger focus on Board-level decision making and problem solving, rather than a simulating being on a Board.
About the facilitators
The workshop will be delivered by consultants with deep experience working with executive leadership teams on business-critical issues. They have also delivered major projects in the NHS, working across integrated care systems, ICBs, and region-level transformation.
If you’re looking to build real board capability, solve real-world problems, and develop your decision-making skills in the face of complexity—this masterclass is for you.
Places are limited to ensure a high level of individual attention and interaction, so please register your interest today filling out this form here.
Further detail on the session, including potential agendas and pre-reading (where relevant) for each session will be sent individually closer to the event. If you have any questions, please contact the SW Leadership & Talent Team at [email protected].
Attendance and Cancellation Policy
Your commitment to attendance is crucial to the success and outcome of our events, as well as your continued personal development. Spaces are limited and non-attendance prevents others from benefiting from the opportunity.
We would like to ensure the workshops are a safe place for our learners to have open discussions and are therefore unable to record the sessions for you to catch up. As both our cohorts are expected to be fully booked, we are unable to move attendees around if they are no longer able to attend their chosen cohort dates.
We reserve the right to cancel or postpone an event should unexpected circumstances occur. Should an event need to be cancelled we will not be held responsible for any travel or accommodation that has been pre-booked by the attendee.
We are committed to looking at ways we can improve and develop our Leadership Development offers. Your feedback supports us and providers to ensure we are delivering the right interventions in the right way. As such, we would be grateful for your participation in any post-event follow-up & evaluation.