WORKSHOPS
Half a Day. A Team That Thinks Differently.
These are not sit-and-listen presentations. They are working sessions where your people wrestle with real problems, walk out with real frameworks, and start Monday with a different lens on the business.
WORKSHOPS
Business owners already know something is off. The team is not performing the way they need it to. The wrong people are in the wrong seats. New hires are walking out the door before they ever hit their stride. There is no scoreboard, or nobody is looking at it.
They know. They just have not carved out the time to actually do something about it.
That is where these workshops come in. Each one is a half-day, on-site working session built around a specific problem. Peer groups, HR teams, and trade associations bring me in because their members need more than a keynote. They need a room where hard conversations happen, tools get built, and people leave with something they can actually use.
The goal is straightforward. You walk in carrying a problem. You walk out with a framework to solve it.
FEATURED WORKSHOP
BREAKING THE TALENT TRAP
You do not have a hiring problem. You have a seeing problem.
Leaders believe they have a solid team. A few A-Players driving things forward, a couple of underperformers they already know about, and a reliable middle holding it together. If that sounds right to you, this workshop will be uncomfortable. In a good way.
Breaking the Talent Trap is a half-day working session built around one question: do you actually know who is performing on your team, or do you just think you do?
Through the lens of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the Cultural Fit x Productivity framework, and the eight behaviors that separate A-Players from everyone else, this session forces honest, data-driven answers. No gut feelings. No lemon-colored glasses. Just clarity about the team you actually have, not the one you hope you have.
What You Will Work Through
- Why leaders consistently overrate their teams (and what is wiring them to do it)
- The four talent profiles hiding in plain sight: A-Players, Safe-Players, B-Players, and Non-Players
- How to chart your team using Cultural Fit x Productivity
- What B-Players are actually costing you (the number is bigger than you think)
- The specific behaviors that define A-Players and how to build a culture that attracts more of them
- Core values as a magnet, not a poster on the wall
What They Will Leave With
- A completed team chart. A clear picture of where the gaps are. And a straight answer to the question every owner eventually has to face: do I have the team I deserve?
Best Fit For
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Business owners, leadership teams, peer groups, HR and people operations leaders.
FEATURED WORKSHOP
HOW TO SURVIVE THE VALLEY OF DEATH
When the business hits a ceiling, Owners can feel it coming before it arrives. Revenue stalls. The team that got you here starts to show its cracks. Decisions that used to feel obvious suddenly feel heavy. That is not a strategy failure. That is the Valley of Death. And it is a natural part of every entrepreneurial climb.
This workshop is built around one truth that separates companies that scale from companies that stall: vision without execution is hallucination. Using case studies from LEGO and Webvan, the Stockdale Paradox, and the Pinnacle performance framework, this session helps business leaders name what valley they are in, understand what it takes to cross it, and build the operational discipline to come out the other side.
What You Will Work Through
- Mapping your current position on the entrepreneurial journey
- Identifying the top disruptors keeping you up at night
- Converting fears into facts using the Brutal Facts methodology
- Building a scoreboard that tells you if you are winning the week
- Understanding what your team chart reveals about your next ceiling
Best Fit For
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Peer groups, CEO roundtables, leadership teams, business associations.
FEATURED WORKSHOP
BUILDING THE SYSTEM THAT KEEPS YOUR BEST PEOPLE
The cost of a bad onboarding is not just a person who does not work out. It is the project that runs short. The bid you did not take. The customer relationship you are nursing because something slipped while you were understaffed. Most of the time, it had nothing to do with whether the person was right for the job.
One in five people hired are gone before day 45. And 82% of that turnover is preventable with a structured onboarding system. This workshop builds that system.
What You Will Work Through
- The six phases of a complete onboarding system, from pre-boarding through day 90
- What the first 14 days actually determine (and why most companies go completely silent at week two)
- How to build a Day 1 experience that answers every question a new hire is carrying before they have to ask
- The role of a peer mentor system and how to make it work without adding burden to your senior people
- How to identify your next leaders before they self-select out
What They Will Leave With
- A drafted onboarding framework for their next hire. Clarity on where the current system is breaking down. And one specific action they can take Monday morning.
Best Fit For
- Business owners in growth mode, operations and HR leaders, peer groups dealing with retention challenges.
What To Expect
Half a Day. On-Site. No Slides You Forget by Thursday.
These are working sessions, not presentations. Every workshop is built around exercises, honest group conversation, and tools your team builds in the room together. Nobody sits in the back and checks their phone. The work is the content.
Half-Day Format
Approximately 3.5 to 4 hours on-site
On-Site at Your Location
Your space, your team, zero travel logistics
Groups of 8 to 30
Sized for real conversation, not a lecture hall
Customizable Framing
Shaped to fit your audience, industry, and event format
Facilitated by Justin Shaffer
Certified Pinnacle Business Guide
Who Brings Justin In
Peer Groups
Your members have heard enough keynotes. They need a session where the content connects to their actual business, the conversation is honest, and they walk out with something real to use. These workshops are built for peer group energy.
HR and People Operations Teams
If you are responsible for building a team that performs, these sessions give your leadership a shared language, a shared framework, and a clear picture of where the gaps are. The Talent Trap workshop hits differently when an entire room of managers is charting their teams at the same time.
Trade and Business Associations
Your members are running real businesses with real people problems. A session that connects directly to their day-to-day is what separates your conference from one they have already forgotten. These workshops are built to land.
Ready to Book a Workshop?
If you are putting together a peer group agenda, planning a leadership offsite, or looking for the right session for your association’s next event, let us talk. A 30-minute call is all it takes to figure out if one of these is the right fit.