Good judgement is the most valued skill in the world. Our greatest concern when faced with difficult choices is the daunting sense we might be wrong. This is especially the case in an age of misinformation, polarization of views and exponential technological growth. We’re bombarded daily with opaque, inconsistent, contradictory and politically partisan ideologies that swamp, confuse and even anger us. When we don’t understand, we tend to imagine worst-case scenarios. The result is fear, and fear leads to bad decisions. With access to vast universes of data, we’re forced to figure out which facts are relevant, what questions we should ask, how to find the right counsel and who we can trust on what topics. Given all these forces, how do we make the right choices and prevent unintended, even disastrous consequences? This course provides the answers.

This seminar is eligible towards
The Redefining Leadership Certificate Program

CPABC is pleased to present the Redefining Leadership Certificate Program. This six-part program is designed primarily for middle and senior mangers who are seeking to ascend to a higher level of executive responsibility in today’s transformative, paradoxical, confusing business world. Lessons learned in a less frenetic business environment no longer work in today’s increasingly volatile, disruptive, unpredictable, hyper-competitive marketplace. Leadership must evolve and adapt to effectively deal with rapidly changing circumstances and black-swan events, which is why it’s continually redefined. The six seminars are:

• From Manager to Leader
• Strategic Foresight, Planning and Modeling
• Building Innovation Capability
• The Science of Fearless Decision Making
• Understanding the Human Condition
• Why Successful Companies Fail (and how to fix them)

Each seminar can be taken as a stand-alone course, but in order to qualify for the certificate, participants are required to complete all six titles. Titles will be offered across our Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter programs.

In business (and in life), we’re accountable for the decisions we make. Our decisions reflect who we are and the world in which we want to live. While we often think a decision gone wrong is just bad luck or misfortune, it’s usually the result of poor decision-making skills. No one is born with this essential capability; it’s learned by trial and error. While we like to think we resolve our problems sensibly and logically, decision making is largely an emotional process of evaluating disparate trade-offs – rarely is it governed by reason alone. And when our beliefs and values guide our choices, we seem less troubled by the risks. The best decision makers know what questions to ask, what tools to use and how to make intelligent bets.

Real-world decision making is informed by data selection, an awareness of the caveats, an understanding of the right tools and an appreciation of mathematical principles. But, inevitably, our innate biases, thinking traps and logical presumptions result in poor judgments. Science can tell us how to estimate probabilities but not what decision thresholds we can use with confidence. We need to reconcile the unavoidable tensions between how much information we should collect, the four critical dimensions of risk assessment, the pressure to be decisive and move forward, and the mounting expectations of significant stakeholders. And we need to better understand how to use AI in assessing risk and dealing with complexity as humans build and integrate hybrid systems into different ways of addressing their problems.

Jim Murray has advised over 600 senior decision makers in both public and private organizations during the last five decades – let him share that counsel with you in the most informative five hours you will ever spend on this fascinating topic. Supplemented by a 57-page workbook of notes and diagnostic tools.

• Judgement: Why we make so many poor decisions
• The batting average of successful decision makers
• Flaws that cause decision makers a short job tenure
• Simplification vs. complexity: Old-word vs. new world
• Where AI fits in the new paradigm: Truths & myths
• Hybrid (human/machine) systems in problem solving
• Diagnostic tools: Systems thinking & scenario planning 
• Seeing, defining and prioritizing “the bigger picture”
• Assembling and leading the right decision-making team
• The bubble of ignorance and iceberg of innocence
• Dealing with the fatal flaws that derail decision making
• A dictionary of cognitive biases that impair the process
• The essential ingredients for achieving optimal outcomes 
• Principles of counterfactual and probabilistic thinking
• The influence of diversity, trust, safety and inclusion
• Detecting and discerning the signals from the noise
• The minimal threshold of evidence needed to decide
• Decision-making tools: The trade-offs & consequences
• DM rules: Ranking and weighting multiple options
• Getting good advice: Caveats, options and questions
• Pareidolia: Finding the signals buried amidst the noise
• Case studies: Crisis decision making – what would you do? 
• Risk tolerance and assessment: De-risking and reframing
• Do’s and don’ts in using AI to compute risk thresholds
• The difference between the risk intelligent and risk averse 
• Improving decision outcomes: The questions you must ask 
• What to do when you’re not sure what you should do

While no pre-requisite is required to attend this seminar, it contains 0.5 hour of supplementary reading that must be completed. Note that the live instructional portion is 5 hours. Participants who complete this supplementary work may report the full 5.5 hours as verifiable CPD. The PD seminar will auto-populate the total eligible CPD hours on Online Services, including the supplementary time. If a participant does not complete this, they must reduce the reported CPD hours accordingly.

Live webinars have varying levels of expected interaction, with some requiring microphone and camera capabilities to support a proper learning experience – please email pdreg@bccpa.ca if you have concerns. 

In general, we encourage participants to have their cameras turned on to enhance their virtual learning experience. This practice promotes a stronger connection with the instructor and fellow participants, and fosters improved communication and collaboration.

Live Webinar FAQs can be found here.  

Registration terms and conditions, including the cancellation policy can be found here. If you require further assistance, please contact the PD Department.