High-stakes leadership facilitation
Turn your next high-stakes meeting into a clear, committed decision.
I design and run the meetings where leadership teams make their hardest decisions, on their own or together with the stakeholders and customers who matter most. Worked out on the wall, not presented on slides.
Leadership Meetings & Offsites · High‑stakes Decision Meetings
Customer & Partner Summits · Customer Advisory Boards
Dr. Stefan Schaefer, founder of Visual Pathfinders
The room nods. By Friday, the decision is open again.
You have seen it. Smart people, a full agenda, a good discussion. Then the meeting ends without a decision anyone owns.
The team agrees in the room and disagrees in the hallway. The next meeting picks up where the last one started.
It is rarely a talent problem. The conversation was never built to end in a decision.
Decide faster. Align better. Work smarter.
Decide faster
Before the day, we agree on the real question. Not the safe one. We also agree who must be in the room to make the decision and own it. So the meeting spends its time deciding.
Align better
No endless slide decks. Your team works on large walls, and I draw what they say as they say it. Differences show up early, in front of everyone, while there is still time to settle them.
Work smarter
You leave with a decision, an owner for each next step, and a picture the whole team helped draw. A plan that sticks, because people support what they help build.
Structured Visual Thinking · Strategic Co-Creation · Design-centric facilitation
Four ways to work with me
Leadership Pathfinder
Leadership team meetings
Offsites and team sessions for senior teams where trust is thin and decisions do not stick. We work on how you disagree, decide and follow through.
Decision Pathfinder
High-stakes decision meetings
Strategy offsites, board preparation, transformation workshops. I design the meeting around the decision and run it, so you leave with owners and next steps.
Partnership Pathfinder
Customer and partner sessions
Executive roundtables, partner strategy sessions and joint innovation workshops. A real dialogue, not a presentation, so you leave knowing what they need from you.
Partnership Pathfinder
Customer advisory boards
I design, prepare, facilitate and visualize customer advisory boards. Your customers share feedback and help shape shared priorities.
From DHL Express via HP/HPE/DXC to Visual Pathfinders
I spent nearly eight years at DHL Express, last as VP Global IT Strategy and Planning, followed by a short step as a management consultant. Then I learned this work at Hewlett-Packard's Executive Briefing Center in Silicon Valley. I helped build a global practice there that ran strategy sessions for Fortune 500 leadership teams. I carried that work on through HPE and DXC as Managing Partner.
100+
Strategy engagements
36
Industries
5
Continents
"What we accomplished in one day with your facilitation would have taken us at least a year of discussions in our standard way of doing business."
Meeting attendee
"It was a cathartic experience – you forced us to have the honest and truly relevant discussions we had actively avoided for a very long time."
Meeting attendee
Questions leaders ask me
Will this deliver results, or will it be another nice workshop?
We agree on the question first. I design the session around it, so your team leaves with decisions, owners and next steps. Not with "good discussions".
What kinds of situations do you help with?
Moments when a leadership team has to decide, agree on a direction or get through a hard change. Often with little time. Typical examples are strategy offsites, board preparation, partner and customer sessions, transformation workshops and customer advisory boards.
What makes your approach different?
Two things. I make the discussion visible on the wall, so the room argues with what it sees, not what it imagines. And the team builds the answer together, so the team owns it.
How will working with you feel?
Different from the first minute. No endless PowerPoint decks, no rigid furniture, no default meeting routines. It is calm and focused, with room for humor. I sometimes call myself a "company therapist". The solution is almost always in the room. I help you bring it to the surface.
Will this work for my team, given our politics and history?
Yes, if your team is ready to talk openly. I have worked with leadership teams in 36 industries, and no two are alike. If your team is not ready for that kind of dialogue, this format is not the right fit yet.
Is it expensive?
Compared with an off-the-shelf workshop, yes. Every session is designed for your question and your team. The better question is what it costs when a decision stays open for another quarter. Our first conversation finds out whether my approach fits, and what success would look like.
Where do you work?
I am based near Cologne, Germany, and I work with teams around the world, in person or virtually. The location affects travel costs and the total price.
Do you work alone?
Most of my work I deliver myself. For larger sessions I bring in trusted colleagues I have worked with for years. We decide that together once the scope is clear.
How do we start?
Tell me about your next high-stakes meeting. I want to understand the decision you need, what good looks like for you, and the context you work in. Then we set up a 30-minute call.
Your next high-stakes meeting could end in a decision.
Tell me what is on the table. We will find out together whether I can help.