What Leaders Say About the Work

The Situation

A managing director at a Singapore-based regional firm had been navigating a question about organisational structure for several months. The question had been discussed internally but had stalled, partly because the leader was uncertain whether the question itself had been framed correctly.

The Engagement

The leader prepared a short note, and the Veranda Conversation took place over two hours at a quiet setting near the harbour. The conversation focused on the framing of the question rather than its resolution. The written reflection, delivered within ten days, offered three alternative framings and a set of considerations for each.

The Outcome

The leader re-presented the question to the internal team using one of the alternative framings offered in the reflection. The subsequent internal conversation moved further in two sessions than it had in the preceding four months. The engagement cost SGD 210.

The Situation

A leadership team at a professional services firm in Singapore was carrying a question about how decisions moved across their commercial and delivery functions. The question had been noted in two successive annual reviews but had not been examined directly.

The Engagement

Over six weeks, the Brizmar consultant conducted structured conversations with eight team members across levels and observed three working sessions. The pavilion document mapped the question across the commercial and delivery functions, identifying four specific points where the question was most active.

The Outcome

The team used the pavilion document as the basis for a restructured decision-making protocol across the two functions. The closing review was, in the team leader's words, "the most direct conversation we have had about this in three years." The engagement cost SGD 760.

The Situation

A chief executive at a Singapore-based privately held enterprise wanted an outside presence through a year in which several significant strategic questions were likely to surface. She was not looking for advisory or strategy support — she wanted a consistent outside voice that would sit with her through the year's thinking.

The Engagement

The Year of Open Air Counsel arrangement provided monthly half-day sessions, four quarterly written reflections, and quiet availability between sessions. The consultant accompanied the CEO through a range of questions — some anticipated, some not — without attempting to resolve or direct any of them.

The Outcome

The CEO renewed the arrangement for a second year. She described the four quarterly reflections as "a record of a year's thinking that I will return to" and the monthly sessions as "the one conversation in the month that I do not have to manage." The arrangement continues at SGD 1,265 per month.