Better Decisions Begin Before the Decision
Is your organization paying for decisions it could have influenced earlier?
Organizations depend on people to make consequential decisions every day, often under significant and increasing pressure.
Yet they often don’t see what’s shaping those decisions until the consequences become visible.
A problem wasn’t surfaced.
A concern wasn’t escalated.
A small compromise became a larger one.
A team continued down a path that was no longer working.
By the time the problem is visible, opportunities to influence the decision may have already passed.
What if you could see more earlier?
The decision itself rarely begins at the moment of choice.
Long before someone decides what to do, pressure, beliefs, perceived stakes, identity, and their environment are shaping what they see, what feels possible, and what they believe they need to do.
Most organizations have systems designed to detect what people do.
My work helps organizations recognize more of what’s shaping those decisions, creating more opportunities to influence what happens next.
Recognize more. Intervene earlier. Decide better.
I help organizations move further upstream by focusing on three areas:
Decision Architecture
Recognize what’s shaping the person making the decision.
Decision Environment
Shape the conditions surrounding consequential decisions.
Decision Foundation
Equip people to choose more deliberately under pressure.
Together, they create more visibility, earlier opportunities for intervention, and better decisions when the stakes are high.
From Inside the Decision Itself
I understand consequential decision-making from a perspective few people have access to:
From inside the decision itself and its consequences.
As a trusted employee, I made a series of increasingly compromised decisions that led to an $800,000 fraud against a Fortune 100 company, a federal conviction, and two years in prison.
For more than a decade, I’ve been examining one question:
Why did I sacrifice so much for so little?
That inquiry became a body of work exploring what shapes consequential decisions before they become visible from the outside.
Today, I bring that work into organizations through speaking engagements, workshops, and leadership sessions.
Bring the Work Into Your Organization
Recognize more of what’s shaping consequential decisions, create conditions that support better ones, and equip people to choose more deliberately under pressure.
Speaking Engagements • Workshops • Leadership Sessions
Bringing the Work Into Organizations
Craig’s work explores a question every organization depends on: What shapes the decisions people make when the stakes are high? By examining the pressures, beliefs, perceived stakes, identity, and environments shaping consequential decisions before they become visible from the outside, he helps organizations recognize more, intervene earlier, and create more opportunities for better decisions.
Where The Work Began
Blank Canvas is a memoir about success, self-deception, collapse, consequence, and rebuilding.
Recognized by James Altucher as one of the most impactful hybrid books he has ever recommended.
My story provides the context.
The questions it forced me to ask became the foundation of my work.
Recent Writing
Identity. Decision-Making. Self-Authorship. Human Behavior.
Explore essays and reflections on the hidden forces shaping our lives and the choices that create them.
The Latest from Craig
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Mid-Life Reinvention Requires a Personal Recipe
I love to cook. I do about 98% of the cooking in the house. I’m average at best, but learning. The picture above is Mediterranean Chicken with artichokes, smoked olives, asparagus, over orzo. I still need to work on my presentation skills, one thing at a time. I’m focusing on flavor…
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The Journey To My Authentic Self Began Here
One of my deepest fears, and greatest desires, has always been the same: To be seen and heard. I’m collaborating with a visionary thinker to delve deeper into the intellectual property I’ve developed as I craft my second book. I want to serve the reader by exploring all avenues and seeing…
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You Built A “Successful” Life. How About An Authentic One?
There’s a lot of chatter about our authentic selves, but I haven’t seen a definition of it that I connect with. So I went into my creative sandbox, and created my own definition of authentic self: Our authentic selves are the unlived lives within us that we sacrificed on the altar…
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You Chased the Dream. Now You’re Empty. What Comes Next?
The weather in the Northeast was outstanding last week, and I decided to take full advantage by going to the beach. Thankfully, it’s a short drive. There’s nothing like sitting on the beach in Connecticut outside the “normal” season. I sat at the edge of the beach right before the amazing…
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Stop Chasing the Result—This Is Where Fulfillment Actually Lives
We’re taught to live from one accomplishment to the next. It’s part of our conditioning. I love a good “To-Do” list, but it’s a reinforcement of a belief that limits our potential and reduces our sense of happiness and joy to intermittent bursts of dopamine. The belief is that accomplishment is…
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How to Reclaim Agency in Your Life’s Second Act
“An empty coffee pot left on the coffee maker will shatter and hurt you.” I remember, but I can’t recall where I heard this as a kid, but it stuck with me. So much so that every morning, after I pour the last drop, I turn the machine off and place…
As Seen On
