New Zealand

Empower your leaders to make smarter, faster and more trusted decisions

 

In a world of tight budgets, time pressure, and public scrutiny, even the best intentioned decisions can go wrong. From poor infrastructure planning leading to water and road management problems, to misguided small business decisions, there is often a gap between what’s pragmatically possible and what we settle for.

Many of our biggest challenges arise not just from poor choices, but from a failure to imagine better alternatives. People are often unaware of what is possible. Even under difficult time and budget constraints: we repeat old patterns, overlook viable alternatives and substitute urgency for clarity.

Are we doomed to live this way? No! Viable alternatives often exist – but they depend on utilising a systematic framework for more discerning evidence and values based decision making. Business optimisation is not enough. What values are we optimising?

Transform good intentions into better outcomes

Debugging Decision Making is a fast paced, one day roundtable that helps participants uncover hidden assumptions, test values and avoid the traps that distort well intentioned choices. Participants in this inclusive roundtable use real-world case studies, open dialogue and a systematic decision framework to build stronger, more resilient decision habits. The result: turning good intentions into more possibilities for future actions, and better outcomes.

 

Led by Neil Jacobstein, an Aspen Institute moderator and technologist with decades of industry and government systems and seminar experience (full bio below).

“This program has equipped me with the skills to make informed, effective policy choices that genuinely reflect the needs and values of our communities. The comprehensive approach to integrating evidence with ethical considerations has profoundly enhanced my ability to contribute to the betterment of our society and country. I am confident that the knowledge gained will significantly impact my work in public service.”

– Nancy Lu, National List MP, Evidence Based Decision Making, May 2024

 

“This thought-provoking course gave me a practical framework I now apply in every leadership decision. A brilliant return on investment.”

– Evidence Based Decision Making Alumnus, November 2024 

 

Why it matters 

• The stakes are high. Every sector – from business and government to social impact and innovation – faces decisions made under pressure with incomplete information.

• The opportunity is real. A systematic decision making framework can improve performance, resilience, and public trust – whether leading a boardroom, project, or policy team.

Inside the day 

Through guided roundtable discussions, a systematic decision framework, and shared reflection, participants will:

• Identify recurring decision traps and patterns.

• Learn to surface hidden assumptions and frame problems more effectively.

• Explore how values and evidence work together to improve decision-making.

• Engage with a framework built from New Zealand and international experience.

Who should attend 

Leaders, managers, and community members who want to:

• Make better choices under complexity and constraint.

• Strengthen ethical and strategic decision making.

• Build the capacity to act with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Join us

Debugging Decision Making: A Framework for Improved Outcomes 

• Tuesday 24 February 2026, 9am – 6pm  

• In person at Taramea, Queenstown 

• Unrecorded, candid format – Chatham House Rule applies.

• Earlybird: $750 + GST (available until 31/12/2025); includes lunch
  Standard: $825 + GST (from 1/1/2026); includes lunch

• Limited to 24 people

Led by Neil Jacobstein – a founding AI faculty member and past President of Singularity University. He has extensive decision consulting experience in industry and government. Neil spent 15 years as a MediaX Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University where his work focused on augmented decision systems. Neil was appointed by the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Earth and Life Studies Committee, and worked on the Academy’s 2021 Strategic Plan. Neil is a Mentor to the New Voices Program at the Academy. He is an Enterprise Fellow at the University of Otago, a Henry Crown Fellow, and a founding Board Director and seminar moderator at the Aspen Institute in New Zealand. Neil has an inclusive moderating style. He communicates clearly in plain English, ensuring that seminar participant’s perspectives are honoured and common decision biases are addressed. Neil led three longer versions of this successful programme (Evidence and Values Based Decision Making), including one with Māori leadership and two with MPs from across the house at the Beehive. He is committed to creating a learning community, with more rational long term perspectives and better outcomes for participants.

In an age of AI-generated content, deepening social divides, and fast-shifting media landscapes, trust in the news is at an all-time low. Yet without a foundation of agreed-upon facts, how can we lead our businesses, our communities – and our democracy itself?

Part of the Aspen Institute New Zealand’s Critical Conversations programme, this Socrates Seminar brings leaders together from across sectors to ask: How can we navigate a world where truth is contested, and misinformation spreads faster than facts? What does “trust” look like when your customers, employees, and communities are all part of fragmented information bubbles? And what responsibility do leaders hold in sustaining spaces for truth, open dialogue, and shared understanding?

Moderated by Vivian Schiller, internationally renowned former media executive and current Aspen Institute Vice President and Executive Director of Aspen Digital, this immersive discussion invites CEOs, entrepreneurs, policymakers, community builders, and curious citizens to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and explore new ways forward for their organisations and society.

During the seminar, participants will: 

• Examine how the erosion of trust in news mirrors wider social and business challenges.

• Discuss your role as a leader in navigating misinformation, inside and outside your organisation.

• Connect with peers across sectors to ask what credible, trusted leadership looks like today.

• Leave with fresh perspectives to help you lead with integrity in a complex information landscape.

Key themes include: 

• The impact of AI on truth and trust

• Objectivity, bias, and how they shape trust in leaders

• Navigating media manipulation in the boardroom, newsroom, and beyond

• How shared facts underpin healthy societies and resilient businesses

“What made the Socrates Seminar so special was being in a room full of curious, respectful people willing to challenge each other in good faith—it pushed me to dig deeper, clarify my purpose, and commit to championing ideas that make a better world possible.”  

– Cristina Griffiths, Managing Director, Gibbston Valley Winery 

Seminar Details:

Date: 8 – 10 December 2025 (full schedule below)

Venue: ‘Taramea’ – Speargrass Flat Rd, Queenstown

Moderator: New York-based Vivian Schiller

Seminar fee: $1725 incl. GST (includes meals, excursion)

Seminar fee includes tuition, meals during the seminar, and an excursion. Accomodation packages are available on request.

Please contact us directly if you are a Not for Profit organisation or wish to apply for a Scholarship (NZ residents only).

Note: For IoD NZ members, the seminar can contribute to your annual quota of CPD points.

Join us to grapple with one of the biggest questions of our time: How do we rebuild trust in the news and each other?

Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as the Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organisations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world.

A longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology, Schiller has held executive roles at some of the most respected media organizations in the world. Those include: President and CEO of NPR; Global Chair of News at Twitter; General Manager of NYTimes.com; Chief Digital Officer of NBC News; Chief of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications; and Head of CNN documentary and long form divisions. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys.

Schiller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a Director of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian.

About Socrates Seminars 

Socrates seminars are collaborative roundtable discussions for participants from different fields. Participants are asked to contribute their understanding of and reactions to carefully selected readings, with the guidance of a moderator, who is an expert in their sector. The seminars provide stimulating dialogue, values-based introspection, and dynamic debate that serve to enhance participants’ understanding and leadership capabilities.

What makes Socrates unique? 

• Connects Leaders Across the Spectrum – from entrepreneurs to public servants, artists to academics, all driven by a shared commitment to engage with the hardest questions of our time.

• The Aspen Method – based on the Aspen Institute’s tradition of moderated dialogue, Socrates champions civil dialogue, intellectual humility and cross-sector collaboration.

• Optimised for Busy Professionals – seminars are designed to strike the perfect balance: intellectually intense, refreshingly brief, and deeply immersive.

• Turn Ideas Into Action – the conversations that start at Socrates often spark new ventures and partnerships. Participants leave not just inspired but empowered.

• A Global, Ever-Growing Network – with over 10,500 alumni worldwide from across the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors, Socrates is more than a programme – it’s a lifelong community.

“For me the thing about Socrates is as much about the substance of the conversation as the relationships. It is those relationships and the network that develops from this that is so powerful.” 

– Andrew Ross Sorkin, Columnist for The New York Times