Built on Save the Titanic — shaped for board development
Develop a Board That Decides
Your board reviews. It rarely decides. Reports get noted, debate runs out of time, and the real choices wait for next quarter. Save the Titanic develops the board and does real planning in one immersive experience.
What It Is
An immersive experience that develops the board and does real planning at the same time — by having the board decide together, not review a report about how it decides.
The board takes on a complex, time-pressured challenge inside a shared scenario. There are no assigned roles and no agenda to hide behind. How the board sets priorities, handles disagreement, and commits to a plan all become visible.
The board leaves having developed itself and produced real planning — ranked priorities, named owners, and decisions it owns together.
Duration
2+ hours
Format
In-person, digital, or hybrid
Group Size
A full board, or board and executive team together
Ideal For
Board chairs and lead directors developing a board that decides and plans, not one that only reviews.
When to Use It
A Refreshed Board
New directors join and shared judgment takes years to build. The experience builds it fast — the board learns how it decides together before the next big call.
A Board That Reviews, Slowly Decides
Meetings fill with updates and the real choices keep moving to next quarter. The board practices deciding under pressure, so it decides when it counts.
A Major Transaction or Turnaround
A merger, a pivot, or a turnaround raises the stakes on every board decision. The board develops the habits it needs while planning the work in front of it.
A Board and Its Executive Team
Board and management plan as one. They develop a shared way of deciding, so governance and execution pull in the same direction.
What Happens in the Experience
The Setup
The board arrives with a real planning question and a clear measure of success. They know what a good decision looks like. They don't yet know how they'll reach it together.
The Scenario
An immersive challenge begins. It is complex and time-pressured. No director has enough alone, and the agenda can't carry the room.
The Decisions
The board has to set priorities and commit, together. No assigned roles, no hierarchy. How the board decides comes from how it chooses to work.
The Debrief
How did the board decide? What moved it forward, and what slowed it down? The patterns that strengthen or weaken the board become visible.
The Plan
The board commits to its own plan — the priorities, owners, and decisions it will carry into the boardroom and onto the calendar.
Why It Works
A board develops by deciding
A board does not get better by reading a report about itself. It gets better by making real decisions together under pressure. The experience creates that moment.
Show, don't survey
A questionnaire tells the board how it scored. The experience shows the board how it decides — in real time, where it can still change.
Development and planning at once
The board does not choose between getting better and getting work done. It develops itself while producing the plan it came to make.
Decisions that hold
When a board decides something hard together, it owns the call. That ownership carries from the room to the boardroom.
Trusted by Boards and Demanding Teams
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
Learn2 developed the senior team and dyad leaders to decide together in real meetings — and was then engaged to develop the Board of Directors to raise the effectiveness of the Board itself.
Built on the Save the Titanic experience, trusted by boards and by enterprise teams at Johnson & Johnson, Deloitte, and the Canadian Olympic Committee to decide together under real pressure.
Questions Boards Ask
What is board development?
Board development is the work of making a board better at what it exists to do — set direction, weigh trade-offs, and decide together. Most board development is a survey and a report. Save the Titanic develops the board by having it decide and plan in one immersive experience.
How is this different from a board effectiveness review?
A review measures the board on a questionnaire and hands back a score. This builds effectiveness instead of measuring it. The board does real planning inside a high-pressure scenario, so how it decides together becomes visible — and improves — in the room.
Is our board actually effective?
You find out by watching the board decide, not by surveying it. In the experience the board faces a complex challenge with a real clock. How it sets priorities, handles disagreement, and commits to a plan shows up for everyone to see — and to fix.
Who is this for?
Board chairs and lead directors who want a board that does more than receive reports — especially a refreshed board with new directors, a board entering a major transaction or turnaround, or a board that reviews well and decides slowly.
How long is the experience?
The core immersive experience runs two or more hours, in person, digital, or hybrid. We scope the format and the board's real planning agenda with you before the day.
How is it measured afterward?
By the plan the board commits to in the room. The board leaves with its priorities ranked, owners named, and the decisions on the calendar — so you measure what the board decides and follows through on, not how the day felt.
Ready to develop a board that decides?
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