Co-Virtue — Socratic Circles for Complex Decisions
FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS

When the old playbooks stop working.

Better collective judgment for decisions where the stakes are real and the answer is not obvious.

Co-Virtue brings structured Socratic dialogue into leadership teams, boards, and founder groups working through a real strategic or relational dilemma. The format slows the conversation down just enough to surface what matters, test the assumptions underneath it, and widen the view before the group commits to action.

Bring a real dilemma, not a case study.

Talk to us about your team See how the method works

Carrying a decision of your own? Individual Socratic Circles →

WHY CAPABLE TEAMS GET STUCK

The problem is rarely a lack of intelligence or information.

Most leadership teams that stall are not short on talent or data. They are working inside a frame that once served them well and keeps being reinforced, even after the situation has changed. Different functions see different parts of the system. Hierarchy shapes what gets said. A strategic question quietly becomes a personal one. Another meeting produces more discussion, but not more clarity.

The questions that would unlock the situation are often the hardest to ask in an ordinary meeting. What are we not seeing? Which assumption is organizing this whole conversation? Are we solving the actual problem, or the problem as we first framed it?

Co-Virtue changes the structure of the conversation so the group can change the quality of its attention. The aim is not forced consensus. It is better collective judgment.

Where it helps

01

Strategic crossroads:

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Strategic crossroads

Several defensible paths and no obvious answer. Growth or resilience, speed or quality, focus or optionality.

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02

Leadership alignment:

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Leadership alignment

The team agrees on the slides, but key assumptions and tensions remain unresolved underneath.

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03

Founder, board, and executive tensions:

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Founder, board, and executive tensions

Trusted relationships caught in a repeating argument, where authority or personality has become the center of the room.

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04

Succession, culture, and change:

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Succession, culture, and change

Restructuring, new leadership, or rapid growth surfacing tensions that ordinary meetings struggle to hold.

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05

Cross-functional complexity:

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Cross-functional complexity

Finance, operations, product, and people leaders, each correct from where they sit, pulling in different directions.

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06

Purpose, sustainability/impact, and long-term tradeoffs:

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Purpose, sustainability/impact, and long-term tradeoffs

Decisions that cannot be reduced to financial optimization alone, where responsibility, reputation, and resilience are also on the table.

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HOW IT WORKS

A simple structure that changes how a group thinks together.

Your team works on its own real dilemma in circles of four. Sessions open with a short practice that builds the attention and candor the rest of the work depends on. Each circle then takes up a virtue, such as prudence, courage, or justice, as a lens on the decision. Participants rotate through four roles: one proposes, one questions, one tracks how the thinking moves, and one reads what is happening beneath the words. Larger teams work in parallel circles and reconvene to integrate what emerged.

The virtue is not moral instruction. It is a different angle of view. Here is what that looks like on a single decision.

The decision on the table: Do we expand into a new market next year, or consolidate what we have?

Lens

Courage

The question it raises

What are we avoiding saying because it is uncomfortable?

What it can surface

The risk nobody has named out loud

The facts did not change. The perspective did. That is the point.

See the four roles and the thinking behind them →

NOT ANOTHER WORKSHOP

A working session on what is actually happening.

Co-Virtue sits in a different place from the formats most leadership teams already know. It does not arrive with an external answer, it does not center on one individual, and it is not designed to manufacture agreement. It is a facilitated practice for thinking together, so that the knowledge already distributed across the room can become visible and usable.

Consulting Executive coaching Team building Co-Virtue
Who holds the answerThe external expertThe individual, supported by a coachNot the aimThe group, through structured inquiry
What gets worked onA defined business problemOne leader’s developmentRelationships and moraleA live dilemma, and the frame around it
Role of disagreementResolved through analysisExplored privatelyOften smoothed overMade useful through structure
What you leave withRecommendationsPersonal insight and goalsA shared experienceA clearer orientation, a written record of how thinking moved, and a practice the team can reuse

Each has its place. Co-Virtue is for the moment a team already has the information and still cannot see its way forward.

WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH

Tangible outcomes from the session, and capacities that last beyond it.

From a single session

  • A clearer decision, or a clearer view of what the decision actually depends on
  • Tradeoffs named explicitly instead of argued around
  • Assumptions tested, and those no longer serving set aside
  • Perspectives that had been left out brought into the room
  • A better question than the one the team arrived with
  • A written synthesis of how the group’s thinking moved, drawn from the Scribe’s record

Over repeated practice

  • Sharper problem framing: Seeing a dilemma from more angles before committing to an answer.
  • Greater candor: Enough structure for disagreement and uncomfortable perspectives to enter the room safely, what organizational research calls psychological safety.
  • Listening across hierarchy: Rotating roles change who speaks, who questions, and who notices.
  • Adaptive judgment: A repeatable way of working when the situation changes faster than the plan.
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER

From initial conversation to follow-through.

  1. First Conversation. We learn what your team is navigating, who is involved, and what would make the time worthwhile.
  2. Design. We shape the arc, and the group composition around your real dilemma(s). We can also discuss the menu of options around the authentic-relating warm ups and integration practices, if desired.
  3. Circle. The session itself, in English or Spanish.
  4. Follow-through. A written synthesis, and a short follow-up to see what held and answer any questions.
Format Typical length Best for
Working sessionHalf day, about 4 hoursOne live tension: a decision, a conflict, a stuck conversation
Custom workshopFull day, about 6 hoursA strategic question involving multiple functions or stakeholders
Retreats and ongoing practiceMulti-day, or a recurring seriesLeadership teams building lasting capacity for collective judgment

Circles work in groups of four; larger teams run parallel circles and reconvene. Sessions are available in English or Spanish, a practical advantage for teams working across Latin America and international markets.

REAL EXPERIENCES

What the practice can feel like

“Our leadership team had been circling the same three arguments for months. What shifted wasn’t the data, it was that everyone finally said the real tensions out loud, in a structure where it was safe to do so. We left with actual alignment and a disposition to collaborate deeply, not just consensus on paper.”

Leonardo A. Educator and Business Owner

“The combination of the virtue library and rotating roles takes the conversation out of ego territory. It’s not traditional consulting but a genuinely valuable space for shared wisdom.”

Andrés F. Entrepreneur and Investor

INVESTMENT

Organizational engagements start at 6,000 USD.

A simple, clean price that covers everything for a half-day session, including travel, stay, materials, facilitation, and follow-up. Full-day, multi-day, retreat, and remote travel engagements are scoped separately. Local rates are available for organizations based in LATAM, and reduced rates for nonprofit, community, and educational organizations. The figure is the beginning of a conversation, not a fixed menu.

Talk to us about your team

Common questions

Is this team building?

No. Team building aims at morale and connection. This is a working session on a real decision. Stronger relationships are often a side effect, not the goal.

Do we need to agree on the dilemma beforehand?

A shortlist helps. Choosing and sharpening the dilemma together is part of the work, and often where the first insight appears.

What about confidentiality?

What is said in the circle stays in the circle. For organizational work, we agree confidentiality terms with you before the session.

What if some of the team are skeptical?

That is welcome. The structure does not ask anyone to believe anything. It asks them to take a role, listen, and question. Skeptics tend to ask excellent questions, which is exactly what the Midwife role needs – not to agree/acquiesce to have a comfortable/easy time but rather to bring philosophical rigor in order to get to the essence of the matter at hand and birth ideas.

Does anyone need a background in philosophy?

No. The roles and the virtue lens are introduced at the start, and the structure carries the group.

In person or online?

In person is ideal/preferred for maximum effectiveness, though we can discuss both options. Online sessions use breakout rooms for parallel circles.

TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR TEAM

Start with the situation, not the solution.

Tell us what your team is navigating. You do not need to know which format you need yet.