Our faculty is a carefully selected group of accomplished leadership professionals, each with extensive experience in guiding leaders through transformative growth. With a diverse range of expertise, they are uniquely equipped to challenge your thinking, broaden your leadership capabilities, and help you achieve lasting impact.
At Critical Decisions, our faculty’s commitment to excellence ensures a leadership journey that is both rigorous and deeply rewarding.
Our
Values
Effective Leadership
At Critical Decisions, we believe that effective leadership is built on a foundation of practical, experience-based wisdom—what we call tactical knowledge. This includes an intuitive grasp of human behavior, motivations, and the subtle dynamics of leadership that theory alone cannot teach.
Leaders are challenged to address complex, second-order questions, making critical decisions based on values, ideals, and clear judgment. By honing their self-awareness and refining their thinking, leaders can elevate their decision-making processes and act with greater precision and purpose.
Our program equips leaders with the tools to apply their insights effectively, ensuring they can navigate high-stakes challenges with confidence.
Creativity & Collaboration
Creativity and collaboration are at the core of our leadership development philosophy. Through engaging with diverse perspectives, including expert speakers from various fields, participants are encouraged to challenge their assumptions and broaden their thinking.
Our program draws inspiration from disciplines like systems theory, the arts, and sciences, helping leaders reconnect with the power of imagination, ambiguity, and metaphor. This creative exploration allows participants to rediscover talents and interests that may have been sidelined during their careers.
By fostering collaboration and intellectual exploration, we create a space where leaders can innovate, expand their vision, and develop fresh solutions to the complex challenges they face.
Wellbeing & Human Optimisation
Our program strikes the right balance by offering a challenging intellectual experience alongside a setting designed to promote recovery and renewal.
Throughout the program, participants are pushed to expand their thinking and leadership capabilities, but equally important is the time we dedicate to rest. With comfortable accommodations, nutritious meals, and access to leisure and wellness facilities, we ensure that participants have the space to decompress and recharge between intensive sessions. This restorative balance allows leaders to reflect, integrate new insights, and maintain the energy needed for sustained focus and growth.
By fostering both challenge and restoration, we help leaders leave the program not only with sharpened skills but also feeling physically and mentally re-energized—ready to return to their organizations with clarity and renewed strength.
Lifelong Learning
we believe that leadership is a continuous journey, and our program provides a space for senior leaders to pause, reflect, and re-energize. Many participants come to the program with years of experience, looking for fresh insights to tackle complex challenges or to prepare for major transformations in their organisations. They view the experience not just as a way to enhance their leadership skills, but as an opportunity to reinvigorate their strategic vision.
Our participants are principled and pragmatic, eager to challenge themselves intellectually and willing to take bold risks in pursuit of growth. They see learning as a shared experience—one that thrives on collaboration, contribution, and the exchange of ideas with peers and faculty alike.
The learning doesn’t end when the program concludes. Through our dedicated alumni network, participants continue to engage in meaningful connections and learning opportunities long after their time with us, fostering a lifelong community committed to leadership development and innovation.
Our Founder & Senior Mentor
Admiral Chris Barrie
AC, RAN (Rtd) | Honorary Professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs, Australian National University Co-Founder, PTSD Australia New Zealand & FearLess Outreach
In 2002, Chris Barrie retired from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) following 42 years of service. During the final four years of his service, he commanded all arms of the Australian Defence Force as its Chief (CDF).
Since then, he has worked on strategic leadership issues as a consultant, teacher and mentor at Oxford University’s Strategic Leadership and Stimulus Forum Programs, as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National Defense University in Washington DC, and as an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University.
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Chris is a co-founder and the chair of PTSD-Australia New Zealand, whose subsidiary “FearLess Outreach” is able to assist about 6 million people in Australia and New Zealand who live with post-traumatic stress disorder. In August 2019 “FearLess” was the inspiration behind a prize- winning national conversation on PTSD held in Caloundra, Queensland. A second national conversation took place in 2021, as a virtual event.
At the Australian National University, Chris has worked in the Tuckwell Foundation for ten years and is currently Patron of the Australian Crisis Simulation Summit, a student led national one-week event for aspiring national security policy makers. He teaches occasionally on campus and conducts simulations to complement course work.
He is an outspoken commentator on Climate Change and Security to raise awareness of the potential costs of inaction. He is an executive member of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) and represents Australia on the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change (GMACCC).
Our Managing Director & Lead Facilitator
Paul Barrie
M. Mgt, ACMC, MAICD | Founder & Principal Consultant, PBLC Non-Executive Director
Paul Barrie is the founder and principal consultant of PBLC, a boutique strategic leadership and organisation development consulting firm. His strong background in leadership and decision-making originates from 25 years of service to the Australian Public Sector, first serving as an Officer of the Royal Australian Navy, after which he held several influential leadership positions within the Australian Public Service. In 2016, Paul launched his second career, leveraging his public sector career to further refine his professional competencies as a facilitator, executive coach and organisation development consultant in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region.
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While in the Navy, Paul convened a program (aboard the Sail Training Ship, Young Endeavour) that has come to be regarded as arguably Australia’s premiere experiential youth development program.
As an Executive Leader within the Australian Public Service, Paul continued to practice and refine his facilitation skills, culminating in his facilitation of a series of high-level multinational discussions on global security cooperation, exploring key strategic policy, coordination, and capability issues. He was also actively involved in leading, facilitating and contributing to the Australian Government’s responses to a range of critical civil maritime security incidents.
Since launching his career as a Strategic Leadership & Organisation Development Consultant in 2016, Paul has worked closely with a range of Australian federal and state government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and private sector firms across many sectors: construction, telecommunications, engineering, and health, in Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific Region. Paul’s reputation for facilitating expert leadership development, organisation development outcomes and executive coaching has grown quickly.
In 2019, Paul formalised his affiliation as the Australian Associate for Community at Work, a San Francisco based Organization Development Consulting Firm, where he gained accreditation to teach GROUP FACILITATION SKILLS: Putting Participatory Values into Practice.
Paul continues to serve, as a Non-Executive Director on the Board for Lasercraft Australia, an Australian Disability Employment Enterprise, and on the board for PTSD Australia/New Zealand, and its subsidiary FearLess Outreach, a not-for-profit dedicated to raising awareness and supporting research into treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is also a volunteer Watch Commander and Deputy Unit Commander for Marine Rescue New South Wales where he is actively involved in saving lives on the ocean.
JOIN OUR FACULTY
At Critical Decisions, we are always looking for accomplished professionals who can bring fresh perspectives and inspire others to grow. If you believe your expertise can challenge, motivate, and empower leaders to reach new heights, we’d love to hear from you.
By joining our faculty, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the next generation of leaders through immersive programs designed to provoke deep reflection and transformative growth. Share your knowledge, influence others, and contribute to an environment where leadership excellence is cultivated.