Start With DIAGNOSIS
Go deeper to see clearly.
Expand Your COMPETENCE
Your next challenge requires a different you.
IN THE MIDST OF ACTION
Get to the balcony, even while you dance.
Manage YOURSELF
You can't fix the system if you're caught in it.
PROBLEMS AS SYMPTOMS
Resist your impulse to fix. Follow the clues.
Read THE SYSTEM
Navigate what hasn't yet been mapped.
DECODE THE PATTERN
See the loyalties beneath the logic.
We help leaders navigate the hard stuff.
KS Insight partners with executives, teams, and institutions facing their most critical inflection points. We bring decades of experience in high-stakes environments to help you see clearly, decide effectively, and lead wisely.
Insight - the ability to discern
the true nature of a situation.
Leadership isn't just
what you do
in crisis.
It's the foundation
you build
before it.
We've been in the room when things fall apart - and when things take off. We partner in the moments that define leadership - strategy shifts, cultural turning points, and the long arc of change.
Grounded Practice. Distinct Approach.
Who we work with
- Executives leading organizational change or building alignment across functions or silos
- Teams navigating rapid growth, restructuring, or transition
- Founders and boards clarifying priorities and direction
- Innovation leaders driving new initiatives, products, or systems
- Mid-level and emerging leaders stepping into expanded authority and complexity
- Multi-stakeholder groups navigating polarization, crisis, or systemic gridlock
What sets our team apart
Our facilitators aren't just talented leadership faculty - they're also seasoned leaders who bring hard-earned wisdom into the room.
They've led inside:
Conflict zones, boardrooms, and crisis strategy tables
Government negotiations and global development networks
Our team members have led through complexity, not just studied it.
Four integrated capabilities, one unified practice.
Strategy & Complex Problem-Solving
A leadership discipline of sensemaking, clarity, and courageous choices that move systems. We help teams diagnose the full landscape, uncover what's really at stake, and design smart interventions that unlock movement.
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Leadership Development
Make leadership learnable-breaking complex capabilities into specific practices leaders can observe, rehearse, and refine. We connect growth to live cases and real pressure, so learning is never abstract.
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Systems Change & Stakeholder Engagement
Move complex systems through gridlock and polarization. We map dynamics and power structures, convene actors who don't usually agree, and help coalitions move from shared diagnosis to aligned momentum.
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Leading Innovation
Create conditions where breakthrough innovation emerges from collective genius. We combine design thinking with psychological safety research to build innovation ecosystems that are disciplined as well as creative.
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programs
programs
How we think about leadership and change.
DIAGNOSTIC SKILLS ARE TEACHABLE
Effective leadership begins with accurate diagnosis. We teach leaders to read human systems, anticipate organizational reactions to loss or disequilibrium, and see beyond the loudest symptoms - in the system itself and in the individuals within it.
LEAD IN THE FOG: THE CAPACITY FOR STEADINESS
High-stakes, high-complexity, and high-disequilibrium environments demand advanced adaptive skills. We focus on building the capacity to hold steady, make sound judgments, and operate effectively when clarity is scarce and pressure is intense.
DESIGNED INTERVENTIONS MOVE THE WORK
We design intentional programs and engagements that unlock progress on complex challenges. This includes creating containers for challenging conversations, facilitating alignment on strategy and change processes, building new culture, and breaking down debilitating silos.
LEADING IS A PRACTICE, NOT A TRAIT
We believe that leadership skills are learned. Our work incorporates actionable frameworks and practical skills - ranging from high-level strategy and culture-setting to the micro-skills required to give challenging feedback while retaining critical relationships.
Organizations that value thoughtful leadership
"What I value most about working with KS Insight is their ability to meet organizations where they are-and help us get where we need to go. At Relay Therapeutics, when we were building our leadership capability as a growing biotech, Kirsti designed tailored leadership development for our executive team that was both highly strategic and deeply practical. She brought frameworks that helped us navigate complexity and make better decisions under pressure. Now, as Chief People Officer at a management and strategy consulting firm, I've invited KS Insight back because the challenges we face are different, but their approach is exactly what we need. We're focused on building a culture of innovation and preparing our people for the massive shifts happening in our industry-particularly around AI and evolving client expectations. KS Insight doesn't offer generic programs. They listen carefully, understand the nuances of your context, and design experiences that develop both skills and mindsets. Their work creates lasting capability, not just a temporary boost. In an industry where forward-looking talent development is everything, they're the partners I trust to help us lead through change."
"I've partnered with KS Insight across two very different organizations-the Broad Institute and now KAUST-and in both contexts, they've delivered exceptional results. When we set out to build the Broad's leadership program, we needed something truly distinctive for our scientific community: practical, rigorous, and grounded in how scientists actually think and work. What Kirsti and her team created (in collaboration with Ron Heifetz for that project) wasn't off-the-shelf training-it was a carefully designed, cohort-based journey that has now run for six years and fundamentally changed how our senior talent approaches leadership. The program built both skills and community, giving our scientists a shared language and framework they still use today. At KAUST, I brought them in for even higher-stakes work: facilitating complex multi-day leadership dialogues during a period of significant strategic and cultural change, designing adaptive leadership programs for senior faculty, and now launching our manager-to-leader training. They excel in environments where precision matters, where you're working with brilliant, skeptical minds, and where the challenges are genuinely complex. They don't just facilitate-they co-create solutions that stick."
"Over more than a decade of collaboration, Kirsti and her team at KS Insight have proven to be exceptional partners in the most demanding leadership development work. What sets them apart is rare among consultants and academics: they don't just teach adaptive leadership-they've lived it. Kirsti's experience navigating conflict and complexity in some of the world's most challenging environments gives her a depth of practical wisdom that enriches everything she does. When we co-design programs together, I see how she translates theory into practice with unusual sophistication. She asks the hard questions, analyzes with keen insight what's really at stake, and creates the conditions for genuine learning and organizational change. Her work bridges the gap between academic rigor and the messy realities that people practicing leadership face every day. That's why I encouraged her to teach the arts of practice to professional students at Columbia University-and why organizations that work with KS Insight consistently see transformative results. The capacity to help those who would lead develop judgment under pressure, especially in 'the fog zone,' is exactly what's needed right now."
Insights from the field
Leading Through the AI Revolution
How AI compresses timelines and exposes structural weaknesses. Introduces diagnostic tools for stabilizing systems under incomplete information.
The Legal Industry's Digital Evolution
How digitization reshaped law firms over three decades, and why some collapsed while others thrived - lessons for the AI era.
The FOG FILTER
A two-stage logic for acting when both urgency and uncertainty are high, helping leaders avoid paralysis and reckless bets.
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Not Every Crisis Has a Playbook
What distinguishes rehearsed emergencies from fog-zone crises, and what leaders can realistically prepare for when uncertainty peaks.
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The Best Way to Lose Morale?
Why exclusion and silence damage trust more than hard truths - especially when jobs, budgets, or programs are at risk.
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Leadership Scenario Lab
An AI-supported assessment that adapts to your decisions, surfacing tradeoffs around authority, collaboration, and systemic thinking.
Active Listening Techniques
A five-part framework for understanding what sits beneath the surface of conversations, with questions that deepen insight.
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Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges
Stop applying the wrong kind of solution. Learn to distinguish challenge types and clarify what kind of work the situation requires.
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Insight 4D: From Insight to Action
A four-quadrant map that translates awareness into behavioral shifts, keeping attention on both inner and outer work.
→Ready to discuss your leadership challenge?
Let's explore how we can help you navigate complexity with clarity.
Start a Conversation