For L&D, OD, Talent + Change Leaders
You've been in the room. Now lead it.
Get trained, equipped, and backed to run PopUpThinkTank inside your organization, and become the person leaders call when real work needs to move.
2026–27 pilot cohort · Organizations of 500+ · Funded pilot with an executive sponsor
Hundreds of sessions with teams at
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THE READINESS GAP
Your organization is moving faster than its people can get ready.
New strategies. New technology. New operating models. All of it lands on people already stretched by competing priorities and collaboration fatigue.
The distance between where your organization wants to go and its capacity to get there is the Readiness Gap. Left alone, it compounds into Readiness Debt.
And you're usually the one asked to close it, with another training, another deck, or another survey.
We can't teach our way out of this.
The old question was "What do our people need to know?" The harder questions now sound like this:
—> What are we assuming?
—> What are people actually experiencing?
—> What don't we know yet?
When the answer can't live with one person, you need a way to bring people into the question.
YOUR ROLE, EXPANDED
Become the person leaders call before the next big thing.
Internal Consultant
Request Taker
—>
Strategic Thought Partner
Content creator
—>
Capability builder
Training provider
—>
Trusted convener
Meeting facilitator
—>
I understand what you're trying to accomplish. Before we prescribe the solution, let's get closer to what this actually needs.
What you'll be able to say to any leader, with a proven way to follow through.
AI makes this more important, not less.
Information isn't scarce anymore. AI can draft the deck, analyze the data, and propose the answer. What's scarce is shared human context: people comparing notes, surfacing tensions, and making meaning together.
The future doesn't just need humans in the loop. It needs groups of people with shared context in the loop. That's the work you'll lead.
ONE CAPABILITY, ACROSS THE WORK
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Learn one format. Use it everywhere change happens.
30–75+ people. 90 minutes. One shared challenge. Strategy, learning, launches, transformation: it's all change. This is how you change how you change.
Launch
Bring people into a new strategy, system, or project before asking them to execute it.
Discover
Surface lived experience and test assumptions that surveys miss.
Sync + Align
Build shared context across teams and levels without weeks of organizational telephone.
Learn + Grow
Put teaching inside an experience where people connect it to their own work, right away.
Reflect + Adapt
Pause mid-stream to see what's working, what's stuck, and what deserves to happen next.
THREE KINDS OF READINESS
Get your people ready.
Get your system ready.
Get better at change itself.
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1. Frame the question. A leader names what's known and what isn't, guided by you.2. Quiet reflection. People catch their own thinking before hearing everyone else's.
3. Quick-burst exchanges. Three rounds of short, rotating small-group conversations surface patterns and tensions fast.
4. Sensemaking in real time. Ideas accumulate and connect. People stop receiving information about the work and start entering it.
The ideas matter. So does what happens to the people generating them: shared language, ownership, and a clearer view of what leaders are facing. We call it Ideation-as-Engagement.
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WHAT YOU GET
You lead from the front. We work behind the scenes.
This isn't a certification that ends with a certificate. It's six months of building a capability, with our team behind you the whole way.
01 You get trained
The judgment to frame challenges, prep sponsors, and lead sessions, built on real priorities, not simulations.
02 You get backed
Tim Schuster, Maria Soyka, and an assigned trainer-facilitator in your corner before, during, and after every session.
03 You get a production team
Branded slides, input forms, data capture, surveys, and synthesis, handled for you.
04 You get our experience
Patterns from hundreds of sessions, so you never start from a blank page.
06 You get the credit
Executive-ready readouts—including first names with action steps—in your organization's brand, delivered by you.
Demand adds.
Capability multiplies.
Instead of building every request from scratch, you spend your time on what only you can do: consulting, diagnosing, preparing leaders, and creating the conditions for change.
Built by us. Delivered by you. In your brand.
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Recognize when PopUpThinkTank is, and isn't, the right tool.
Turn an organizational need into a challenge worth convening around.
Prepare the sponsor without creating a mountain of work for them.
Lead a fast-paced, psychologically safe experience where no one has to perform for the full group.
Listen for patterns, energy, and friction.
Help leaders make sense of what emerged and turn it back into the work.
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Branded facilitation slides, in your organization's brand
Individual input and Insight Round forms
Backend data capture
Post-session engagement surveys
Synthesis of hundreds of inputs into patterns
Ideabooks and session readouts
Editable, executive-ready deliverables you can add your own context to
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Tim Schuster, Founder, PopUpThinkTank
Maria Soyka, Lead Facilitator, PopUpThinkTank
Your trainer-facilitator: Assigned from our network
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THE PILOT
Not six months of classes. You build the capability by using it on priorities that already matter.
Six months. Real work. Five or more sessions.
1
Discover + design
MONTH 1
We map your priorities, your sponsor's goals, and where readiness gaps are slowing real work. Your training starts here.
2
See it work
MONTH 2
We map your priorities, your sponsor's goals, and where readiness gaps are slowing real work. Your training starts here.
3
Lead it
MONTH 3-6
You facilitate 5+ sessions with us behind you, building confidence, reputation, and internal demand.
What 10% better looks like, compounded
One good session won't change a culture. But when the way you convene gets 10% better, again and again, across five, ten, then twenty sessions, the gains compound. So does your capability. Eventually demand may outgrow one facilitator, and that's when we talk about building a team.
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Actionable signals: what's moving, where the energy is, and what deserves to be tested next.
Collective intelligence: who needs to gather next, around what, and with whose sponsorship.
Signals to slow or stop: where momentum means something and where activity is just motion.
Meta-learning: people get better at reflecting, sensing, and adapting while doing the work.
FOR YOUR SPONSOR
Bring your sponsor along.
Most pilots start with one practitioner and one executive who says yes. Here's what to tell yours.
What your sponsor gets
Earlier visibility into assumptions and friction, before they cost time
Intelligence from the people closest to the work
Momentum on priorities already on their plate
Executive-ready readouts after every session
A capability that stays in-house, not a one-off vendor engagement
What the pilot asks
—> A funded 6-month pilot
—> Real priorities worth convening people around
—> Time to help frame the sessions they're closest to
—> Willingness to try something new before every detail is perfected
Share this page with your sponsor. It was written for both of you.
The format isn't the experiment.
Putting it in your hands is.
PopUpThinkTank has run hundreds of sessions with organizations such as Gap Inc., Mortenson, and Lifespark. What's new is the capability living inside your organization.
“Having everyone in the room changes everything.”
“Amazing. I've found my community.”
Tandiwe Vaughn
Global L&D Designer, Veeam Software
“Execution-ready insights for immediate strategic engagement.”
Dan Hildebrandt
Director, Strategic HR
“Intentional, guided connection—an effective way to create real change.”
Candi White
Founder, Live Brave Collective
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2026–27 PILOT COHORT
We're looking for a few people who want to go first.
Some organizations will wait for a case study from a company exactly like theirs. This pilot isn't for them yet.
For a small group of pilot partners, going first means close access to our team, co-design, priority support, and real influence over what we build next.
Go early without betting the farm. Six months. Real sessions. Real evidence. Then decide.
Is this a fit?
—> You work in L&D, OD/OE, Talent, Culture, People, Leadership Development, or Change Enablement.
—> Your organization has 500+ employees. Smaller? Reach out anyway.
—> You partner with leaders whose priorities affect 30+ people.
—> You have, or can secure, an executive sponsor and funding for a 6-month pilot.
—> You want to facilitate 5+ real sessions, not just complete a training.
—> You're willing to experiment before every detail is perfected.
Especially strong fit: retail, technology, professional services, construction, healthcare, and financial services.
Change is inevitable. Readiness isn't.
Six months from now, leaders are bringing you consequential work, and you have a way to help.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Submit a short application. It takes about 3 minutes.
1
We review it and reach out within 24 hours to set up a time.
2
We explore your role, your sponsor's priorities, and the work ahead. If there's a fit, we design the pilot together.