Burns Leadership Consulting
PRISM Session Preparation
A guided conversation before your session with Dan Burns
What is the PRISM Session? Senior leaders rarely lack intelligence or effort. What they often lack is the clarity that comes from stepping outside the day-to-day to name what is actually driving the challenge they are living. PRISM is a structured diagnostic framework built for that purpose. It moves through five dimensions: Priority, Reality, Insight, Strategy, and Measures. Together they surface not just what the problem appears to be, but what is generating it and what a focused response would actually require. Use this tool to prepare for your session with Dan Burns. Your responses will shape the entire conversation. The more precisely you can articulate your thinking here, the more valuable your time together will be. Dan will review everything before you meet.
PPRIORITY
DB
Dan Burns
The most important question a leader can answer is not what the challenge is. It is what it is costing the organization to leave it unresolved. That is where this conversation starts. I want to understand the priority clearly before we look at anything else.
In Your Own Words
What is the most significant challenge your organization needs to address in the next 90 days? Describe it in business terms, not leadership terms. What is it costing you to leave it where it is?
How precisely shared is this priority across your leadership team right now?
No shared clarityFully aligned
Why this matters
Execution failures are rarely talent problems. They are almost always priority problems. When the leadership team does not share a precise understanding of what matters most, every layer below them is navigating without a map.
RREALITY
DB
Dan Burns
Experienced leaders are skilled at framing challenges in ways that are accurate but incomplete. I am not looking for the polished version here. I want to understand what is actually happening, specifically and honestly, because that is the only version worth working from.
In Your Own Words
Describe the current state as directly as you can. Not what you hope is true or what you are working toward, but what is actually happening right now. Name the patterns, not just the incidents.
How directly does your leadership team confront the current reality together?
We avoid itFull candor
Why this matters
The gap between a symptom and a pattern is where most leadership conversations get stuck. A symptom is what you see in a given week. A pattern is what has been true for months. The two require very different responses.
IINSIGHT
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Dan Burns
This is where most diagnostic conversations stop short. Leaders can describe what is happening with precision, but naming what is generating it requires a different kind of thinking. If you have a clear hypothesis, share it. If you are uncertain, say that. Both are useful.
In Your Own Words
What is beneath the patterns you described? Consider whether the breakdown is structural rather than behavioral. Is the issue how the team aligns, how it decides, how it holds itself accountable, or something about how it operates under pressure?
How clearly can you name the root cause right now?
Still unclearVery clear
Why this matters
The root cause is almost never what it first appears to be. A team that cannot execute usually has an alignment problem, not a capability problem. A team that revisits decisions repeatedly has a decision rights problem, not a trust problem. Getting the diagnosis right determines everything that follows.
SSTRATEGY
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Dan Burns
Before we discuss what to do next, I want to understand what you have already done. What you have tried, what moved and what did not, and why you think the results fell short. That context shapes everything. There is no value in recommending what has already been ruled out.
In Your Own Words
What approaches have you already taken? What produced movement and what did not? Where do you believe the real leverage is, and what is standing between where you are and where you need to be?
How confident are you that you have identified the right lever for change?
Not confidentVery confident
Why this matters
Strategy built without a clear understanding of what has already failed tends to repeat it. The most productive sessions start not with fresh ideas but with an honest accounting of what was tried, what it produced, and what it revealed about the problem.
MMEASURES
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Dan Burns
Senior leaders are accustomed to setting goals. What fewer do consistently is define the leading indicators that will tell them whether they are on track before the final result is visible. That discipline separates leaders who learn from their work from those who simply complete it.
In Your Own Words
What would tell you that the work is producing results? Define both the outcome you are working toward and the earlier signals that would confirm you are moving in the right direction. What would you observe, hear, or measure?
How clearly defined are the measures that will tell you this work is succeeding?
Not definedClearly defined
Why this matters
The ability to define success in measurable terms before beginning is one of the clearest indicators of leadership effectiveness. It forces clarity on what is actually being pursued and creates accountability that vague goals never can.
Ready to send your preparation to Dan?
Download your PRISM summary as a PDF to share with Dan before your session. The conversation will be built entirely around what you have surfaced here.
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