Co/Lab · 2026

Build your next layer of leaders faster—with less execution risk.

Co/Lab is a confidential peer forum for senior leaders at expanded scope. Six to eight peers, one per company. Monthly sessions. Real decisions, examined in the open, in a room with no politics, performance or posturing.

6–8Leaders per cohort, carefully curated for comparable scope.

1Leader per organization. No competitive overlap in the room.

12Months of facilitated sessions. Decisions examined as they happen.

Book a 20-min call with Carrie →By nomination. Sponsoring organizations welcome.

The problem

Promoting your high potential leader just created a high stakes execution risk.

The role expands overnight. Judgment takes time. Leaders are suddenly facing decisions they've never made before — and can’t workshop the real challenges with their boss, their peers, or anyone inside the organization without consequence.

So they don't. The decisions get made alone, or worse, they get deferred. The cost shows up as slowed execution, second-guessed people calls, and strategic bets that don't land. Coaching is one person's perspective; peer networks are built for relationships not real work. Neither is the place for leaders to work through high-stakes issues in real time.

Co/Lab is the room. Peers at comparable scope, monthly, working on what's in front of them.

What sponsors see

Outcomes the business can see.

Sponsors nominate to invest in the acceleration of their top talent. Here is what shows up when they do.

01 · Decision velocity

High-stakes decisions resolve faster.

Leaders bring live decisions into the room. What was stuck for weeks gets examined from angles they didn't have. Decisions move — with conviction.

02 · Talent navigation

People decisions handled with greater judgment.

Succession calls, exits, politically charged hires. The decisions that compound authority when handled well — and damage it when not.

03 · Strategic execution

Initiatives and change efforts land.

Not the plan — the landing. Leaders develop pattern recognition for what makes execution stick at scope.

04 · Succession depth

High-potentials develop enterprise perspective faster.

The gap between functional and enterprise scope is where succession plans break. Co/Lab closes it while peers can still challenge them.

Leaders on working with Carrie

The voices of leaders who've done the real work.

“Carrie has a way of connecting with people on a deep level that makes it possible for her to help unstick you when you’re in a situation you don’t really want to be in.”

Ryan FuchsCOO, Thrivable

“A broad toolkit and a sharp instinct for which tool fits the moment. She adapts frameworks into direct, practical language based on what the situation actually calls for.”

Mandy MillerBusiness Leader, Level20 at Progressive Insurance

“She leads with empathy and quiet authority. In our peer forum of founders and business owners, she quickly creates trust and guides even the strongest personalities toward clarity and decisive forward progress.”

Amanda MayanCEO, MAN Holdings

Founder

Carrie Gladstone built Co/Lab around two decades of work with senior leaders at scale.

Carrie has spent her career inside the rooms where senior leaders make the decisions that define organizations. She’s facilitated peer forums for founders, CEOs, and business-unit leaders across industries — and built Co/Lab specifically for the altitude where expanded scope outpaces available experience.

She is known for pairing broad frameworks with practical implementation — and for building rooms where the strongest personalities arrive at clarity together.

PracticePeer-forum facilitation, executive coaching, senior leadership development

ExperienceTwo decades across founder, enterprise, and business-unit contexts. Progressive, Deloitte, venture-backed startups

Certification & EDucationCertified Coach, EO Forum Seed Moderator, UC Berkeley MBA/MPH, Georgetown University BA

Program · How it works

A highly selective cohort, intentionally crafted.

01 · Who

Senior leaders at expanded scope

Nomination based. Selectively curated cohorts. Director, VP, or enterprise-level scope.

02 · Room

6–8 per cohort, one per org

Non-competing organizations. Candor is the architecture, not an aspiration.

03 · Cadence

Monthly, facilitated

Twelve months. Leaders bring real situations. The group examines them in structured dialogue.

04 · Output

Sharper decisions, stronger judgment

Leaders apply insights between sessions and return with new experience. Judgment compounds.

Questions sponsors ask

What sponsors want to know before they recommend a leader.

Is this coaching, training, or a peer forum?

A facilitated peer forum. Not 1:1 coaching. Not a classroom. Not networking. Leaders bring live decisions; peers examine them together. The mechanism is peer challenge, calibrated by a skilled facilitator — not curriculum.

What kind of leader belongs here?

Leaders operating within multi-layered organizations, owning material business or organizational outcomes, ready to lean in and do the work. Often within ~24 months of expanded leadership scope — and identified as high-potential or succession candidates by their organization.

How confidential is it, really?

Confidentiality is the foundation. One leader per organization and deliberate composition across non-competing companies means leaders can discuss situations they could not raise anywhere else. Our Co/Lab facilitator holds that agreement explicitly from session one. All participants agree to confidentiality.

What is the time commitment?

One-day kick-off followed by four hours per monthly session, plus two hours of preparation. Six hours a month, twelve months. Designed to fit inside the calendar of a leader whose calendar is the constraint — not to add another burden to it.

Can we sponsor more than one leader?

Organizations routinely sponsor multiple leaders — they are placed in different cohorts so each has a room where they can speak freely. We map leaders to the right cohort based on scope.

How do you measure whether it’s working?

Success criteria are co-created with the sponsor and the participant in the first weeks of the program — the specific decisions, transitions, and capability gains the sponsor is investing against. Those are tracked through the twelve months and reviewed with the sponsor at close. Built for sponsors who want a real read on the investment, not a satisfaction survey.