Hi, I'm Brent Dixon.

Your leadership team, aligned on the hard questions.

I facilitate strategy and AI work with leadership teams at credit unions, community banks, and CDFIs. They leave with a shared vision and clear decisions.

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“Brent led the most strategic strategic planning sessions we’ve ever had.”

Ray Springsteen, CEO, Abound Credit Union
For leadership teams at a crossroads

Strategic Planning & Facilitation

Your leadership team walks out aligned on the hard questions. You get a strategy on one page and tools to manage it.

You can also book me to facilitate a retreat or working session on another topic.

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For leaders figuring out AI

AI Strategy & Learning

Some teams want a clear read on the AI their vendors run today. Some want their staff trained. Some want a plan to bring to the board.

I start by learning where your team is. Then you and I choose the work that fits: a working session, a diagnosis, pilots, or staff training.

Tell me where your team is →
For boards, staff, and industry audiences

Workshops & Speaking

I take the topics that feel out of reach and turn them into something your team can use the next morning.

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For CEOs and C-suite leaders

Coaching & Advisory

A regular, confidential thinking partner for CEOs and senior leaders. Each conversation is built around the decisions in front of you.

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What I've found

Three conditions for strategy that holds up.

Group alignment

Each participant shares their views privately before the session. That tells us where the team agrees and where they disagree, so we spend our time reconciling the real gaps.

Prioritized choices

Michael Porter wrote, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." Two or three priorities your team can execute will outperform a long list of initiatives all marked "high priority."

Tested bets

Every strategy is a bet. The question is whether you are improving the odds before you commit. "What would need to be true for this to work?", a question from the Playing to Win framework, turns a guess into something you can test, and a tested bet is one your team can adapt when reality shifts.

Rebekah Henry

"Brent was fantastic! I really appreciate how he tailored his presentation for our event, and our audience truly enjoyed it."

Rebekah Henry Event Planner, Michigan Credit Union League
Mary Beth Spuck

"That was the best strategic planning discussion we've ever had."

Mary Beth Spuck CEO, Resource One Credit Union 2023
Ronaldo Hardy

"Brent is an innovative, forward thinking leader, who inspires the next wave of leadership. I credit Brent as one of the reasons I have found success at such an early age."

Ronaldo Hardy CEO, Balance Financial Wellness
George Hofheimer

"I would unequivocally recommend him as a facilitator and guide for your strategic discussions."

George Hofheimer Founder, Hofheimer Strategy Advisors

Brent Dixon

I founded Dixon Strategic Labs in 2022 after twenty years working alongside communities and cooperatives, co-designing the systems, gatherings, and tools they use to do their work together.

  • United Nations. I co-led the creation of the first innovation unit serving the UN Secretariat and co-chaired the UN Innovation Network. One of our projects used machine learning to turn real-time public data into crisis response planning for humanitarian workers.
  • Singularity University. I mentored and advised teams that secured six-figure funding for their technology startups, one of which was later acquired.
  • Filene Research Institute. I founded The Cooperative Trust, a community of rising credit union professionals whose original crash of the industry's biggest event became an annual program Filene still runs today. I later led the i3 Innovation program there, mentoring forty senior executives from credit unions across North America through a two-year leadership cohort.

I think like a designer, which means I take complex strategy work and make it clear, usable, and built for the people who have to live with it.

I publish AI for FIs, a weekly-ish newsletter on AI for community finance leaders. For speaking engagements, I am represented by Category 6 Consulting.

I live in Oakland, California with my son and a bossy cat named Bug.

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Community guides my work

"No matter the problem, community is the answer."

Margaret Wheatley

People think better together. I bring them together and facilitate their best thinking.

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Prefer to pick a slot yourself? Grab 30 minutes.