OOS CERTIFICATION
£199
Read the framework. Complete five exercises. Submit a reflection. Get a verified badge and a public listing in the Certified Optimist directory.
Apply for Cohort 01What certification means here
This is a demonstration that you have applied the framework to your own work -- not just read about it.
The five case study exercises each take one of the OOS beliefs and ask you to apply it to a real situation you have navigated: a decision you made under uncertainty, a team dynamic you misread, a belief you held that turned out to be wrong.
The written reflection (600 words) asks: what did you learn from doing this that you did not know from reading the essay?
Mike reads every submission. Those that demonstrate genuine engagement receive the badge. Those that do not are given feedback and one revision.
The five exercises
Pick a decision you made in the last year that you are uncertain about. Apply Belief 04 (realism + imagination) to re-examine it. What did you see clearly? What did you fail to imagine?
Name a belief your team holds that is slowing it down. Use the Belief Audit framework to articulate what the divergence actually is and what conversation would close it.
Apply Belief 07 (signal over noise) to your current information diet. What are you reading that is not signal? What signal are you avoiding because it is uncomfortable?
Describe a version-one thing you shipped that you were not proud of at the time. Use Belief 08 (progress is iterative) to reframe what it was actually doing.
Apply Belief 09 (confidence compounds) to the last six months. What did you do that deposited confidence? What did you defer that withdrew it?
The directory
Every certified optimist gets a permanent listing at mikelitman.me/oos-directory (launching when the first cohort completes). Name, role, one-line bio, and a link to their work. The directory is searchable by sector and belief specialty.
Who this is for
Senior strategists and brand directors who want to formalise their engagement with the OOS framework
Heads of marketing who have taken the diagnostic, attended a session, or read the essay
Team leaders who want a verified credential they can point to when talking about how they operate under uncertainty
People who want to join a directory of practitioners and be findable by others working in the same space
Cohort model
Certifications are reviewed in cohorts of 10. Cohort 01 closes 30 June 2026. Submissions reviewed within 2 weeks of cohort close. Badge issued on approval.
The cohort model exists because the directory means something when it launches with a group, not one name at a time.