council-consultation

What this skill does

# Council Consultation Skill

## Overview
This skill enables Claude to provide multi-perspective analysis for complex decisions by dynamically generating relevant expert viewpoints, consulting each perspective systematically, and synthesizing their insights into balanced recommendations.

## When to Use This Skill
Use council consultation when the user is:
- Making complex decisions with multiple considerations or tradeoffs
- Seeking diverse perspectives on a question or problem
- Evaluating options where different stakeholders would have different priorities
- Facing decisions with significant ambiguity or competing values
- Asking "what should I do about..." or "how should I approach..." questions
- Explicitly requesting multiple viewpoints or perspectives

**Do NOT use for:**
- Simple factual questions with clear answers
- Questions requiring current information (use web_search instead)
- Technical how-to questions with established solutions
- Questions where a single expert perspective is sufficient

## Methodology

### Step 1: Analyze the Question
Before generating the council, understand:
- What decision or question needs addressing
- What domain(s) are involved (career, technical, personal, financial, etc.)
- What kinds of expertise or viewpoints would be most valuable
- What tensions or tradeoffs are likely present

### Step 2: Generate Council Perspectives
Create 4-5 distinct expert perspectives that would provide valuable input. For each perspective, define:

1. **Role/Title**: A clear, descriptive role (e.g., "Risk Management Specialist", "Long-term Growth Strategist", "Work-Life Balance Advocate")
2. **Description**: One sentence describing their expertise or viewpoint
3. **Lens**: The specific angle or priority they bring to this question

**Guidelines for perspective selection:**
- Ensure diversity: Include perspectives that might conflict or prioritize different values
- Be context-specific: Tailor perspectives to the actual question, not generic roles
- Balance breadth and depth: Cover major angles without being redundant
- Consider stakeholders: Include viewpoints of people affected by the decision
- Include both optimistic and cautious perspectives

**Example for "Should I accept a startup job offer?":**
- Financial Security Analyst: Focuses on compensation, equity value, and financial risk
- Career Growth Strategist: Emphasizes learning opportunities and career trajectory
- Work-Life Balance Advocate: Prioritizes sustainable workload and personal time
- Industry Insider: Brings market knowledge and startup ecosystem perspective
- Risk-Reward Evaluator: Weighs upside potential against downside scenarios

### Step 3: Consult Each Perspective
For each council member perspective, provide a focused response (3-4 paragraphs) that:
- Stays true to their specific role and lens
- Addresses the original question directly
- Provides concrete, actionable insights where appropriate
- Acknowledges relevant tradeoffs or limitations
- Maintains the distinct voice and priorities of that perspective

**Important:** Each perspective should feel genuinely different. Avoid simply restating the same analysis from different angles. The perspectives should sometimes disagree or prioritize different factors.

### Step 4: Synthesize Perspectives
After presenting all council member responses, provide a synthesis that:

1. **Highlights alignments**: Where do the perspectives agree? What common themes emerge?
2. **Identifies key tensions**: Where do perspectives conflict? What tradeoffs are at play?
3. **Suggests a balanced path forward**: What approach honors the valid insights from multiple perspectives?
4. **Clarifies what matters most**: What considerations should weigh most heavily in this specific decision?

The synthesis should be:
- Concise (4-5 paragraphs)
- Actionable and practical
- Honest about uncertainties or limitations
- Respectful of the user's autonomy to make their own decision

## Output Format

Present the council consultation in this structure:

```
[Brief acknowledgment of the question]

**Council Perspectives:**

**[Role 1: Title]**
*[One sentence description]
*Lens: [Their specific angle]*

[3-4 paragraphs of their perspective]

**[Role 2: Title]**
*[One sentence description]
*Lens: [Their specific angle]*

[3-4 paragraphs of their perspective]

[... continue for all perspectives ...]

**Synthesized Recommendation:**

[4-5 paragraphs synthesizing the perspectives, highlighting alignments and tensions, and suggesting a balanced path forward]
```

## Best Practices

### Creating Effective Perspectives
- **Avoid stereotypes**: Don't create caricatures or overly simplistic viewpoints
- **Be specific**: "Tax Optimization Strategist" is better than "Financial Expert"
- **Ground in reality**: Base perspectives on how actual experts in these roles would think
- **Allow for nuance**: Perspectives can acknowledge complexity and uncertainty

### Writing Perspective Responses
- **Stay in character**: Each perspective should reflect their unique lens consistently
- **Provide substance**: Go beyond platitudes; give specific considerations and insights
- **Be constructive**: Even cautious perspectives should be helpful, not just negative
- **Vary depth**: Some perspectives might go deeper on fewer points; others might survey more broadly

### Synthesizing Effectively
- **Don't pick winners**: Avoid declaring one perspective "right"
- **Acknowledge tensions**: Some decisions have no perfect answer; be honest about this
- **Provide clarity**: Help the user understand which factors matter most for their situation
- **Respect autonomy**: Frame recommendations as considerations, not commands

## Advanced Techniques

### Adaptive Council Composition
For recurring decision types, consider standard council compositions:

- **Career decisions**: Financial, Growth, Balance, Risk, Industry perspectives
- **Technical architecture**: Security, Scalability, Maintainability, Cost, User Experience perspectives
- **Investment decisions**: Risk, Tax, Diversification, Growth, Liquidity perspectives
- **Interpersonal situations**: Empathy, Boundaries, Long-term Relationship, Communication, Self-Care perspectives

### Handling Follow-up Questions
If the user asks follow-up questions about specific perspectives:
- You can "consult" that specific council member again
- Provide additional depth on their viewpoint
- Allow perspectives to respond to each other if requested

### Scaling Complexity
For particularly complex decisions:
- Consider 6-7 perspectives instead of 4-5
- Allow for sub-councils on different aspects
- Structure the synthesis with clearer sections (Alignments, Tensions, Recommendations, Critical Questions)

## Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. **Generic perspectives**: Don't create "optimist vs pessimist" councils; be domain-specific
2. **Redundant viewpoints**: Each perspective should add unique value
3. **Predetermined conclusions**: Let genuine tensions emerge; don't force agreement
4. **Over-simplification**: Complex decisions deserve nuanced perspectives
5. **Decision-making for the user**: Provide insights, not instructions
6. **Ignoring context**: Tailor perspectives to the user's specific situation and constraints

## Example Use Cases

### Good fits for council consultation:
- "Should I accept this job offer at a startup versus staying at my current company?"
- "What's the right approach for implementing zero-trust security in our platform?"
- "How should I structure my investment portfolio given my goals and constraints?"
- "Should we migrate to microservices or refactor our monolith?"
- "How do I handle this difficult conversation with a colleague?"

### Poor fits (use other approaches):
- "What's the capital of France?" (simple fact)
- "What happened in yesterday's election?" (use web_search)
- "How do I fix this Python error?" (technical troubleshooting)
- "Tell me about machine learning" (explanatory, not decisional)

## Integration with Other S