Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Speculate: The How -- The Planning and Post Meetings
Doug is the author of the landmark book, Extreme Project Management®: Using Leadership, Principles and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility. He works with clients who undertake projects in very demanding environments: those settings that feature high speed, high change, high unpredictability and high stress. Doug has lived in the trenches—from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Beijing, China—with over 275 project teams with budgets that ranged from $25,000 to over $25 million. He is one of the founders of the Agile Leadership Network, an organization dedicated to connecting, developing and supporting great project leaders. He is known for his hard-hitting and humorous keynote speeches that address vital issues facing today’s project-based organizations. You can visit Doug at www.dougdecarlo.com.
Warning: The Menu is Not the Meal
You can only be successful in applying the definitions, doing the activities and using the tools that comprise the Flexible Project Model by infusing and deploying them with the underlying principles, values and practices of eXtreme Project Management. (For more info, check out the Happy Clients diagram.)
The Speculate Cycle revolves around Business Question 2: What will it take to do it? The “it” of course refers to the Collective Vision. (See the Flexible Project Model diagram.)
The centerpiece of the Speculate Cycle is the Planning. The purpose of the Planning Meeting, which is attended by the Core Team who will be doing the work, along with other key stakeholders, is to:
- Update the Collective Vision.
- Gain a better understanding of the work to be done, who will do it and what they will need.
- Estimate financial requirements and schedule.
- Build confidence and trust in the ability to succeed.
Because the Speculate Cycle gets down to the nitty-gritty, it tends to exacerbate differences in personality styles. The Newtonians in the group, with their need to stabilize the project, will be push to have the project planned out in great detail, usually at a level of granularity that is not practicable due to the amount of unknowns in terms of the final deliverable and the path to get there. At the other …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" - Abraham Lincoln |