Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Extreme PM's Guide to Emergency Response
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.
You’re ready. You have an emergency response plan in place. Then it happens: life hits the fan. You’re the team leader. Things are moving and changing rapidly. Although you’ve had rehearsals and drills, the dynamics seem to be different when the real thing happens. It feels like chaos.
The 10 Shared Values of eXtreme project management (as in the author’s model for succeeding on extreme projects) provide a useful framework for leading an emergency or immediate response team.
Under emergency conditions, a team member’s trust in others and the team’s overall confidence in its ability to succeed are essential.
The 10 Shared Values of eXtreme project management have two primary purposes: to build trust and confidence. Trust, which is earned over time, is the mutual feeling that my team members can be depended upon to do their job competently. Confidence is the conviction that by working together we will succeed in the face of volatility and adversity. Both trust and confidence build on each another.
Here is how the 10 Shared Values can be applied to preparing for a crisis and to leading an emergency response team (ERT) during a crisis. These principles make common sense. Here’s a checklist to help make them common practice.
Clarity of Purpose
When things start to happen, one can easily lose sight of the team’s overriding mission and become diluted and …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell |