Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
False Pretenses
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Aeronautical engineers don’t try to “fix” gravity; sailors don’t try to change the wind’s direction. But many project managers expend much of their energy trying and failing to remedy universal features of organizational life, when they could more usefully adapt to their eternal presence.
The first installment in this series — “Special Agent” — introduced the concept of Agency as “the facile ability to actually do something. It is instinct and knowledge embodied in the moment into productive action.” I questioned whether teaching about project management ever translates into Agency. The second and third installments — “All Ya Gotta Do!” and “The Miracle Question” — introduced a model and a simple question for inducing Agency.
“One genius working alone equals one genius, two geniuses working together equals half a genius, and three geniuses working together equals no geniuses at all.” — well-known folk wisdom
One of the first exercises in my Mastering Projects Workshop invites the participants to brainstorm a list of the difficulties they face when doing their work. I introduce the exercise by announcing that we will post these lists in front of the classroom, so they’ll be glowering down upon us as we work, because difficulties are always present. We can get …
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I hate asking for change. They always make a face. It's like asking them to donate a kidney. - George Costanza |