Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
The Moment
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
We now have the best-trained project managers in the history of the profession, yet we still find project revelations lurking in unanticipated moments. Plan for agility and encumbrance rules. Plan for encumbrance and agility appears. Whatever method we mandate, a moment still defines the difference between success and failure, practice and theory. It always has and always will.
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. Part IV, “False Pretenses,” examined the differences between how organizations describe work and how individuals actually accomplish it. Last week, “Change Prevention Specialists” investigated who and what stands in the way of change. In this final installment, I identify where Agency resides.
My Great Uncle Curtis’ supreme professional moment arrived after 20 years working the night shift in the guard tower at the Washington State Penitentiary. Two …
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