Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
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Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.
A good project vision does more than unite the team toward a common objective--it also helps with group decision-making when faced with difficult choices.
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge, describe a good project vision as being able to “Reveal a beckoning summit towards which others can chart their own course.” I like this description because the “reveal” invokes images of clouds parting and the end goal becoming visible. This is often what we need on projects--for the confusion to lift and the end state to be illuminated for everyone to see. The “chart their own course” part is important, too. The route team members take might vary from role to role, and we don’t want to dictate their every step. Instead, encourage local problem solving toward a common goal.
Here’s an example from Toyota--its lean manufacturing approach shares many philosophies with agile methods. In his book Toyota Kata, Mike Rother describes how decisions at Toyota are framed in light of a shared company goal: “Survive long term as a company by improving and evolving how we make good products for the customer.” This vision of “improving and evolving” influences decisions and underlies the continuous improvement mindset.
Rother outlines a classic material handling problem: In an…
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