Presentation Recap: From Adversity to Innovation

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By: Erika Kiely, PMP

In April, I presented at the PMI Global Summit Series Europe 2025, a remarkable event filled with inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking sessions, and networking opportunities for project management professionals worldwide.

My session, “From Adversity to Innovation: A Journey of Resilience in Project Management,” focused on the intersection of personal resilience and organisational innovation. It was about how leaders and teams can turn moments of adversity into inflection points for transformation, even when the future is unclear.

What was the problem to solve?

Too often, project failure stems not from technical gaps, but from a team’s inability to adapt in the face of disruption, stress, or emotional pressure. This presentation tackled the need to equip ourselves and our organisations not just to manage adversity, but to grow through it.

Key takeaways from my presentation:

• Resilience and innovation are intentional practices. Project leaders must embed them into everyday culture and systems.
• Inclusive, tech-enabled workplaces foster adaptability and trust.
• Our legacy as leaders is shaped into adversity. Reflecting on this deepens our ability to guide others with clarity and empathy.

Several participants reached out afterward, some in tears expressing deep gratitude for the vulnerability and honesty in the session. Their words reinforced this truth: fear is real, but regret is dangerous. The cost of inaction, silence, or playing small is far greater than the risk of showing up with authenticity.

Here are five of the most powerful questions I received post-session, along with my responses:

1. How can project managers help their teams build resilience?
It starts with psychological safety. Create an environment where people can speak openly, name challenges, and know they won’t be punished for failing forward. Practical tools include pre-mortems, ongoing retrospectives, and risk simulations. But none of it matters without trust. Culture is your foundation.

2. You talked about innovation emerging from adversity. What’s an example?
In one project, a sudden regulatory change threatened to stall a major product rollout. It felt like a dead end. But by shifting to Agile, bringing legal into sprint planning, and encouraging radical transparency across functions, we co-created a new, more resilient workflow. That pressure revealed better ways of working we would’ve never explored otherwise.

3. What strategies help keep projects aligned with business goals during uncertainty?
A Strategic Alignment Matrix is a simple but powerful tool; it forces prioritisation based on direct impact to business value. Pair that with LEAN principles, and your initiatives stay nimble and purposeful, even as the conditions shift.

4. How does culture influence risk management?
Culture determines whether your team surfaces risks early or hides them until it’s too late. A culture of trust and empowerment encourages people to flag issues without fear of blame. That’s where real project stability begins. You can have all the risk registers in the world, but if your people are afraid to speak, you’ll still fly blind.

5. How do you continue evolving your leadership style after a major career milestone?
Leadership isn’t static, it breathes. After any milestone, I take time to reflect, reassess my values, and ask for honest feedback. I’m anchored in Servant Leadership, and that means consistently recalibrating how I can better uplift, empower, and advocate for the people I lead.

Closing

I had a transformational time presenting at the PMI Global Summit Series Europe 2025, and I’m especially grateful for the heartfelt responses that came after the session ended. Those quiet, emotional moments reminded me of why we do this work — not just to manage projects, but to build legacies rooted in courage and care.

Thank you for continuing the conversation about resilience, innovation, and human-centered leadership in project management. Let’s keep growing together. The full presentation is available on demand through January 30, 2026. Visit the Global Summit Series Europe 2025 site for access.