Feels like a homecoming for me because I’ve worked with so many of you before. Awesome to see everyone today. What a treat!

As Faith mapped out, we are here to offer multiple perspectives on Emergent Strategy, Design Thinking, and Project Management.

These are some quick mind pokes so that we can spark rich conversation together about seeing change.

Vision check!

The 3 of us are here to offer lenses for seeing your work. We are kind of like trifocal glasses inviting you to focus at the distance you need in this moment for your work: close-up, mid-range, or far away.

My lens comes from being a project manager in transportation a long time ago and from teaching project management for the past 17 years at The Evergreen State College.

For example, when I see in the word “emergent”? ………..

I see emergency.

In project management a reoccurring need is to walk the fine line between facilitating emergent changes without them becoming emergencies.

Further, when I see the word “design”? …………….

I see sign.

As project managers we are usually doing things that have not been done before.

That’s the definition of a project: a unique and temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end.

It’s not a program which is ongoing and repetitive.

So, in a project we have to create signs for the client and for us to easily understand or easily change.

Finally, when I see the words “project manager” I see the need to change the words.

What project management needs now is fewer managers and more moderators.

In fact, I’ve noticed some job postings lately actually seeking “project moderators” instead of “project managers”. This is changing the deals we make with employers.

As project moderators we aren’t being employed to use tools and organizations to control the triple constraint triangle of scope, schedule, budget. Indeed, tools are just tools. Organizations are just people.

Instead, as project "moderators" we are being employed to find and carry the balance. Our job is to deliver and receive moderation with changes as the project moderator.

To move our work from managing to moderating involves being the balance. It’s not enough just to complete checklists, do tasks, fill out a change log.

Tools are just tools.

Moderation is a way of being.

Why does being moderation matter?

Because organizations are people.

When we work with organizations, we are working with people who are coming together at various intersections of needs.

It’s our job in project management to moderate those intersections by being the balance.

Not tools......

Ways of seeing change for you and the client to foster being the balance.

Mental Model: Be a moderator for the emergent.

Put change on the agenda. This mental model makes change a visible and accepted norm. Holds change at center.

Consistent Agenda Items:
a. Changes Complete
b. Changes In progress
c. Changes On the horizon
d. What changes are we missing? Who are we missing to see changes?

Mental model: Self direction through self-location.

Reflect on the door from where you entered into this work. For example, were you and the client focused on growth?

If so, did you enter
together through the
North door = value growth,
East door = skill growth,
South door =
identity growth,
West door = knowledge growth.

The door you & the client entered through can set the inertia for how you & the client will receive the moderation needed. The door you came from may also frame what you will leave with.

Living Indigenous Leadership: Native Narratives on
Building Strong Communities edited by Kenny & Ngaroimata Fraser (2013).

Contributors offer
an Indigenous research framework on leadership. They show a model of 4 doors for the leader as
learner (p. 20).

Mental Model: Johari Window

Mental model to help client & project moderator evaluate what they think they know in contrast with what others know.

Each square = a room you could step into with someone else.

What room do you want to make bigger?

Unknown unknowns: moderate lucid ignorance........ use adjectives to describe what is observed. "If we did know, what would it look like"

https://www.communicationtheory.org/the-johari-window-model/

https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/psychology/johari-window

Mental Model: Earn the Right

Are you “earning the right” to build relationships?

You have to earn the right to ask for something
or to expect something from someone else.

Earning the right involves empathy through meaningful & strategic dialogue.

Earning the right means you have consultation conversations as the project moderator.

Earning the right means consistently learning about your client. It is about building credibility through understanding.

Relationships are a privilege.

Discovery conversations: Ask questions to understand needs, wants, process concerns, and project usefulness.

Start Questions with:
How…
Have
Are
Am
I notice, I wonder
If
Is
Can, could
Do, does

http://www.thecbigroup.com/2015/02/04/what-does-it-mean-to-earn-the-right/

Transition to Cheryl to spark conversations about Design Thinking!