The Strategy is in the Room: Planning Projects on Human Connection
“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” — Isaac Newton An algorithm looks at a project and sees a set of data points to be optimized; we look at a project and see the complex human dynamics required to make it work. While AI can process information, it cannot capture the implicit lessons […]
Not All Risks Are Created Equal. Risks Relativity and Critical Thinking
“There is no adrenaline rush. If I get an adrenaline rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong.” —Alex Honnold Most people look at a sheer rock face and see an impossible hazard; Alex Honnold looks at it and sees a problem to be solved A View of the Possible Since I was a […]
Behind the Scenes: A Tale of Two Cities
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” —C. Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Seattle & Amsterdam in Sync! For Aponwao, this feels uncannily familiar, not in revolutionary France, but in the conditions under which work succeeds or […]
Planning the Future: How Young Students Are Applying Project Management to City Design
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.“ A. Einstein City of Wenatchi Project On behalf of the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation (PMIEF), I had the pleasure of serving as judge for the Washington State region of Future City 2025–2026, the ultimate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics […]
Newton’s Third Law Meets Empathy and Compassion: The Seattle/King County Clinic and the Power of Human Connection
“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” Isaac Newton For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction In physics, Newton’s Third Law tells us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In human terms, we witness this truth not just in mechanics but in our communities, […]
Finding the Path: How Strategy Becomes Impact
THE PATH FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING Like walking together through a dense forest, strategic initiatives require attention, collaboration, and adaptability, navigating complexity, assessing risks, uncovering opportunities, and moving towards a shared destination. Strategic planning is often seen as setting long-term goals, prioritizing actions, and creating a roadmap to guide decisions and allocate resources, but it can […]
Thinking Under Pressure
Our most valuable approaches when thinking strategically under pressure are a systems-thinking lens and a deliberate, disciplined practice of critical thinking. They enable us to ascend to 35,000 feet, filtering out distractions, to pinpoint ground-level issues. Amid pressure, it’s vital to step back, assess, and dissect the situation, fostering calmness to devise optimal solutions. Chaos, […]
40 Years In: Project Management Fundamentals
My PM Beginnings: A Foundation Built To Last Just two years out of college I was fortunate to land a job in Marshall y Asociados (MYA), a new company, uniquely specialized in Project Management. I started as a scheduler when MYA was only a year old. My first project? “El Menito”, the development of a […]
Managing the Digital Closet of Communication Chaos
Are your project documents scattered across platforms? Is your inbox overflowing? Ever felt overwhelmed by this mess? Managing digital communication can feel like taming chaos. In this post, I share how disorganization affects communications, document accessibility, and time efficiency. I also share my strategies for organizing a project’s digital space. The Effects of Disorganization The […]