Terry Schmidt

About Terry Schmidt

I help leaders design high-stakes initiatives before planning locks in the wrong answers.Planning assumes the design is sound — that objectives are clear, causal logic holds, and assumptions have been examined. Strategic Project Design asks whether those things are actually true before resources are committed and direction hardens.Most of the time, they aren’t. That’s where execution problems are born.HOW I GOT HEREI was recruited by the original developer of the Logical Framework to field-test it across 24 countries — places where a flawed design wasn’t a budget problem, it was a human one. Same failure pattern everywhere: not bad people, not bad effort. Bad design. Assumptions treated as facts. Causal logic left implicit when it needed to be explicit.That failure mode isn’t domain-specific. It shows up in technology transformations, federal programs, and Fortune 500 boardrooms the same way it showed up in South Asia. I spent the next several decades making that transfer deliberate — refining what became Strategic Project Design across 50+ seminars at UCLA Extension.Execution problems are design problems in disguise. Solve them before the plan is written.WHAT I DOI work at the fuzzy front end where an initiative is forming and must hold before planning begins, or where a project has drifted and needs solid ground before more is spent in the wrong direction.The work surfaces four things most initiatives leave dangerously vague:• What success actually requires — not just what it looks like• Which assumptions must hold — and which have already broken• How activities connect to outcomes — the causal logic that makes results likely• Where execution risk is hiding — before it becomes expensiveThis isn’t project management. It precedes it.WHO THIS IS FORLeaders running initiatives where the stakes are real: high visibility, cross-functional complexity, real consequences if it fails. If you want tools and templates, this isn’t the right fit. If you’re willing to think clearly before acting, we should talk.WHY LEADERS LISTENAuthor of Strategic Project Management Made Simple (Wiley) and the forthcoming Designing for Execution. Award-winning UCLA instructor. Founder, ManagementPro. Clients include Boeing, national laboratories, federal agencies, and Fortune 500 firms. professionals trained.WORKING WITH CLIENTSMost work is done directly with client organizations — on-site, remote, or hybrid. Twice a year I offer an open-enrollment SPD program for leaders applying this to a real initiative they personally own.→ ManagementPro.com

Experience

1. Faculty Member

   The Institute For Management Studies

   Jan 2002 — Present

   I teach \"Turning Strategic Goals into Actionable Plans\" and \"Project Management Made Simple\" for this premiere executive training organization.

Education

• University of Washington

  Bachelor of Science - BS

  1969

• Harvard Business School

  MBA

  1969 — 1971

Skills

• Project Management
• Organizational Development
• Business Strategy
• Strategic Consulting
• Management Consulting
• Management
• Team Building
• Research
• Business Process Improvement
• Planning
• Business Analysis
• Analysis
• Program Management
• Performance Improvement
• Strategic Thinking
• Strategic Planning
• Government
• Workshop Facilitation
• Business Development
• Change Management
• Organizational Change
• Process Improvement
• Executive Coaching
• Organizational Effectiveness
• Integration
• Project Portfolio Management
• Organizational Design
• Team Leadership
• Start-Ups
• Business Transformation
• Performance Management
• Employee Training
• Strategic Planning Facillitation
• Project Planning
• Leadership Development
• Strategy
• International Project Management
• Strategic Leadership
• Training
• Entrepreneurship