Chaptermeeting Cologne: Agile Leadership in the Forces

Project management in crisis situations

How can crisis situations be managed? We think: Core competencies of project management help us to act in a goal-oriented yet flexible way in critical situations. Agile methodologies, in particular, offer a fund of working and thinking methods that enable complex tasks to be mastered even in environments with great uncertainty.

However, it has also become apparent that leadership must be rethought under these conditions. Traditional management structures with complex and time-consuming decision-making processes often fail to harness the benefits of agile working methods for the organization. In particular, the aspect of employee empowerment is a success factor for agile working methods. In order to shed more light on this aspect, we would like to launch a series of events dedicated to the topic "Leadership in crisis situations. What can we learn from project management".

The starting point will be our chapter meeting on 11.9. in Cologne. Captain Johannes Schmidt-Thomée and Dr. Florian Andresen from the Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces will give two presentations on new agile leadership approaches in the German Armed Forces. The fact that it is precisely in the area of defense, with its very hierarchical leadership models, that new agility-promoting and challenging leadership approaches are being developed, promises exciting insights into the current challenges for rethinking leadership.

Mr. Schmidt-Thomée will speak on the topic of "Innovation and digitalization through empowerment and agility" (ID:EA). The "turn of the times" reinforces the need to dynamize the Bundeswehr. Against this background, the Navy has initiated a change process to activate employee potential. The presentation explains the conceptual approach and the "ID:EA de Maneuvre" in its implementation.

After training in the Navy and studying education, Captain at Sea Johannes Schmidt-Thomée progressed through the career stages in the Navy's shipboard service, which led him, among other things, to Executive Director of the NATO Center on Excellence in Confined and Shallow Waters in Kiel. Since 2022, he has been the Commissioner for Innovation and Digitalization through Empowerment and Agility at Naval Command Rostock. Previously, he was project manager of the project "Information and Innovation through Interaction" at Operational Flotilla 1 in Kiel.

Dr. Florian Andresen will speak on the topic "Agility meets bureaucracy. On the introduction of agile methods in the Bundeswehr". The changing framework conditions in defense demand more flexibility and higher reaction speeds in the armed forces. Against the backdrop of these requirements, Dr. Andresen's presentation will highlight the challenges of introducing agile methods in hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations such as the Bundeswehr.

After studying at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg and the University of Meryland, Dr. Florian Andresen received his doctorate in strategic management from Helmut Schmidt University in 2020. Already during his doctoral studies, while still a regular soldier, he led various projects in research and teaching. After his doctorate, he gained some experience in consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, especially in public sector consulting. Since 2021 he is habilitand at the Helmut-Schmidt-University, University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg.

The lectures will be held in German.

 The Chapter Meeting on 11.09. is supported by the following sponsors:

RUHR PM GmbH, teaches the core competencies of project management to project teams in the project-based Masterclass Project Management 4.0.

The New Learning Campus offers a comprehensive program of courses on agility in project contexts.

We thank both sponsors for supporting our chapter meeting.

The event has a limited capacity. If after registering you find that you are unable to attend, please cancel your registration to allow others to attend.

For the participation in the event 2 PDUs can be requested. For Members of the PMI Germany Chapter the event is free of charge. To get the reduction please save you PMI-ID in your personal profile on our web site. We will need one day to check your membership. 

If you have any questions, please contact eckhard.hauenherm(at)pmi-gc.de.