Initiation Phase

Where this fits

This is the first of four process phases. Everything that follows depends on getting this right. The Initiation Phase covers team formation, assignment analysis, goal setting, and kickoff. A good start is half the work.

What this phase delivers

• An aligned, multidisciplinary team
• A project goal
• A project plan

The typical process steps are: team formation, assignment analysis, project goal and plan, and kickoff.

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3.2.1 Team Formation

Having the right people at the table as early as possible is vital. The team must be aligned on all major decisions from the start. That is why team formation happens at the very beginning.

The "core" project team consists of the people who develop the project from start to finish. They are distinct from external experts, stakeholders, and clients who interact with the process along the way, although a client representative is often part of the core team.

Team size

The core team is rarely larger than four for small projects or eight for large ones. With four to eight of the right people, you can change the world in a month.

Beyond eight, the management overhead grows faster than the capacity. A single PM cannot efficiently coordinate a larger group. If you must go bigger, split into sub-groups, each with its own manager, under a single project director providing oversight. Less efficient, but sometimes necessary.

Diversity matters

Teams work best when they consist of people with diverse qualities: content knowledge, personalities, disciplines, experience, cultural backgrounds, age ranges, and gender. A strong SiD recommendation is to have at least three kinds of thinking represented:

• Scientific/analytical mindset: gets to the details, unravels issues systematically, decides based on evidence
• Creative mindset: explores, generates unusual ideas, makes connections across fields
• Business/connectivity mindset: navigates the complexities of people, cultures, organizations, and value propositions

All team members should be excellent collaborators, able to give and receive constructive feedback, and bring positive energy. People who are too critical or conservative will hold the project back.

Content knowledge

Ideally, the PM is the most experienced person in the project's subject matter. This allows the PM to guide the team through the idiosyncrasies of a particular field and assess the quality of the work. Beyond the PM, complement knowledge across the team. Generalists are more useful as core team members than narrow specialists.

Mindsets over titles

In Except's experience, diversity in mindsets matters more than official backgrounds. People with dual alignments are especially valuable (a designer/scientist, for example). The specific mindsets depend on the subject matter. For sustainable cities, include an urban planner (often in the creative role). For business strategy, include a business analyst. For scientific rigor, industrial ecologists work well because they span a broad range of sustainability sciences and tend toward systemic thinking.

If you double up on disciplines, it should be because the people have different and complementary mindsets, personalities, and skills.

Skills

Beyond mindsets and knowledge, a good team includes a variety of practical skills: drawing, diagramming, mapping, abstract reasoning, writing, presenting, storytelling, and facilitating groups. Photography, video, rapid information gathering, and life experience all help too.

Team priming

If team members do not know each other well, invest time in exercises that build trust and connection. Except calls this "team priming." Go out for dinner. Have each person bring an object that reflects their personal story. Make it creative and give everyone space to express themselves. These early investments in team chemistry pay off during the intense stages later. Team priming fits naturally into a kickoff session.

For personality assessments, tools like Myers-Briggs, 123test (both free), or Belbin (commercial, based on Meredith Belbin's research on ideal team compositions) can help balance the team dynamics.

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3.2.2 Assignment Analysis

The PM's first task is a quick system assessment: what the project is about, its time frame, potential budget requirements, and boundary conditions. The PM scouts out the project requirements so that a team can be formed, the right tools will be ready when work starts, and team members can be briefed.

The output of this step is the project brief: the document that gives every team member enough information to begin. For projects involving independent contractors, this is also where preliminary agreements on responsibilities, budget, and roles are drafted.

Key questions

• How long will this project take?
• How many people are needed?
• What facilities and materials are required?
• What role will the client or partners play?
• What are the desired deliverables?
• What are the boundary conditions (time, budget, facilities)?
• What legal responsibilities fall on the team?
• How will contingencies be handled?

Use the SiD method as a quick lens: step through it briefly, filling in the disciplines and tasks you can foresee. A spreadsheet works well for this. It becomes the basis for expanding roles and tasks with the team later.

Consulting context

In a consulting setting, this is the stage where a proposal or quote is written. Since the project may not continue if the proposal is not accepted, assignment analysis is usually done iteratively. Start with a quick assessment in a few hours with a small group. Document it. Share with the client. If the client agrees, work out details collaboratively to fit budget, deadlines, team, and responsibilities.

When embarking on a collaborative project, make sure the client understands their responsibilities. Collaborative development is vastly different from traditional project processes. The client must engage intimately, ensuring delivery of required data and other inputs that integrated analysis requires.

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3.2.3 Project Goal and Plan

Goal setting appears in the SiD method cycle (covered in Chapter 2), but here it serves a different purpose. In this process step, we identify the goal of the process itself, not the subject the project addresses. How long can the process take? What resources does it use? What conditions does it work under?

There can be some productive blending between process goals and subject goals, which gets the team's feet wet in the content. But this step should be short and focused. Do not dwell on complex questions that belong in the method cycle later.

Setting the goal

Start with concrete boundary conditions: timeline, number of milestone meetings, expected delivery format, budget, areas that can or cannot be influenced, confidentiality requirements. A first attempt at a system-level goal for the project content may help set the tone, perhaps written into the kickoff agenda or as a primer document before the SiD sessions.

Quick goal exploration session

For larger projects, a rough system mapping session of one to two hours with the team can help. In this meeting, the team gets a first taste of the system under investigation and how it affects the surrounding society. This also helps find the right language for the given context.

Goals from client briefs

Be aware that client briefs tend to be object-oriented and prescriptive, while SiD seeks system-level, performative goals. Object-oriented goals should be avoided. The goal must allow for systemic problem solving.

If the partners who wrote the brief cannot be fully involved (as with a government tender), set the system-level goal internally. Use the brief's requirements as project boundaries only. When reporting back, translate the solutions into the language and framework of the original brief.

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3.2.4 Kickoff

After the team is formed and the brief is ready, plan a central kickoff event. The PM gathers the core team with client representatives and any critical external partners in one meeting.

In this meeting, the PM:

• Presents the process ahead and asks for feedback
• Explains what is expected of each team member
• Discusses the project goals and specifics
• Introduces team members to each other (if needed)

For projects with intensive group processes, include a separate introduction session where each member shares what inspires them, their experience, and their passion for the project.

Include team members whose roles lie further down the path. They need to reflect on the process and feel part of the project from the start.

If the project involves a physical site, combine the kickoff with a site visit. For company strategy, a tour of headquarters or production facilities makes a strong starting event. This is also the moment to introduce the SiD process room and make it available.

A goal-setting and visioning exercise after the kickoff, before the Intelligence Phase, helps the team explore directions for productive research.

Takeaway

The Initiation Phase sets the foundation for everything that follows. Build the right team. Analyze the assignment. Set clear process goals. Kick off with alignment and energy. Skip this, and you will pay for it later.

Next: the Intelligence Phase, where the team gathers the knowledge it needs.