How to Implement Behavioral Project Management for Better Performance (1 PDH)
Date and Time:
Date: September 3, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Duration: 1 hour
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Summary
Project managers in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) often face tight deadlines, shifting priorities, and complex stakeholder dynamics. But what if many of the delays, cost overruns, and coordination breakdowns could be traced back to how the human brain processes information?
In this practical and engaging webinar, Dr. Josh Ramirez—a leader in Behavioral Project Management—will share science-backed strategies that help AEC project teams work smarter, plan more accurately, and prevent avoidable missteps. You’ll explore how cognitive biases, time pressure, and mental fatigue can silently derail projects—and more importantly, how to design your processes to prevent that.
Whether you’re managing infrastructure, land development, vertical construction, or design-build projects, this session will equip you with tools to optimize performance, reduce risk, and enhance collaboration across teams. Learn how small behavioral adjustments can make a measurable impact on your budget, timeline, and team dynamics.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session, AEC professionals will be able to:
- Define Behavioral Project Management and explain how it enhances traditional PM methodologies used in AEC firms.
- Identify key cognitive pitfalls—such as confirmation bias, time pressure, and decision fatigue—that commonly affect schedule and budget accuracy.
- Incorporate behavioral planning techniques like obstacle identification and scope unpacking to improve forecasting and resource coordination.
- Improve individual and team performance by recognizing the signs of cognitive overload and designing workflows around peak mental capacity.
- Apply behavioral insights to real-world AEC challenges, enhancing everything from stakeholder communication to change management and risk mitigation.
Your Speaker
Dr. Josh Ramirez, Ph.D., NPPQ, PMP
Dr. Josh Ramirez, PMP, NPPQ, is CEO of the Institute for Neuro & Behavioral Project Management, which he founded with Dr. Jodi Wilson. Josh is also co-author of the NeuralPlan (www.neural-plan.com) NPPQ master planner certification with Dr. Shari De Baets from Belgium, and he is an adjunct professor of project management, with experience that includes project management and project controls, including work at several national laboratories and other projects throughout the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complex.
He has authored best practices for the DOE Energy Facilities Contractors Group and written for other project management periodicals. His doctoral dissertation is titled Toward a Theory of Behavioral Project Management. You can view an introduction to Josh and his colleagues’ work in behavioral project management at https://youtu.be/miqbagN_4dQ. The future of project management is designing PM methodologies around the beings that predict and deliver projects: humans.
Your Host
Anthony Fasano, P.E., AEC PM | Engineering Management Institute
Most AEC organizations are too busy to focus on attracting, developing, and retaining talented professionals, making it hard to grow. Through his work at EMI, Fasano utilizes a proven framework to help organizations, both public and private, build professional development plans, programs, and tools that help them attract, build, AND maintain strong teams and grow sustainably.
Fasano has written a bestselling book entitled Engineer Your Own Success (by IEEE-Wiley Press), and under his stewardship, EMI has built a massive content platform including 10 active podcasts, 3 YouTube channels, and a popular blog dedicated to helping AEC professionals become better managers and leaders.