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What if the biggest risk to your next project is not the budget, not the technology, and not even the stakeholders? What if it is the skills gap you have been quietly tolerating for years?

In this episode of Powering ProjeX, DK sits down with Kestrel Stone, founder and CEO of Elemental Projects, to confront a truth the industry keeps sidestepping: organisations are racing to deliver more projects than ever before, while investing less and less in the people who actually deliver them. The saw is getting blunter with every passing financial year, and the trees are not getting smaller.

From the 70-20-10 learning model to the four lenses of project complexity, and from skill atrophy in the age of AI to the art of building a culture where people can actually make mistakes and learn, this conversation is a masterclass in what separates resilient delivery organisations from the ones perpetually in crisis mode.

👤 Guest Bio

Kestrel Stone is the founder and CEO of Elemental Projects, a leading Australian provider of project management training and consulting established in 2012. She holds a Master's in Project Management and is a Fellow of the International Project Management Association of Australia. Kestrel serves as a board member of the Global Alliance for Project Professions and is a passionate advocate for the human side of project success. Through Elemental Projects, she delivers accredited programmes including the Diploma of Project Management and bespoke organisational capability solutions, empowering individuals and teams to do good work done well, with confidence and impact.

💬 Key Quote

"AI is great when there's a right answer. But the role of the project manager is to facilitate the conversation between all of those people, reconcile all of those different opinions, and get us in the same boat so we're all heading in the same direction. That's the piece I think we are at risk of losing." - Kestrel Stone

🧠 This Episode Is a Must-Listen If You...

•  Feel the pressure to skip planning and bolt straight into execution on every project.

•  Are wrestling with where AI genuinely helps your team, and where it might be quietly eroding critical thinking.

•  Lead or fund project management capability development and want a practical framework to move beyond one-off training bursts.

•  Are concerned about skill atrophy in younger project professionals who have grown up outsourcing thinking to AI tools.

•  Want to understand the four dimensions of project complexity and how to match the right human skills to each one.

🧭 What You Will Learn: 3 Key Learnings

1. AI Does Not Replace Judgement, It Amplifies Your Starting Point

The 70-20-10 model of learning tells us that only 10% of skill development comes from formal training. AI fits neatly there: a tool for retrieving best practice, structuring content, and reducing cognitive load on well-defined problems. Where it falls dangerously short is in the 70%, the lived, contextual, messy work of projects where the answer is not a fact to be retrieved but a perspective to be negotiated. Using AI to fast-track into execution without the thinking work of initiation and planning is how projects fail with spectacular efficiency.

2. Complexity Has Four Faces, and Only One of Them Suits AI

Kestrel introduces a framework of four complexity types: structural (lots of interdependent activities), technical (innovation required), directional (competing stakeholder agendas), and temporal (emergent, unpredictable systemic change). AI is a genuine ally in structural complexity, where pattern recognition and schedule analysis add real value. But directional and temporal complexity are fundamentally human territory. They require communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills that no model

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Vision: A world where project people are celebrated as the quiet architects of progress: turning the boldest visions into victories through wisdom, courage, and relentless learning.

Mission: To equip project professionals to master their craft through raw, authentic conversations with the respected CEOs, experts, and practitioners.

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In 2026, Powering ProjeX will be publishing some of our long-form content on Patreon. Short form (20 minute episodes) will continue to be published YouTube Podcasts, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.  Head over to our Patreon site for more content and member only offers. Patreon:  https://patreon.com/PoweringProjeX

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