25 Ways Working Genius Transforms Project Management

The Working Genius model helps project managers by mapping the six types of work every project requires: Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Project managers who identify their natural genius pairing can delegate draining tasks, staff teams for complete coverage, and reduce burnout by spending most of their time on work that genuinely energises them.

If you have ever wondered why some types of project work energise you while others leave you questioning your career choices, the Working Genius model holds the answer.

Patrick Lencioni created Working Genius to map the six fundamental types of work that exist in every project. The framework reveals which types of work bring you energy and fulfilment, which ones drain you, and which ones sit somewhere in between. For project managers, this is not theoretical. It explains why you can run a planning session brilliantly but feel completely depleted by the execution follow-up, or why you love solving problems but hate coming up with the initial concepts.

Working Genius identifies six types of work. Wonder and Invention sit at the ideation end. Discernment and Galvanising sit in the activation middle. Enablement and Tenacity close out the execution phase. Every project requires all six. Most project managers are strong in two, competent in two, and actively drained by two.

Understanding your Working Genius pairing changes how you staff projects, delegate tasks, and protect your own energy.

UNDERSTANDING THE SIX TYPES OF WORKING GENIUS

The Working Genius model organises all project work into six distinct types, each serving a specific function in moving an idea from concept to completion. Most project managers have been taught to be good at everything. The model gives you permission to be exceptional at two things and to build teams around the rest. The six types are Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. They form a natural sequence, but the sequence is not linear in practice. Projects loop back, skip ahead, and require multiple types simultaneously.

1. Wonder — Asking the Questions That Start Everything

Wonder is the ability to ponder and question the world around you, identifying the need for change or improvement. People with Wonder as a genius notice what is broken, what is missing, and what could be better. They ask the questions that others overlook. In a project context, Wonder shows up in the earliest stages when someone notices a gap, asks why the current process is failing, or wonders whether there is a better way.

People strong in Wonder bring three specific behaviours to a project team. They notice patterns across disconnected information. They ask questions that reframe the entire problem. They create discomfort with the status quo in a way that energises rather than frustrates. Without them, teams execute projects that solve the wrong problem or answer questions nobody actually asked.

What Wonder looks like	What it is not
Noticing the project brief does not address the actual problem the organisation is facing	Complaining that nothing ever works without offering direction
Asking why the team keeps solving symptoms instead of root causes	Asking endless questions that delay progress without focus
Identifying the unstated need that will make or break adoption	Rejecting every proposal because it is not perfect

Project managers weak in Wonder often jump straight to solutions before the problem is properly defined. They treat the brief as gospel rather than as a starting hypothesis. They become frustrated when Wonder-driven colleagues keep asking questions, mistaking curiosity for obstruction. The pattern repeats. The project delivers on time and on brief, but fails to solve the actual problem the organisation was facing.

If Wonder is a frustration for you rather than a genius, your role is not to generate the questions yourself. Your role is to create space for the people on your team who do have Wonder, protect their questioning phase from being shut down too early, and recognise when the right question has just reframed the entire project.

2. Invention — Turning Questions Into Ideas

Invention is the ability to create original ideas and solutions, often in response to the questions raised by Wonder. People with Invention as a genius generate possibilities quickly, connect disparate concepts, and produce creative options where others see constraints. In project work, Invention is the phase where answers start to form. It is brainstorming, yes, but it is also the ability to sit with a problem and generate solutions that are both novel and practical.

The three hallmarks of Invention on a project team are speed, volume, and unexpected connections. Inventors produce ten ideas where others produce two. They borrow frameworks from unrelated fields and apply them in new contexts. They do not need perfect information to start generating solutions. Give them the question and they will fill a whiteboard.

Invention shows up when someone sketches three different process models in response to a single problem statement

It shows up when a team member proposes a solution structure borrowed from a completely different industry

It shows up when the group is stuck and one person says, “What if we approached it like this instead?” and the entire conversation shifts

Project managers weak in Invention often mistake their own discomfort for the idea being bad. They hear a novel solution and their first instinct is to list the reasons it will not work. They default to proven approaches even when the context has changed. They run ideation sessions that feel more like committee meetings, where every idea gets evaluated and critiqued the moment it is spoken, which kills the generative phase entirely.

If Invention drains you, delegate the ideation sessions to someone who genuinely loves them. Your job is not to come up with the ideas. Your job is to create the conditions in which ideas can be generated without premature evaluation, and then to move the best ones into the next phase. Inventors need permission to be impractical in the early stage. They need you to protect the brainstorm from the people who want to move straight to feasibility analysis.

The mistake project managers make is treating Invention as a single workshop at the start of the project and never returning to it. Invention is needed every time the project hits an obstacle, every time a constraint changes, and every time execution reveals that the original plan will not work. Keep your Inventors close. You will need them again.

3. Discernment — Separating the Good Ideas From the Noise

Discernment is the ability to assess an idea or plan instinctively, sensing whether it will work and whether it is the right path forward. People with Discernment as a genius have a gut-level sense for what fits and what does not. They are pattern matchers. They evaluate quickly, often before they can articulate why, and they are usually right. In project work, Discernment is what prevents a team from pursuing ideas that sound good in the room but will fail in reality.

Discerners bring clarity to the chaos of ideation. Inventors produce volume. Discerners filter it. They are not critics, though they are often mistaken for them. A critic tears down without offering direction. A Discerner evaluates and points toward the option that will actually work.

Three specific behaviours mark Discernment in action on a project. Discerners can listen to five proposals and immediately identify the one with the fewest hidden risks. They spot the fatal flaw in a plan before it reaches execution. They say, “This feels off,” and the team ignores them, and six weeks later the thing they flagged becomes the thing that derails the project. If you have someone on your team who consistently raises concerns that turn out to be correct, that is Discernment, and you are underusing it.

What project managers get wrong about Discernment: They mistake it for negativity. They hear a Discerner flag a risk and they interpret it as resistance. They invite Discernment into the room during ideation, where its presence kills momentum, instead of inviting it in immediately after ideation, where it provides the most value. The right sequence is Wonder raises the question, Invention generates options, Discernment identifies the best one, and then the team moves forward. Discernment applied too early shuts down Invention. Applied too late, the team wastes weeks on a path that was never going to work.

If Discernment frustrates you, the issue is usually timing. Discerners need to evaluate. That is how they add value. But they do not need to evaluate out loud during the generative phase. Frame the conversation. Tell your Discerners: we are generating options now, we will evaluate them in the next session, and I need your gut check at that point. Most Discerners are happy to wait if they know their input will be valued when the time comes.

Project managers strong in Discernment often struggle to let ideas breathe. They evaluate as they hear them, which makes Inventors feel shut down. If this is you, your discipline is to separate generation from evaluation. Let the ideas land. Write them all down. Then come back with your Discernment and do what you do best.

ACTIVATION AND MOMENTUM

The middle phase of any project is where ideas either gain traction or die quietly in a folder. Activation is the hinge. Wonder and Invention produce possibility. Enablement and Tenacity produce completion. Galvanising and Discernment sit in between, turning the possible into the actual. Most project failures happen here. The idea was good. The execution plan was fine. But nobody created the energy required to move from decision to action. Galvanising is the genius that does that work.

4. Galvanising — Creating the Energy That Moves People to Action

Galvanising is the ability to rally and inspire people to take action around an idea or initiative. People with Galvanising as a genius generate enthusiasm, communicate in ways that create urgency, and move groups from agreement to commitment. In project work, Galvanising is what turns a decision in a leadership meeting into actual movement across the organisation. It is not spin. It is the ability to translate a plan into a story people want to be part of.

Galvanisers do three things exceptionally well. They create energy in a room that was previously flat. They communicate the why in a way that makes people care about the what. They move individuals from passive agreement to active participation. Without Galvanising, projects get nodded through in meetings and then quietly ignored.

Strong Galvanising	Weak Galvanising
The project kickoff leaves people genuinely excited to start	The project kickoff feels like another meeting to sit through
Stakeholders volunteer to help without being asked	Stakeholders agree to participate but never follow through
The team references the project vision in their own language	The team describes the project only in task-level terms

Project managers weak in Galvanising often treat communication as an information transfer problem. They send the email. They present the deck. They assume that clarity equals buy-in. It does not. Clarity gets you intellectual agreement. Galvanising gets you energy and movement. The project plan might be flawless, but if nobody feels compelled to act on it, the plan stays theoretical.

If Galvanising drains you, your fix is not to become a better communicator. Your fix is to identify who on your extended team is naturally good at creating energy and to position them as the face of the project at key moments. Let them run the kickoff. Let them present to the board. Let them send the update that rallies momentum. You own the delivery. Let someone else own the energy.

The most common mistake is assuming Galvanising is only needed at the start. Momentum dies in the middle of every long project. The initial energy fades. The work gets hard. People lose sight of why it mattered. A Galvaniser revisits the why, reconnects the work to the outcome, and restores the energy that makes people keep going. Bring Galvanising back at every major milestone and every moment the team goes quiet.

EXECUTION AND COMPLETION

Most projects fail in execution, not in planning. The strategy is sound. The team is capable. But the work required to move from 80 percent done to fully complete exceeds the energy available. Enablement and Tenacity are the two geniuses that close the gap. They are the least celebrated and the most essential. Without them, every project ends with a list of tasks that are almost finished and outcomes that are almost delivered.

5. Enablement — Providing What the Team Needs to Succeed

Enablement is the ability to support and assist others in the work they are doing, providing the resources, encouragement, and logistics required for success. People with Enablement as a genius respond instinctively to the needs of others. They notice when someone is stuck, identify what is missing, and provide it without being asked. In project work, Enablement is what keeps execution moving when obstacles appear.

Enablers contribute in three specific ways that project managers often overlook. They remove blockers before blockers become crises. They provide emotional and practical support to team members who are struggling. They handle the logistical work that everyone else forgets: booking the room, formatting the document, chasing the approval, confirming attendance. Without Enablement, projects run on the energy of the loudest voices and leave behind everyone who needed help but did not ask for it.

Enablement shows up when someone notices a team member is stuck on a task and quietly offers to take a piece of it

It shows up when the project hits a dependency and someone says, “I will sort that,” and then actually does

It shows up in the hundred small actions that make other people's work easier: the updated template, the reminder email, the pre-work done before the meeting

Project managers weak in Enablement often expect people to ask for help and then feel frustrated when they do not. They assume that if someone needs support, they will say so. Most people do not. They struggle quietly, miss deadlines, and deliver substandard work because they did not want to admit they were stuck. Enablers catch this early because they are watching for it.

If Enablement is a frustration rather than a genius for you, recognise that your instinct is to focus on outcomes, not on the support required to reach them. That instinct is valuable. But it creates blindspots. You see the milestone. You do not see the person who is three steps behind and losing confidence. Partner with someone strong in Enablement. Let them handle the people side of execution while you handle the delivery side. The combination is what moves projects across the line.

The risk with Enablement is overuse. Enablers can become the person everyone leans on, which drains them and creates dependency. The line to hold is this: Enablement is about providing what people need to do their own work, not about doing the work for them. If an Enabler is consistently taking over tasks rather than unblocking them, the team has a delegation problem, not an Enablement problem.

6. Tenacity — Finishing What Others Start

Tenacity is the ability to push through and complete projects, ensuring that work is finished and goals are achieved. People with Tenacity as a genius derive satisfaction from closure. They do not stop at 90 percent. They do not move on when the work gets boring. They finish. In project work, Tenacity is the difference between delivered and nearly delivered, between outcomes and almosts.

The three hallmarks of Tenacity are consistency, endurance, and an instinct for completion. Tenacious people show up every day and do the work even when the work is no longer interesting. They track details that others forget. They follow through on commitments made weeks earlier. They do not need external accountability because their internal standard is higher than anything you would impose.

What Tenacity looks like in practice: The person who updates the tracker every week without fail. The person who chases the last two approvals when everyone else has moved on. The person who notices the final deliverable still has formatting errors and fixes them without being asked. These actions do not feel like genius to the people performing them. They feel like basic professionalism. But on most teams, they are rare.

Project managers weak in Tenacity often start strong and finish weak. They lose interest once the creative problem-solving is done. They move on to the next project while the current one is still at 85 percent. They assume someone else will handle the closeout. Usually, nobody does. The project drifts, deliverables sit incomplete, and six months later someone asks whatever happened with that initiative.

If Tenacity drains you, admit it and staff for it. Identify who on your team finds satisfaction in finishing and hand them the final phase. Let them own the closeout checklist. Let them be the person who confirms every task is actually done. Your job is to get the project to the point where Tenacity can take over. Their job is to get it across the line.

The cultural mistake organisations make is treating Tenacity as less valuable than ideation. Invention gets the applause. Tenacity gets the project actually finished. Both matter. Neither works without the other. The best project managers recognise Tenacity as a genius worth protecting, not a baseline expectation everyone should meet.

IDENTIFYING YOUR WORKING GENIUS AS A PROJECT MANAGER

Knowing the six types is useful. Knowing which two are your geniuses changes how you work. Your geniuses are the types of work that energise you, that you do well without effort, and that you would choose to do even if nobody was paying you. Most people can identify them instinctively within five minutes of reading the descriptions. If you are still uncertain, the formal Working Genius assessment exists, but the informal version works for most project managers.

7. The Two-Genius Rule

Every person has two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations. Your geniuses are where you add the most value with the least drain on your energy. Your competencies are types of work you can do well when required, but they do not energise you. Your frustrations are the types of work that exhaust you even when you perform them successfully. The model is not about capability. It is about energy. You can be technically skilled at something and still find it draining.

For project managers, the pairing matters more than the individual geniuses. A project manager with Wonder and Invention thrives in ambiguous early-stage projects but struggles with execution rigour. A project manager with Enablement and Tenacity excels at delivery but may need support with ideation and stakeholder activation. Neither pairing is better. Both are essential. The mistake is assuming every project manager should be good at all six.

Common project manager pairings and what they mean:

Discernment and Galvanising. You evaluate options quickly and then rally people around the best one. You are strongest in the activation phase. You struggle with the early ambiguity of Wonder and the grinding endurance of Tenacity.

Galvanising and Enablement. You create energy and then support people to act on it. You are a natural team builder. You may struggle with the strategic evaluation of Discernment and the closure discipline of Tenacity.

Enablement and Tenacity. You are a delivery machine. You remove obstacles and finish what you start. You may need support with ideation, stakeholder engagement, and creating initial momentum.

Wonder and Discernment. You identify problems others miss and evaluate solutions with accuracy. You are strongest in strategy and planning. You may struggle with rallying people and executing through the final phase.

The worst thing you can do with this information is try to fix your frustrations. You will spend energy becoming mediocre at something that drains you, while neglecting the two areas where you could be exceptional. Build your role around your geniuses. Staff your team to cover the rest.

8. The Assessment Versus the Observation

The formal Working Genius assessment takes ten minutes and produces a detailed profile. It is worth doing if you want precision. But most project managers can identify their geniuses through observation. Look at the last three months of your project work. Which tasks did you volunteer for? Which ones did you delay or delegate? Which types of meetings left you energised? Which ones left you depleted?

Three observation prompts that reveal your genius pairing: Think about a project moment when you felt completely in your element, where time passed without you noticing and the work felt easy. What type of work were you doing? That is likely one of your geniuses. Now think about a task you completed successfully but felt exhausted afterwards. That is likely a competency or a frustration, not a genius. Finally, notice what you do in a project meeting when nobody has assigned you a role. Do you ask questions? Generate ideas? Evaluate options? Rally the group? Offer to help? Push for completion? Your instinct reveals your genius.

The difference between the assessment and observation is speed and confirmation. Observation gives you a hypothesis in ten minutes. The assessment gives you validated data in fifteen. Both work. The assessment is useful when you need to justify a staffing decision or explain to your manager why you want to shift responsibilities. Observation is sufficient when you just want to work differently starting tomorrow.

9. What to Do Once You Know Your Pairing

Knowing your pairing is the start, not the finish. The next step is redesigning how you work. Most project managers operate as if they should be equally good at all six types. The result is exhaustion, inconsistent performance, and a nagging sense that project management is harder than it should be. Once you know your geniuses, you can build a role that leans into them and staffs around the rest.

1. Audit your current responsibilities against the six types of work. Which tasks align with your geniuses? Which ones sit in your frustrations? Be specific. Do not just say “project planning.” Break it into Wonder (identifying the need), Invention (generating the approach), Discernment (choosing the best option), and so on.

2. Identify which frustration tasks you can delegate, automate, or remove entirely. If Tenacity drains you, stop pretending you will suddenly become good at closure checklists. Hand that work to someone who loves it.

3. Redesign your calendar to spend 60 percent of your time in your geniuses. You will never eliminate your frustrations entirely, but you can reduce them to 20 percent or less. The middle 20 percent is your competencies, the work you do when needed but do not seek out.

4. Communicate your pairing to your team and your manager. Tell them what energises you and what drains you. Most people assume you want to do the work you are good at. Often, you are good at it because you have been forced to do it for years, not because it energises you.

The project managers who make this shift report the same pattern. Their performance improves, their energy stabilises, and the work starts to feel sustainable again. Not because they are working less, but because they are working in alignment with how they are wired.

STAFFING PROJECTS USING WORKING GENIUS

The second application of Working Genius for project managers is team composition. Most project teams are staffed by availability, seniority, or political necessity. The result is a group of talented people who are collectively weak in two or three of the six types. The project struggles, not because the people are incapable, but because the team is missing a critical genius.

10. The Complete Team Covers All Six

A complete project team has strength in all six types of work, either through individual pairings or through deliberate coverage across the group. This does not mean you need six people. A team of three can cover all six if their pairings are complementary. What matters is that no type is missing entirely. If your team has nobody strong in Wonder, you will execute the brief without questioning whether it is the right brief. If your team has nobody strong in Tenacity, you will get to 90 percent and stall.

The audit process is straightforward. List your core project team. Map each person's genius pairing. Identify which of the six types are covered and which are missing. Then ask: where has this project struggled? Almost always, the struggle maps directly to the missing genius. A project that cannot get traction after the decision is made is missing Galvanising. A project that generates brilliant ideas but never ships is missing Tenacity.

If Wonder is missing, bring in someone who asks hard questions about the brief before the project starts

If Invention is missing, run a structured ideation session with someone external who generates options naturally

If Discernment is missing, involve a senior advisor who can evaluate the plan with fresh eyes

If Galvanising is missing, appoint a communications lead who owns stakeholder energy

If Enablement is missing, assign someone to play the support role explicitly, tracking who is stuck and removing blockers

If Tenacity is missing, bring in a delivery manager who owns the final 20 percent

The mistake project managers make is assuming they can will a team to perform in an area where the genius is absent. You cannot. A team without Tenacity will not suddenly develop discipline. A team without Galvanising will not spontaneously generate stakeholder energy. Staff for the gap or accept that the gap will create a predictable failure point.

11. Pairing People for Maximum Effectiveness

Beyond covering all six types across the whole team, Working Genius helps you pair individuals for specific tasks. The best pairings are either complementary (two adjacent geniuses that hand off naturally) or mirrored (two people with the same genius who can go deep together). The worst pairings are opposites who frustrate each other.

Complementary pairings that work well:

Wonder and Invention. One person raises the question, the other generates the answers. Natural collaboration in the early stage of any project.

Invention and Discernment. One person produces options, the other evaluates them. This pairing accelerates decision-making when the process is structured correctly.

Discernment and Galvanising. One person identifies the right path, the other rallies people to walk it. Strong in the activation phase.

Galvanising and Enablement. One person creates energy, the other provides the support to act on it. Powerful for stakeholder engagement and team momentum.

Enablement and Tenacity. One person removes blockers, the other drives to completion. The execution engine of any project.

Mirrored pairings work when you need depth in a specific type of work. Two people strong in Discernment can evaluate a complex decision with rigour. Two people strong in Tenacity can close out a large project with relentless follow-through. The risk with mirrored pairings is that they leave gaps elsewhere. Use them for specific tasks, not for whole projects.

Pairings that create friction: Wonder and Tenacity often frustrate each other. Wonder wants to keep questioning. Tenacity wants to finish. Invention and Enablement can clash when the Inventor moves fast and the Enabler is still supporting people through the last phase. Discernment and Galvanising can conflict when one is evaluating risks and the other is building momentum. These pairings are not impossible, but they require explicit conversation about timing and roles.

12. The Project Manager as Orchestrator

Once you understand Working Genius, your role as project manager shifts. You are no longer trying to be good at everything. You are orchestrating a team where each person works primarily in their geniuses. This requires a different skill set. You need to recognise which type of work is needed at which phase. You need to bring the right people into the room at the right time. You need to protect people from being asked to work in their frustrations for extended periods.

The orchestration looks like this in practice. Early in the project, you bring your Wonder and Invention people together. You let them question and generate without constraint. Once you have options, you bring in Discernment. You do not invite Discernment to the ideation session because it will shut down the generative phase. Once Discernment has identified the best path, you bring in Galvanising. You let them translate the decision into a story that creates movement. Then you hand off to Enablement and Tenacity for execution.

The project manager holds the sequence. You know what comes next. You know who is needed when. You protect each phase from being collapsed or skipped. Most project failures happen because a team tries to do all six types of work simultaneously in a single meeting. Ideation gets evaluated before it is complete. Decisions get made before Discernment has weighed in. Execution starts before Galvanising has created the energy required to sustain it. Your job is to slow the process down enough that each type of work gets its moment.

The best project managers using Working Genius describe their role the same way. They are no longer the person doing all the work. They are the person making sure the right work happens in the right order with the right people in the room.

REDUCING CONFLICT AND MISUNDERSTANDING

Project teams generate predictable conflict patterns. The person who keeps asking questions frustrates the person who wants to move to action. The person who evaluates risks is labelled negative by the person generating ideas. The person who wants to finish clashes with the person who wants to revisit the approach. Most of this conflict is not personal. It is a collision of geniuses.

13. Why Conflict Happens Between Geniuses

Conflict on project teams usually happens between people whose geniuses sit on opposite ends of the sequence. Wonder and Tenacity clash because one is still questioning and the other wants closure. Invention and Discernment clash because one is generating volume and the other is filtering ruthlessly. Galvanising and Enablement clash because one is focused on momentum and the other is focused on the people being left behind.

The pattern beneath the conflict is this: each person believes their genius is the most important type of work, and they become frustrated when others do not value it the same way. A person strong in Wonder genuinely believes that asking the right question is more important than finishing on time. A person strong in Tenacity genuinely believes that shipping the project is more important than revisiting the strategy. Both are right within their frame. Neither is right in isolation.

What the conflict looks like in real project teams: The Inventor proposes five new approaches mid-project and the Tenacity-driven project manager shuts them down as scope creep. The Wonder-driven team member keeps raising questions about the brief and the Galvaniser accuses them of undermining momentum. The Discernment-driven advisor points out risks in the plan and the Enabler feels like their work is being devalued. None of these people are trying to be difficult. They are operating in their genius and interpreting resistance as a problem rather than as a different genius at work.

The fix is not conflict resolution training. The fix is naming the geniuses in the room and helping people see the collision as structural, not personal. Once a team understands that the tension between Wonder and Tenacity is built into the model, they stop interpreting it as a personality clash. They start managing it as a timing and sequencing issue instead.

14. How to Facilitate Genius-Aware Conversations

When conflict surfaces on a project team, the default response is to smooth it over or to let the senior person win. Neither approach solves the underlying issue. A better approach is to name the geniuses at play and to ask where in the sequence the project currently sits.

The conversation structure looks like this. Acknowledge the tension: “I am hearing two different perspectives here, and I think it is because we are operating in different geniuses.” Name the geniuses: “This sounds like a Wonder question meeting a Tenacity instinct, and both are valid.” Clarify the phase: “Right now we are in execution, which means Tenacity takes priority. But the Wonder question is worth capturing for the retrospective.” Create space for both: “We will finish this phase as planned, and then we will revisit the strategic question in two weeks.”

This structure does three things. It validates both perspectives. It provides clarity on what happens next. It prevents the person raising the concern from feeling dismissed. Most people are willing to wait if they know their input will be considered at the right time. What frustrates them is being told their concern does not matter.

When an Inventor wants to revisit the approach mid-execution, acknowledge the idea and park it for the next iteration

When a Discerner raises risks during ideation, thank them and ask them to hold the evaluation for the next session

When a Wonder-driven person questions the brief after the project has started, commit to a retrospective that revisits the original problem statement

The discipline required is not shutting people down. The discipline is giving their genius a place in the sequence without letting it derail the current phase. Most project managers do one or the other. They either let every genius interrupt the flow, or they suppress every genius that does not fit the current task. Neither works. The third option is to honour the genius and redirect the timing.

15. The Pre-Project Genius Mapping Session

The most effective intervention is not mid-conflict. It is before the project starts. Run a 30-minute session where the core team maps their Working Genius pairings, discusses where each genius will be most needed, and agrees on how to handle the predictable friction points. This session does not eliminate conflict, but it reframes it before it becomes personal.

The session agenda is simple: Each person shares their genius pairing and describes what energises them and what drains them in project work. The group maps the six types against the project phases and identifies where the team has natural strength and where gaps exist. The group names the likely friction points based on opposing geniuses and agrees on how to handle them when they surface. The project manager commits to protecting each genius by bringing people in at the right phase.

The output is not a formal document. The output is a shared mental model. When conflict surfaces later, someone in the room will say, “This is the Wonder-Tenacity thing we talked about,” and the group will recognise the pattern instead of taking it personally. That recognition alone reduces 60 percent of the unproductive conflict on project teams.

APPLYING WORKING GENIUS TO SPECIFIC PROJECT CHALLENGES

Beyond team composition and conflict reduction, Working Genius provides a diagnostic lens for specific project problems. When a project is stuck, the instinct is to work harder or to replace people. Often, the issue is not effort or capability. The issue is a missing genius or a genius being used at the wrong phase.

16. When Projects Stall After the Decision

A project gets approved, the team nods in agreement, and then nothing happens. Three weeks later, the project manager is chasing people for updates and nobody has made progress. This pattern indicates missing or underutilised Galvanising. The decision was made, but the energy required to move from decision to action was never created.

The fix is not to send another reminder email. The fix is to bring in someone strong in Galvanising and give them explicit ownership of stakeholder activation. Let them run a kickoff session that reconnects people to the why. Let them create the communication cadence that keeps energy high. Let them translate the project plan into a narrative that people want to contribute to.

Galvanising is not spin, it is translation from strategy into story

It shows up in how the project is described, how progress is celebrated, and how contributors are recognised

Without it, even the best projects feel like compliance work rather than meaningful work

If your project has stalled post-decision, audit for Galvanising. Is anyone on the team naturally creating energy? If not, appoint someone to that role or bring someone in externally. Do not assume energy will appear on its own. It will not.

17. When Projects Deliver the Wrong Thing

The project ships on time, on budget, and on brief. Six months later, the organisation realises it solved the wrong problem. This pattern indicates missing or ignored Wonder and Discernment at the front end. The team executed brilliantly, but they never questioned whether the brief was correct, and they never evaluated whether the proposed solution would actually work.

The failure point is usually in the first two weeks of the project. Someone raises a question about the brief and it gets dismissed as out of scope. Someone flags a concern about the approach and it gets labelled as negativity. The project moves forward without the course correction that Wonder and Discernment would have provided, and the misalignment compounds over months of execution.

The fix is to build a deliberate question-and-evaluate phase at the start of every project, even when the brief feels clear. Invite someone strong in Wonder to pressure-test the problem statement. Invite someone strong in Discernment to evaluate the proposed approach before resources are committed. Give both geniuses permission to slow the process down if what they find suggests the project should not proceed as scoped.

A 90-minute front-end session structured around Wonder and Discernment prevents months of wasted execution. The session does not need to be elaborate. Bring the right people in. Ask them to question and evaluate. Listen to what they say. Make the course correction before the team is too far down the path.

18. When Projects Hit 90 Percent and Stall

The project is almost done. A few final tasks remain. Weeks pass and those tasks never get completed. The team has moved on mentally, but the project is not officially closed. This pattern indicates missing or exhausted Tenacity. The people driving the project do not naturally derive energy from completion, so the final push feels like a grind they keep avoiding.

The fix is to explicitly assign the closeout phase to someone strong in Tenacity. Do not assume the person who led the project will finish it. If Tenacity is not one of their geniuses, they will not. Hand the final 10 percent to someone who loves closure. Give them a checklist. Give them authority to chase the last approvals and confirm the final deliverables. Let them be the person who moves the project from 95 percent to done.

Most organisations tolerate a backlog of nearly finished projects because they do not treat completion as a distinct type of work requiring a distinct genius. Once you recognise Tenacity as separate from execution, you can staff for it deliberately. The result is fewer zombie projects and more actual outcomes.

19. When Team Members Burn Out Despite Reasonable Workloads

A team member is working normal hours, delivering good output, and still reports feeling exhausted. The instinct is to reduce their workload. Sometimes that helps. Often it does not, because the issue is not volume. The issue is that they are spending most of their time working in their frustrations.

Burnout driven by genius misalignment looks different from burnout driven by overwork. The person finishes the day having accomplished things, but they feel drained rather than satisfied. They dread specific types of tasks even though they are capable of doing them. They perform well by external measures but report internally that the work is grinding them down.

The diagnostic is simple. Map their recent work against the six types. If 60 percent or more of their time is spent in their frustrations, they will burn out regardless of total hours. The fix is to redistribute responsibilities so they spend the majority of their time in their geniuses. This often requires negotiation with the team and the manager, but the conversation is easier when you can name the specific types of work that drain them and propose a reallocation that serves the project better.

The conversation with the manager looks like this: “The burnout is not about hours, it is about energy. Right now they are spending most of their time in Tenacity work, and Tenacity is a frustration for them. If we move the closeout tasks to someone else and give them more Invention work, their energy will stabilise and their output will improve.” Most managers respond well to this framing because it offers a solution that does not require reducing scope or adding headcount.

20. When Meetings Feel Unproductive and Everyone Leaves Frustrated

The meeting had an agenda, the right people attended, and nothing useful happened. Everyone leaves feeling like it was a waste of time. This pattern often indicates a genius mismatch between the meeting purpose and the people in the room. You invited Tenacity-driven people to an ideation session. You invited Wonder-driven people to a closeout review. The mismatch creates frustration for everyone involved.

The fix is to design meetings with explicit genius alignment. Before scheduling, ask what type of work the meeting is meant to do. Is it generating options? Evaluating a decision? Creating stakeholder buy-in? Removing blockers? Confirming completion? Once you know the purpose, invite the people whose geniuses align with that type of work.

Meeting purpose	Invite these geniuses
Problem definition and scoping	Wonder, Discernment
Idea generation and brainstorming	Wonder, Invention
Option evaluation and decision-making	Discernment, with input from Invention
Stakeholder alignment and momentum-building	Galvanising, Enablement
Execution planning and task assignment	Enablement, Tenacity
Progress review and closeout confirmation	Tenacity, with Discernment for quality check

If the meeting involves multiple types of work, break it into segments and rotate who is leading each segment. Do not ask Tenacity-driven people to sit through 40 minutes of ideation before getting to the task list. Let them join for the final 15 minutes when execution planning begins. Do not ask Invention-driven people to sit through a detailed closeout review. They will disengage, and their presence adds no value.

The principle is simple: invite people to the work that uses their genius, and let them skip the rest. Most meeting inefficiency comes from inviting everyone to everything and then wondering why half the room is checked out.

USING WORKING GENIUS IN HIRING AND ROLE DESIGN

The third major application of Working Genius for project managers is hiring and role design. Most project roles are defined by task lists and technical skills. The result is hiring someone who looks good on paper but struggles in the role because their geniuses do not align with the work required.

21. Hiring for Genius Alignment, Not Just Capability

A candidate can be technically capable of doing a job and still be the wrong hire if the job requires them to work in their frustrations most of the time. The traditional hiring process focuses on skills and experience. Working Genius adds a second filter. Does this person's genius pairing align with the actual day-to-day work of the role?

The hiring conversation shifts from “Can you do this?” to “Will this energise you?” A project coordinator role that is 70 percent Enablement and Tenacity work should be filled by someone strong in those areas. If you hire someone strong in Wonder and Invention, they will perform adequately for six months and then disengage or leave. They are capable of the work. The work drains them.

Include genius alignment as an explicit hiring criterion alongside technical skill and cultural fit

Ask candidates to describe the types of work that energise them and the types that drain them, then compare their answers to the actual role requirements

Use scenario-based questions that reveal genius instincts, such as “Walk me through how you would approach the first two weeks of a new project” and listen for whether they start with questions, ideas, evaluation, stakeholder engagement, logistics, or task sequencing

The result is not just better hires. It is longer tenure, higher engagement, and less time spent managing performance issues that stem from genius misalignment rather than capability gaps.

22. Redesigning Roles Around Available Genius

Most roles are designed in isolation and then filled by whoever is available. Working Genius invites the reverse approach. Start with the geniuses you have on the team, then design roles that let people work primarily in those areas. This is not always possible, but it is possible more often than most project managers assume.

The redesign process starts with an honest audit. List the types of work the project or programme requires. Map those types to the six geniuses. Map your current team members to their genius pairings. Identify the gaps and the overlaps. Then ask: can we redistribute responsibilities so that each person spends 60 percent or more of their time in their geniuses?

Often, the answer is yes with minor adjustments. The person currently doing closeout work hates it, and the person currently doing ideation loves finishing things. Swap those responsibilities. The person doing stakeholder communication finds it draining, and the person doing execution loves rallying people. Redistribute accordingly. These changes cost nothing and often improve both output and morale.

When role redesign is not an option, the conversation becomes about rotations and boundaries. If someone has to work in a frustration for a period, make it time-bound. Let them know it is temporary and that their role will shift once the project reaches the next phase. If someone is in a role that requires sustained work in their frustrations, help them transition to a different role rather than letting them burn out quietly.

23. Avoiding the Trap of Promoting People Into Misalignment

A common pattern in organisations is promoting the best individual contributor into a management or project leadership role, only to watch them struggle. The issue is rarely competence. The issue is genius misalignment. The person was exceptional in a role that required Invention and Discernment. The new role requires Galvanising and Enablement. They do not have those geniuses, and no amount of training will change that.

The fix is to separate the promotion decision from the role design decision. If you want to recognise and reward someone, create a path that builds on their geniuses rather than requiring them to develop new ones. A senior individual contributor track. A specialist role with influence but no direct reports. A strategy advisor position that uses their Discernment without requiring them to manage people.

If the organisation insists that advancement requires people management, at minimum make the genius mismatch explicit during the promotion conversation. Tell the person: “This role will require significant Enablement and Galvanising work, and I know those are not your natural geniuses. Here is the support we can provide, and here is what success will require from you.” Let them make an informed decision rather than discovering the mismatch six months in.

The principle is this: promote people into roles that use their geniuses, not into roles that require them to become different people. Capability can be trained. Energy alignment cannot.

TEACHING WORKING GENIUS TO YOUR TEAM

The final application of Working Genius is introducing it to your project team so that everyone operates with the same mental model. A single project manager using the framework creates marginal gains. A whole team using it creates a fundamentally different way of working together.

24. The 60-Minute Team Introduction Session

You do not need a certified facilitator to introduce Working Genius to your team. You need 60 minutes, a basic understanding of the six types, and a willingness to let people self-identify their geniuses through discussion rather than formal assessment.

The session structure is simple: Introduce the six types with one-sentence definitions and real-world examples from your current project. Give the team ten minutes to individually reflect on which two types energise them, which two drain them, and which two are neutral. Go around the room and have each person share their suspected genius pairing and one example of when that genius showed up in their recent work. Map the team's collective geniuses on a whiteboard and identify where the team has natural strength and where gaps exist. Close with a discussion of how the team can use this information in the next phase of the project.

The session does not require perfection. Some people will be uncertain about their pairing. Some will change their answer after hearing others share. That is fine. The goal is not precision. The goal is creating a shared language for talking about types of work and energy.

The value of the session shows up in the weeks after. Someone will say, “I think we need a Galvaniser in this meeting,” and the group will immediately understand what that means. Someone will say, “I am in my frustration zone on this task, can we redistribute?” and the request will be heard as practical rather than as complaining. The language creates permission for people to name what was previously unsayable.

25. Building Working Genius Into Your Project Rhythms

Once the team understands the framework, the next step is embedding it into how you run projects. This does not require a process overhaul. It requires small adjustments to existing rhythms.

Project kickoff. Add a ten-minute segment where the team maps their geniuses and discusses how to distribute work accordingly.

Sprint planning or task assignment. Before assigning tasks, ask which genius each task requires, then match tasks to people whose geniuses align.

Retrospectives. Add a question: “Where did we ask people to work in their frustrations for too long, and how do we avoid that next time?”

Conflict resolution. When tension surfaces, name the geniuses at play and ask whether the conflict is a timing issue rather than a people issue.

Hiring and onboarding. Include genius alignment as part of the role design and interview process, and map new team members' geniuses during onboarding.

These adjustments take minutes, not hours. The cumulative effect is a team that operates with higher energy, clearer role boundaries, and less unproductive conflict. The framework does not eliminate hard conversations. It makes them easier to have because you have language for what was previously just frustration.

Working Genius is not a magic fix. It is a lens that reveals patterns you were already experiencing but could not name. Once you can name them, you can design around them. That shift, from unconscious frustration to deliberate design, is what changes how project management feels.

Your pairing is not the whole story. But it is a powerful place to begin.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Working Genius model and how does it apply to project management?

The Working Genius model, created by Patrick Lencioni, identifies six types of work that every project requires: Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. For project managers, the model explains why certain tasks energise you while others drain you, and provides a practical tool for staffing teams, assigning tasks, and reducing burnout.

How do I find out my Working Genius pairing as a project manager?

You can take the formal Working Genius assessment, which takes around ten minutes and produces a detailed profile. You can also identify your pairing through observation: reflect on which project tasks you volunteer for, which ones you delay, which meetings leave you energised, and which ones leave you depleted. Both approaches are valid starting points.

Can a small project team cover all six types of Working Genius?

Yes. A team of three people can cover all six types if their genius pairings are complementary. What matters is that no type is entirely absent from the team. When a genius is missing, the project will struggle in predictable ways: missing Tenacity leads to stalled completions, missing Galvanising leads to projects that stall after decisions are made.

Why do project teams experience recurring conflict, and how does Working Genius help?

Most recurring project conflict happens between people whose geniuses sit on opposite ends of the sequence. A person strong in Wonder keeps questioning while the person strong in Tenacity wants to close. Understanding that this tension is structural rather than personal allows project managers to name the geniuses at play and redirect each contribution to the right phase.

How is Working Genius different from a personality assessment like DISC or StrengthsFinder?

Working Genius is specifically about work types and energy, not personality or character. The model does not describe who you are as a person. It maps which of the six types of work energise you, which you can do but find draining, and which genuinely exhaust you. This narrow focus on work makes it immediately actionable in a project context.

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator. He works with project teams, corporates, nonprofits and schools around the world, helping them apply Working Genius to reduce burnout, resolve conflict, and build teams that do their best work. Reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org or visit consultclarity.org to explore how a Working Genius workshop could transform your next project.