Biography
Dennis is the CEO and co-founder of Synaptus in Atlanta, GA, a consulting firm that helps enable business transformation. With a 20-year history in the making, Dennis’ strategies help organizations implement change by gaining insight into complex operating models to identify structural conflict and improving human performance through action-based communication, talent alignment, effective project management, and pragmatic leadership. Dennis’s profound achievement is that he has synthesized organizational psychology and development, systems thinking, process improvement, and project theories along with his practical experience into a systematic approach to reach breakthrough success for organizations.
Dennis contributed to the development of Microsoft’s business architecture service offering, a strategic alignment methodology used to prioritize investments in technology and process improvements. This approach was published in the June 2008 Harvard Business Review.
He co-developed the Dynamic Organizational Development Model, which maps competencies to capabilities to support the development of a talent management roadmap. Dennis is certified as a Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute and is the Deputy Project Manager of the Project Management Institute’s OPM3 (Organizational Project Management Maturity Model) Second Edition standards team. He is also the author of the upcoming book, “Project Conversations.”
He was awarded a Naval Commendation Medal by the Marine Corps during Desert Storm and attended Florida State University on a violin scholarship. He and his wife have two children and he stays active in their academic and sporting endeavors. He enjoys baseball, scuba diving and is learning to sail.
Available Presentations
Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: How Effective Conversation Improves Project Management Success
Effective project managers align an organization’s project initiatives with its strategic objectives. But what can go wrong between the initial creation and management of a project and one that ends with promises not being delivered? For many organizations, the breakdown doesn’t occur where work is performed – it occurs at the point of interaction. Miscommunication can happen at the top when business strategy is expressed from executives to project managers or in conversations between managers and implementation teams. Evoking effective learning principles addressed in Gordon Pask’s renowned ‘Theory of Conversation’ with proven project management techniques used in some of the world’s leading corporations, Dennis Stevens will provide tips on how project managers can improve those interactions and in effect, improve their projects’ success.
Navigating Half-Truths, Blame Games & Politics: Using Capability Modeling to Understand Hierarchy Conflicts & Motivate Organizational Change
Reasonable employees, in response to conflict and limitations inherent in the complex organizations they operate within, waste at least 50 percent of their productive energy in today’s workplace. This insightful presentation will address the root of the conflict and present an important tool managers can use to align the strategy with what is done within the organization. This enables them to identify and resolve the performance and structural tensions holding back productivity and decide where to focus scarce resources to focus organizational change. This session will help managers understand the conflicts inherent with the hierarchal structures of today’s organizations to understand and address the unreasonable challenges facing otherwise reasonable employees.
Eight Things I Learned from Coach Girls Basketball: And how they might help you become a more productive project manager.
In 2007, Dennis Stevens set out with two other coaches to build a successful girls basketball team. The objective as to build a winning team that could win the right way. The growth of the girls was as important as the success of the team. The project was successful as the Georgia Pistols won the 2007 11u AAU National Championship. They won their games by an average of 20 points throughout the National championship tournament. Despite having a lot of talent, there were no individual stars on the team. Everyone had a role and pursued their role with their best effort. Every girl played in every game – and almost every girl scored in every game. Most importantly, the girls did it while growing as people, always respecting each other, the coaches, and their opponents. These are the eight principles that were applied to the selection, development, and performance of the team.
1. Have a clear vision of what you are trying to do
2. Have a clear vision of how you will do it
3. Pick the project team to fit this vision
4. Sell the vision to the team – everyone understands their role and how it makes them successful.
5. Manage the attitude of the team
6. Avoid distractions
7. Work on delivery until you perfect it
8. No individual is successful only the team.
Why Can’t We Get Good People around Here: How HR can take a seat at the strategic table.
HR professionals spend their time and energy managing compliance, benefits, and compensation. These issues distract organizations from leveraging their talent to raise managements ability to reach strategic and operating goals. To benefit from the power of talent, they need a systematic way to align employee placement, learning and development, and performance management with strategic and operating objectives. The Dynamic Organizational Development Model focuses on delivering specific performance improvements to the business through employee placement, training and development, and performance management. This presentation will provide HR professionals with a guide to getting out of the plumbing of HR and taking a seat at the strategic table.
Five things I wish I knew in the Fifth Grade.
I would have taken a very different approach to my eduction if I knew as a fifth grader what I know today. This presentation examines five key concepts I wish I knew as a fifth grader. This are not only important to our children today, but matter to anyone who is still in the world of work.
Testimonials
“You promised an energetic and thought provoking presentation and truly delivered above and beyond. I hope every speaker I select this year has the passionate delivery and valuable content that you did.”~ Janet Collins
“What you are talking about is something every manager should be considering.”~ Tim Clement
“You are one of the most outstanding speakers we had for the 2006 PDD. Our attendees requested for us to bring you back. They want more time to hear what you have to say.”~ April Kendrick
“Dennis did a wonderful job communcating the gap between what project managers know about about the implementation of project management and what organizations expect from project management. His presentation on how to assess this gap gave a lot of hope to project managers like me who strive to communicate effectively. He clearly answered the question, ‘So, what next?’” ~ Ahmed Moiz
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