Project Lab - Toby Groves

Dr. Toby Groves

Dr. Toby Groves

The Science of Project Management

Learn the cognitive science behind strategic decision-making and project communication—then experience how it transforms the way you plan, lead, and deliver.

Project Lab: A New Frontier in ‘Project’ Thinking

Project Lab is a breakthrough experience for project leaders ready to upgrade how they think, lead, and deliver in today’s fast-evolving, high-stakes environments. This immersive half- or full-day program fuses the science of human judgment, adaptive leadership, and systems thinking into an interactive lab designed to reshape your approach to complex project execution.

This is not another class on tools and timelines. Project Lab trains the mental agility, cognitive strategies, and team dynamics that drive real-world project success—especially when pressure, ambiguity, and change threaten to derail your plans.

Led by Dr. Toby Groves, a national expert in the psychology of decision-making and leadership, Project Lab blends live simulations, strategic decision drills, and behavioral science insights to help you navigate uncertainty, align teams, and lead with clarity under fire.

Interested in bringing Project Lab to your team?
Contact: laura@tobygroves.com

Download the full program description here

Inside the Lab: How Project Simulations Work

Each simulation in Project Lab functions like a live leadership experiment:

Teams are assigned overlapping but distinct roles within a complex, high-stakes project scenario—each with different information, constraints, and objectives.
You’ll face shifting priorities, emergent risks, team friction, and ambiguous data—all under tight timeframes and evolving stakeholder pressures.
Your decisions will trigger ripple effects across the system, forcing trade-offs and revealing how strategic judgment, alignment, and communication shape real-world outcomes.
As the simulation unfolds, new intelligence, conflicts, or disruptions are introduced midstream, forcing you to pivot, reframe, and adapt—just like in actual project environments.
Throughout the experience, you’ll rotate roles, collaborate with new teams, and navigate different organizational perspectives to develop cognitive flexibility, strategic empathy, and systems thinking.

This is project leadership learning at its most impactful—real-time, human, messy, and remarkably clarifying. You’ll emerge with deeper insight into how people, systems, and decisions interact under pressure—and how to lead through it.

Why Project Lab Works

Project Lab is built on the neuroscience of performance under pressure.

You don’t learn strategic execution by reading about it—you master it by doing it.

In Project Lab, you’re placed in the thick of real-time challenges, learning how to adapt, align, and lead when the unexpected hits. You’ll build sharper judgment, more agile thinking, and deeper awareness of how people and systems behave when plans collide with reality.

You’ll gain insight not just from the content—but from your teammates, as you see how different minds interpret risk, manage complexity, and make decisions under pressure.

What You’ll Do

Rotate through dynamic roles—from risk manager to team lead, stakeholder liaison, or system architect—each demanding a different lens of project thinking.
Lead your team through escalating project scenarios involving shifting objectives, resource conflicts, critical decisions, and fast-emerging risks.
Respond in real time to new developments, shifting stakeholder demands, and cross-functional misalignments—then reflect on the outcomes and your reasoning.
Debrief with expert facilitators, compare decisions across teams, and explore how judgment, alignment, and communication shaped results.
Watch the scenario evolve as your actions ripple outward, changing timelines, altering risks, and revealing second- and third-order effects—just like in real project environments.

This isn’t about what to do next—it’s about learning how to think next.
Project Lab trains your mind to lead when things get complex, dynamic, and real.

Why I Created Project Lab

Project leaders are constantly making high-stakes decisions in fast-moving, uncertain environments—but most training still treats projects like static plans. I created Project Lab to change that.

Yes, you’ll work with proven project principles—but more importantly, you’ll learn how to think adaptively, lead under pressure, and bring structure to the ambiguity that defines real-world execution.

This isn’t a lecture. It’s a shared strategic experience. And by the end, you won’t just manage projects more effectively—you’ll think like a leader who can thrive in complexity.

What Participants are Saying

"The realistic scenarios helped me practice my decision making for real world situations"

"I made a lot of headway in my thinking about systems and project planning"

"A great experience, learned so much."

"Switching to different project teams and perspectives really helped me understand how we can interact more effectively."

Book Project Lab for Your team or conference. The Audience Will Thank You.

Project Lab is available for in-person, virtual, or hybrid delivery formats.

It’s ideal for project teams, leadership cohorts, government agencies, corporate PMOs, and professional associations seeking to strengthen strategic thinking and execution under pressure.

Flexible pricing models are available to support a wide range of budgets, team sizes, and event formats—from standalone workshops to multi-session leadership development tracks.

For more information email laura@tobygroves.com