What's "Cogent"?

"What's 'cogent?'", you ask.

"Project management as a collaborative systems practice", we answer. 

"No, really", you say, "What's 'cogent'? The word?"

According to the dictionary, the word cogent [ko' junt] comes from the 14th Century French word for "necessary, urgent." Today's English word means about the same: "convincing; appealing to the powers of reason". 

Our main purpose here is not to define a word or to introduce ourselves. It is to introduce a question for you. About your future: "What's cogent?" What is needed now to create your future? What do you need to do to build your capacity and your career, and to support others doing the same? 

In the 21st Century, having a global career and a professional future means being able to communicate, cooperate, and perform, well, and from the start, not only within your own organization, but also with outsiders, with people and organizations different than you and yours. 

Such learning is not academic. It is not subject matter that can be studied, it is not passing a multiple choice test, nor is it, most importantly, anything that an individual can do alone. 

So, what's cogent?

Again, we'll say the learning that is cogent to individual and teams is project management as a collaborative systems practice (CSP). People constructing things that they understand as systems, by activities that they understand as systemic. 

CSP is what happens in  mentoring, internships, apprenticeships, STEM instruction, problem based learning, and Maker Education,  communities of practice, and project management – all of these engineer physical things that make a difference in the operating world as the same time as they build competencies of those doing the building. These are competencies that make for careers going forward: empathy, imagination, systems thinking, rigor, cooperation, and management skills. This is project management as CSP. This is what enables practitioners to cooperate and contribute to their organizations, wherever they are in today's complex, conflicted, and turbulent world.

At Cogent Language, our mission is to help build project know-how for individual and collective futures. Our core competence is in designing and deploying learning paths in project know-how for individuals in organizations, such as businesses, universities, schools, and NPO's.  Our main service is individual coaching, provided 1:1 or in group courses. Supporting this service are our main products are project worksites. 

So, before you decide on a learning path to your future, be sure it is "cogent". Then compare its features with ours. For that purpose, here is a handy checklist.