How a $6.7B+ Construction Company Used PopUpThinkTank to Sustain Momentum Across Change, Teaming, and Sustainability
Company Overview
Industry: Construction & Development
Scale: ~7,000 employees | $6.7B+ revenue
Engagements: 3 initiatives, 6 facilitated sessions (with a fourth underway)
When Growth Creates Pressure — and Possibility
Mortenson Construction has built its reputation by delivering complex projects at scale. In recent years, that scale has accelerated: new markets, new capabilities, new expectations, and rising pressure on leaders to deliver results and lead change at the same time.
For Directors and Senior Managers inside the organization, this created a familiar reality:
Accountability without full authority
Pressure from up, down, across, and out
Initiatives that mattered — but didn’t fit cleanly into existing structures
A constant push to “keep things moving” amid growing ambiguity
Nothing was broken.
But complexity was increasing — and energy was at risk of dissipating.
As Danielle Paulson, Director of Leadership & Organizational Development, put it:
“We needed more than a playbook—we needed a partner to help us learn in real time. This wasn’t about fixing—it was about discovering what’s working and what’s possible together.”
That distinction shaped everything that followed.
Not One Project — A Pattern of Momentum
Mortenson didn’t engage PopUpThinkTank to solve a single problem. Instead, leaders began using it at multiple moments of pressure, across different functions and altitudes of the organization.
Over time, a pattern emerged:
When leaders created the right container for reflection and contribution
When insight was treated as something to surface, not prescribe
When people were invited into sensemaking, not performance
Energy didn’t stall.
It multiplied.
Across three initiatives — Change Leadership, Teaming, and the Environmental Team — Mortenson hosted six PopUpThinkTank sessions, each designed around a real, live challenge.
📍 Altitude 1: Change Leadership
2 Sessions | Leadership readiness and lived experience
As Mortenson continued to evolve, leaders were increasingly expected to sponsor and guide change — while still delivering in demanding operational contexts.
Rather than introduce a new framework or mandate, these sessions focused on:
How change was actually being experienced
Where leaders felt momentum — and where it leaked
What tensions were being carried quietly
What surfaced
Leaders named the emotional and relational realities of change, not just tactics
Shared patterns replaced private frustration
Energy shifted from “getting it right” to learning together
What shifted
A sense of relief: “It’s not just me.”
Increased willingness to test, iterate, and stay engaged
Momentum rooted in shared understanding, not compliance
📍 Altitude 2: Teaming @ Mortenson
3 Sessions | Cross-functional discovery across the enterprise
As projects and partnerships grew more complex, “teaming” became both critical — and increasingly uneven across contexts.
Three sessions brought together distinct audiences:
Superintendents & Project Managers
Business Service Group Leaders
Operating Group Leaders
The aim wasn’t to define a single model of teaming — but to understand how it actually happens across Mortenson.
What surfaced
Teams are experienced as living systems, not org charts
Early alignment moments carry outsized impact
Leadership tone shapes energy and trust
The same language (“collaboration,” “alignment”) meant different things to different groups
What shifted
Leaders gained visibility across boundaries they rarely see
Differences were named without flattening them
Energy moved toward experimentation instead of premature standardization
One signal stood out: every participant expressed willingness to stay involved — offering ideas, resources, or follow-up engagement. Teaming wasn’t a “solved” issue. It was a source of momentum.
📍 Altitude 3: Environmental Team
1 Session | Functional identity, scope, and future role
The Environmental Team operates where compliance, delivery, and sustainability strategy intersect — a space rich with responsibility and pressure.
This session focused less on answers and more on clarity:
What the team is proud of
Where growth is straining roles and systems
How the team wants to shape its next chapter
What surfaced
Deep care and commitment — paired with quiet overextension
Reliance on tribal knowledge instead of shared infrastructure
A tension between being seen as reviewers vs. strategic partners
What shifted
Language for naming scope and influence more clearly
Permission to design evolution intentionally
Renewed energy for small, testable experiments
A reframing resonated strongly:
Environmental professionals as interpreters — translating between regulation, project reality, and organizational intent.
What Changed Across All Six Sessions
Across all three engagements, a consistent pattern appeared:
Momentum came from clarity, not control
Energy increased when people felt seen and useful
Ownership followed invitation — not instruction
Better questions unlocked movement faster than polished plans
No single session “resolved” complexity.
But together, they sustained momentum — without burning people out.
Why This Matters for Leaders in the Middle
For Directors and Senior Managers, this work reflects a hard truth:
You’re often asked to carry ambiguity on behalf of the system — quietly, competently, and without slowing things down.
Mortenson’s experience suggests another option:
Create one focused moment where the right people can see clearly together — and let momentum do the rest.
That’s not a workshop.
It’s a strategic intervention.
Momentum Continues
A fourth engagement — Effective Meetings (Discovery) — is now underway, extending this work into how Mortenson designs the everyday moments where energy is most often gained or lost.
Not because something failed.
But because momentum made the next question visible.
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