“Every organization rises or falls based on leadership or the lack thereof”, said the legendary co-inventor of frozen concentrated orange juice, C.D. Atkins. According to the Federal Highway Administration, owners are facing mounting pressure to deliver programs better, faster, smarter, and cheaper. Compounding this, W. Edwards Deming, author and renowned scholar who revolutionized Japan’s manufacturing industry, insisted that leaders are responsible for 85 percent of all an organizations’ problems. Comparatively, imagine as a leader, the possibility of significantly reducing and/or eliminating 85% of all program delivery problems while creating significant and measurable innovations, imaginatively reducing and/or eliminating major project risks, and decreasing delivery times by as much as 50%? It may surprise some that owners are already accomplishing these “industry-changing” results. In this session, the presenters offer a unique, yet “tried and true,” system for delivering programs better, faster, smarter, and cheaper. For the most part, this “tried and true,” system is the innovation of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the University of Florida’s (UF) Rinker School of Construction (under the direction of Dr. Edward W. Minchin). FHWA and UF refer to this system as the “2-Day Kick-Off” meeting. In large part, it’s a combination of UF’s leadership and program management research, as well as a FHWA’s eight-year nation-wide pilot. Additionally, it utilizes components of the U.S. Army’s “Command and General Staff College” (CGSC/ILE). As mentioned, based on remarkable industry successes, resulting in arguably some of the highest performing teams in the nation, the presenters highly encourage owners to critically consider conducting the 2-Day Kick-Off meeting.