The more you learn, the more you see how much more there is to learn. In this month of giving thanks, I reflected on some recent opportunities to stretch myself. I am thankful for my network of experts who help me continue to learn and grow my knowledge, skills and abilities.
Last month, I was challenged to step out of my comfort zone and lead a table talk about belonging and then participate on a panel about staying healthy while driving innovation. I am used to talking about leadership and technology but these topics about belonging and health are areas where I continue to grow and learn. Thankfully, I was joined by some fellow leaders who taught me a thing or two.
Connecting and Belonging
In our discussion of belonging we used the iceberg graphic I learned at Cambium to understand visible and invisible traits and experiences we have all had that shapes who we are and how we work.
Three takeaways:
- Connecting over what we have in common helps build relationships
- Belonging relies on deeper relationships, mutual respect, and celebrating how we are different
- Building these relationships takes time with regular rituals of sharing
One ritual my friend Karen shared is from a leader who kicks off their weekly team meeting with a work best, personal best and the next big thing. Over time, the team connects on common experiences, respects how they may be different, and works as a team to tackle what’s next.
Innovation and Risk
For the panel, I took the lead on a question about how driving innovation and creativity can be both exciting and stressful for teams.
- Consider how innovation and risk aren’t in the same plane, they are orthogonal. You can do highly innovative things that are risky like deploying an independent workforce of AI agents. You can also be innovative with lower risk activities like creating an AI-DLC program with an expert human in the loop. Tech teams like to experiment and be innovative while managing risk and as leaders we should lean into this experimentation.
- Know your industry and your organization’s risk tolerance so that you can be innovative with the appropriate level of risk. Your teams should experiment and plan to fail early, often, small and gracefully. Proofs of concept helps us fail early. Agility and iteration help is fail often. Piloting with change leaders first make any fails small.
- As leaders we can help most with gracefully. We can encourage managed risk in innovation with appropriate guardrails and rollback plans. Recruit, retain and build your teams that innovate with the right controls in place to manage risk. Reward behaviors not just outcomes — one example I shared was giving a shout out to a team member for making the decision to roll back a release. It is difficult making the rollback decision, since it means you are evaluating the options and understanding the risks for each while you are troubleshooting what is going wrong. The engineers who step back in times of stress to make the rollback call help you be responsible in your innovations.
Our panel of technology leaders shared routines for time management, the importance of taking time away from work, keeping fresh with hands on activities, and making time for team members across time zones without burning out.
Call to Action for all Technology Leaders
👉 Add new management techniques to your repetoire.
- Bring out the best from your team’s strengths and diversity
- while pushing their comfort zones wider,
- encouraging creativity and innovation, and
- staying focused on outcomes and results.
We can do hard things while spinning plates, walking and chewing gum.
👉 Be thankful.
Thanks to HMG, our table talk participants, my fellow panel members and John Shellenberger for pushing me out of my comfort zone.
