Leadership Training

Inclusive Template for Company-Wide Decision Making

This article discusses the problems that led to the creation of a template for decision-making processes in a singular setting. The template includes the decision options, problems to be solved, decision to be taken, person responsible for making the final decision, teams that depend on the decision, people to be consulted, and people to be informed. The template has been beneficial for distributed teams, as it allows them to enter at any time for an up to date evaluation of things. It has also removed pressure from product managers and design heads, as the one being held accountable can be less involved.

Crisis Situation? You Have More Time to Act Than You Think.

In the face of a crisis, the author took a more practical approach and used the time available to assess the situation, talk to people, and make the best decision possible. This allowed the company to ship on schedule and taught the author the importance of taking the time to assess before acting.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

Metrics and Morale: Balancing Performance Measurement and Employee Engagement

Finding the right balance between performance metrics and employee morale is crucial in engineering teams. Metrics can provide valuable insights into performance, but they must be used effectively to avoid negatively impacting motivation and engagement. It is important to consider the context and impact of an individual's work, foster a growth mindset, communicate the purpose of metrics, and balance corporate goals with individual growth. By doing so, engineering leaders can create a thriving and engaged team.

Important Lessons In Building Machine Learning

At Target, a team of data scientists and engineers was tasked with bringing machine learning into many areas of the business. To bridge the gap between data scientists and their business partners, the team leader organized how they communicate when collaborating with other parts of the company. He established four questions to ask when beginning a project: what are we building, what data sources are we going to use, how do we improve the model, and what is the model architecture going to be? This approach helped the team communicate with all the different parties involved in building the machine learning technology and sped up development tremendously.

How to Successfully Complete A Major Reorganization

This article outlines the steps taken by a leader during a major reorganization of an organization. The leader focused on communicating the changes respectfully, shifting the focus to positive changes, creating vision statements and roadmaps for each team, and meeting with those affected by the changes. The article also highlights the importance of having someone to bounce ideas off of and dedicating time for the personal connection aspect of a reorganization.