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March 21, 2024 56 mins

In this episode, Don joined Shahin to talk about Systems Thinking, Leadership Habits, and Organizational Change.


The following have been topics of our conversation:


Transitioning from technical skills to people management.

  • The importance of people in software development, highlighting their creative force and impact on success and well-being.
  • The importance of trusting and empowering knowledge workers, who are closer to the work than managers.
  • Jerry Weinberg (author) highlighted the shift from Taylorism (structured tasks) to coaching (personal and process-related goals), with managers becoming more interested in people's educational and career goals.

Leadership development and problem-solving.

  • The importance of adapting to change and the need for problem-solving leaders to observe and understand motivation, organization, and information.

Software development, leadership, and personal growth.

  • The importance of developer satisfaction, citing the costly consequences of losing experienced developers.
  • Find empathetic leadership insights through reading and self-reflection.
  • Software development challenges, complexity as the primary issue.
  • Agile methodology requires tailoring to individual contexts, rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Organization must be ready to start software development before investing time and money.

Leadership habits and systems thinking.

  • Management prioritizes cost over readiness, despite worker demand for training and success.
  • Coach helps team break habits and improve systems in leadership roles.
  • The "core habits" for leaders, including sharing the vision, measuring actual delivery, and creating free informational flow.

Systems thinking, agile development, and team dynamics.

  • Wardley maps visualize product evolution, highlighting reinforcing and balancing loops.
  • The importance of understanding how personal and cultural factors impact decision-making in complex systems.
  • Agreeing to try and visioning with team members led to successful product development.

Software development, leadership, and organizational change.

  • Using organizational change management techniques to facilitate change within software development teams.
  • The increasing presence of women in leadership positions in the tech industry
  • The importance of happiness in software development.


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