DL2022 Aron Tucker & Jane Nguyen - Reimagining leadership teams

How do we set our future design leaders up for success now and not leave until they become a design leader? Our talk will share how our trials and tribulations of challenging the norm of a leadership team, to ensure we stay true to our principles and break the mold for inclusion.

Transcript

1. Seing future design leaders up for success, now Reimagining Leadership Teams | Jane Nguyen & Aron Tucker
2. we believe in having humans at the centre of everything we do (not just customers), our focus is helping businesses make human decisions about digital products. At Jane Nguyen CEO Aron Tucker Principal Designer
3. Who or what is Pretzel lab anyway? You might be thinking… “Do they make pretzels?...” “Are they going to give us pretzels?…” “What do pretzels have to do with design?” “All this thinking about pretzels has made me hungry…”
4. We started with a venn diagram… User Desirability Technical Feasibility Business Viability …which kinda looks like a tasty pretzel… Voila! …so we squished it around a bit and stuck some arrows on it
5. Why do we continue to wait until our designers are “leaders” before we train them to be one?
6. Formal leadership training tends to start … when you get your seat at the table What does being a leader really mean? What do you when you finally get at seat at the table? When do you get … Business strategy & commercial exposure Tenure creates an echo chamber Being an elite does not make you a team player Design is particularly hierarchical Observations & Experiences
7. Inspiration for change The Round Table of Camelot Reinventing Organisations Team of Teams
8. Diversified Revenue Streams Long Standing Relationships Lean Business Model Most Prominent Brands Innovating & Unique Oerings People Leadership Culture & Principles The strongest culture and EVP in Australia and New Zealand consulting and professional services Depth in our teams ability to lead and execute Engage the market with the most innovative and unique capabilities / oerings in the Australia and New Zealand tech services industry Most prominent Australian brands in each of their respectives specialisations Industry leader in lean agile operational business processes that grow in line with business need Develop long standing relationships with diverse customer set in Australia and New Zealand Acquire diversified revenue streams across customers, industries and engagement models
9. Lessons Learned after 1 year
10. Expectation Reality Showing up despite the heartache Lesson 1: Resilience
11. It doesn’t maer how hard you try or how much you care, people will break your heart and they still wont get it. As a leader, you don’t just have to show up everyday but you have to try more and be beer. Expectations • The eort you put in is reflected in the outcomes and outputs of the team • Everyone has a team over self aitude and commitment because you do Reality • You fall on your ass, a lot • People comprehend information at dierent speeds • Assumptions are dangerous Lesson 1: Resilience
12. Expectation Reality Eectiveness with the broader team Lesson 2: Communication & Planning
13. Spend the time to craft your messaging so the team is just as eective in communicating up, down or across the organisation. Expectations • I did the work, so I’ll be able to talk about it to the team • I’ll be able to stay across what everyone else in the leadership team is doing • Planning happens at the beginning and end of each quarter • We’d say some stu and get lots of questions Reality • I’m not as good as I think on the fly • Not everyone understands how the business plan relates to them • We presented a plan and no one said anything Lesson 2: Communication & Planning
14. Lines of communication
15. Expectation Reality It’s no longer and individual sport Lesson 3: Persistence
16. The skills that make you a good practitioner do not automatically make you a good leader. Leadership is a team sport and in the absence of trust, the team doesn’t win. Expectations • A team of high performing individuals will make for a high performing leadership team • Earning trust with the broader team individually will translate to trust in the leadership team Reality • Everything you do is about the team • Trust is hard to build and requires leaning into discomfort often • It’s very obvious to the team when leadership don’t have it together Lesson 3: Persistence
17. Non-persistent leadership teams
18. • No passengers • Everybody owns something • Equal voice dierent sized accountabilities • Boom up planning • “We” come up with the plan - not Jane • “We” come up with the metrics - not jane • Collaborating with the whole team to create the plan Principles & accountabilities of the tot’s Our first attempt FY22 & FY23 • Joining in covid • People rotating out • Constantly keeping the team on the same page • Changing people often means a constantly changing dynamic • What does this look like long term? Can go 2 ways Challenges so far and to come…
20. Expectations • I did the work, so I’ll be able to talk about it to the team • I’ll be able to stay across what everyone else in the leadership team is doing • Planning happens at the beginning and end of each quarter • The plan makes it easy for the broader team to understand what we’re doing • We’d say some stu and get some questions Reality • I’m not as good as I think on the fly • Not everyone understands how the business plan relates to them • We presented a plan and no one said anything Lesson 2: Communication & Planning Spend the time to craft your messaging so the team is just as eective in communicating up, down or across the organisation.
21. Expectations • The eort you put in is reflected in the outcomes and outputs of the team • Everyone has a team over self aitude and commitment because you do Reality • You fall on your ass, a lot • People comprehend information at dierent speeds • Assumptions are dangerous Lesson 1: Resilience It doesn’t maer how hard you try or how much you care - people will break your heart and they still wont get it. As a leader, you don’t just have to show up everyday but you have to try more and be beer.
22. Expectations • A team of high performing individuals will make for a high performing leadership team • Earning trust with the broader team individually will translate to trust in the leadership team Reality • Everything you do is about the team • Trust is hard to build and requires leaning into discomfort often • It’s very obvious to the team when leadership don’t have it together Lesson 3: Persistence The skills that make you a good practitioner do not automatically make you a good leader. Leadership is a team sport and in the absence of trust, the team doesn’t win.
23. Principles & accountabilities of the tot’s Our first attempt Fy 22 and fy 23 Challenges - Joining in covid - People rotating out - Constantly keeping the team on the same page - Changing people often means a constantly changing dynamic What does this look like long term? Can go 2 ways What did we actually do - No passengers - Everybody owns something - Equal voice different sized accountabilities Bottom up planning - “We” come up with the plan - not Jane - “We” come up with the metrics - not jane - Collaborating with the whole team to create the plan