Systems Thinking, Leadership Habits, and Organizational Change with Don Gray

Lean On Agile (& Elevate Change) Show

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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