Search.

< Back Why IT departments must reinvent themselves - Part 2 In my last blog, I tried to explain the factors that impact the direction .. In my last blog, I tried to explain the factors that impact the direction that IT departments need to take to stay relevant in the current business scenario. In this edition, I share my thoughts on the change in the culture of work within IT departments. We believe that our IT departments should deliver the same way that Thoughtworks delivers to its clients. - David Whalley, Thoughtworks CIO Traditionally, IT departments operate differently from the ‘delivery’ teams within the organization. This happens due to the nature of work, which in most cases is dominated by support and maintenance. This excuses them from being seen through the same lens as the delivery teams. However, this is no longer an accepted excuse. In the last few months, we have moved towards restructuring our teams along the lines of how businesses operate. With the current focus on ‘value first’, it is no longer okay to operate differently from any other product team. The expectation is that IT departments transform themselves into a ‘delivery focused’ team. Does this mean they are no longer a support/operations team? Yes. It may sound strange, but I advocate for IT departments to turn themselves into an innovation led and delivery oriented organization. Even though the primary focus of IT departments is on operations and ensuring that the business systems are running smooth, we need to constantly question the way we work. While it is important to keep the lights ON, IT departments need to lead the way by bringing business insights to their stakeholders, not just take orders. Here are some simple things these teams can do: Have a strong governance framework that helps prioritize your work along with your stakeholders. Make all your work visible to key stakeholders so that right prioritization can be done Let the work be driven by the value that it generates for its users. If you are doing any work that does not offer value to the stakeholders or the team, question why you are doing it Host internal planning meetings with the teams for weekly prioritization and to track the work progress. Define clear milestones and stick to them Host regular retrospective meetings for continuous improvement Establish proper communication channels for sharing your work and communicating with stakeholders. Establish a fast feedback mechanism that allows mid-way course correction and altering of priorities as needed Host regular showcases for your work and allow teams outside IT departments and immediate stakeholders to give you feedback With the focus on value creation, ask more questions on bringing efficiency, automation and self-service channels to the users And, most importantly, empathize with your stakeholders and partners, understand their needs and talk to them in the language that they understand Internal IT teams have a unique advantage within organizations because they know the internal business processes, know how the systems act and manage their infrastructure. This makes them best placed to understand the impact of changing business scenarios than anyone else in the organization. If you think of any business vertical, any technology or innovation/ideation that happens within an organization, you would find that IT teams play an important role in them. This makes me believe that with the right focus, internal IT departments can really make a difference in the way organizations operate and do businesses. Considering how important it is for T teams to work like delivery teams, there are some aspects of work and team culture that needs shaking up. From my experience of leading teams across multiple organizations, including Thoughtworks, I have found that changing the culture of the team, is not easy: However, to start the change, you can: Ask yourself if you are working on the most important task of the day Check the value of your work and the outcome you get out of it, repeatedly Share and communicate your plans to a wider group Ask if there are any alternatives to the repetitive stuff that you are doing? Is it delivering enough value to justify it? Can it be automated? Can it be done by users themselves? Can it be stopped? Think of ideas that can help you improve your own workplace and office and help you learn more skills Learn to co-create and collaborate across offices, across regions and teams The team first, always! Don’t limit your ideas to what only you can deliver. Learn to harness the power of collaboration and join people with different skills Tell yourself and your teams that it’s OK to fail as failing early and failing faster and changing course is better than failing too late into the cycle Turn your organizations into a continuous learning organization While aiming to change the culture of the team, IT teams need to be able to cover the entire spectrum of scope that includes ‘Create / Build / Configure / Implement / Roll out / Own and Support’ of their infrastructure and products. When the focus is shifted from BAU and maintenance to innovation and value creation, the work becomes more interesting and challenging. This allows IT teams to start making an even bigger difference than what they have been thus far. Previous Next

< Back Three models of building successful teams If you think of some of the most successful football club teams in the world .. [ Originally published on LinkedIn here ] If you think of some of the most successful football club teams in the world in the past 50 years, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Barcelona would likely come on top of your list. Between them, they have won 80+ domestic and 21+ continental & world football honours and the list does not end there. While, they are known for success, glamour, and position they held in the world football for multiple years, they also represent three unique models for developing successful teams over multiple years and generations. Manchester United Success philosophy - Visionary leader, investing in young players with potential and hunger The most successful period of Manchester United’s history had been under two legendary managers, Sir Matt Busby, and Sir Alex Ferguson. They created multiple generations of successful teams from young, hungry talent. Think Busby Babes and the Class of 94 and more. Both managers spotted, recruited, invested in and cultivated in potential young talent that had a burning desire to succeed and dominate the world and created a culture of discipline and an environment where talent flourished. They both exactly knew how to balance team goals and individual aspirations. The moment the manager felt someone was being bigger than the club or team, the player was shown door out of the club. They had a long-term vision of the club success. The club, however, went downhill each time the legendary manager retired or left the club. Real Madrid FC Success philosophy - Buy the best talent, have a manager that can keep them together and see them create wonder Since I started following Football (maybe last 20 odd years ago), I have always known Real Madrid to invest in and buy the best of the talent available in the market and got them working together in the team. They created a super brand with the ‘Galácticos’ approach. Their president Florentino Pérez spent huge money on buying the best available players from other teams and countries and created a Real Madrid team that was the envy of the world. Every player, in every position, was a world-class and expensive purchase and probably one of the best, if not the best in the world at doing their job. They went on to win a lot of trophies, simply because they were almost always better than the opponent in quality at every playing department. The job of their manager was mostly spent in managing the big player egos and ensuring that these brilliant bunch of people were always able to play together. Barcelona FC Success philosophy - Create a perfect system and follow the system to perfection that leads to the success When you think of Barcelona, it is very likely that you would likely think of terms like beautiful football, Tiki-taka and passing opponents to death. Indeed, it’s a system that has worked wonders for Barcelona for multiple years. They have defined system and a predictable way of playing football and is based on intrinsic passing, keeping possession, outrunning opposition and allowing individuals to flourish. Everyone who joins the team must adapt to the system and learn to play a part. Over multiple years of use, the system has been perfected to help them achieve results, simply by outplaying and outrunning the oppositions. Often, the opposition is not able to keep up with Barcelona and end up losing. Summary If you are a football fan, I am sure you would connect with these three teams and their characteristics that I outline above. So, if you want to apply these models in your teams and within your organizations, here is what you should consider. To build a successful team based on the Manchester United model you should, Have a manager/leader with a vision, clarity, and passion to build teams Policy, process, and mechanism to recruit the best young talent with potential Creating an environment for them to succeed and achieve individual goals and glory Do not be afraid to take risks and stretch people to seek higher goals Base your system/processes based on talent at disposal to get the best out of what you have Leader’s vision matters the most and the leader has the last word To build a successful team based on Real Madrid model you should, Buy (hire) the best people, pay them the most, put them in a team, let them figure out how to win Strategize to be a company/division/unit/team or a brand that people aspire to associate with Leader’s job is to keep the team working and manage people System is based on the team at the disposal Vision is to the best brand and best paymasters where best people want to work To build a successful team based on the Barcelona model you should, Build a solid system around sound foundations, Leaders, and teams follow the system absolutely to the last word Take a perfectionist approach to implement the process & system Allow individual talent to flourish but only as a part of a perfected system, without breaking/challenging the system People who radically alter the system are not welcome Perfect system is most important, leaders and teams can keep altering Which model would you be using to build your successful team? Previous Next

Emerging leadership series - In conversation with Jinjun Huang 30 Jan 2023 Jinjun Huang comes with 14+ years of experience in IT and has been with @thoughtworks since 2018. He joined us as a Tech Lead and then switched to become a Product Manager in 2020. Jinjun looks up to his father in law as a role model. Jinjun has learnt key lessons of responsibility, hardwork, and optimism from him. How would you introduce yourself? Hi everyone, nice to meet you. My name is Jinjun Huang. I am from Wuhan, China. I am a product manager of the Digital Platforms team in Thoughtworks. I have 2 kids, an 11-year old daughter and a 5-year old son. In my spare time, I like to take them for a trip by car, playing basketball and computer games as well. Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? What inspired you to take on the leadership role? I graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2008 with my bachelor degree in the major of Computer Science. Then I worked as a software engineer for over 10 years in multiple companies. I joined Thoughtworks in 2018 as a Tech Lead, then switched to a product manager in 2020. At the beginning, it was very natural for me to take the role as a technical lead because I was more senior than the other team members. But after taking the technical lead role, I found it challenging to leverage the team to achieve the team target instead of working individually and finishing my own development task. I started to enjoy my leadership role when I found my leadership can amplify the team's performance. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? The top challenge for me was the mindset change. I used to think about a product from a pure technical perspective. But when I found technology was not the only determinant to make the product successful, I started to learn what business success means from different perspectives. My MBA courses helped me a lot during this progress. I learnt a lot from some failed business cases, even some of them were amazing from a technical perspective. What motivates you everyday? I am motivated by the sense of accomplishment of my daily work. My clients and target users’ daily life can get easier with the products and support of my team. My organizational leaders are confident that my team is working on the correct things and in the correct way. My teammates enjoy their daily work and feel their hard work is meaningful to the organization and the whole world. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? I look up to my father-in-law as my role model in my life. My father-in-law is a farmer. He raised 4 nephews and nieces after his elder brother passed away, even though he had 3 kids already. He works really hard to feed the big family. He keeps studying as a great wireman. He can handle all kinds of difficult conversations in his daily life with his great emotional intelligence. I learnt a lot from him including responsibility , hardwork and optimism . All of them helped me a lot during my career journey. I look up to Dewang Cao, a Chinese entrepreneur, the founder of Fuyao Group. He is a very successful businessman, a very famous charitarian. At the same time, in his biography he admits some personal mistakes, including some very sensitive parts. I learnt what courage and introspection means from him. I look up to Shijian Chu, a Chinese businessman. He brought his first cigarette company to top1 of Asia, and then was thrown in jail for some reasons when he was 71 years old. When he got out of jail when he was 74 years old, he started his new undertaking and became the King of Orange in China when he was 84 years old. I learnt what gritty means from him. What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? Leadership seems like a catalyst to me, which can enable the whole team to achieve something they didn’t look forward to. I think all of my team members are really talented. What I need to do is accelerate the chemical reactions happening in the team, enable all of them to be a better team player, a more professional employee, a better person. I’d like to build my leadership style as a visionary and coach. On one hand, I think it is really important to be a visionary as a leader. When the whole team can be united with the same vision, and all of the team members think it meaningful for themselves, for their clients and end users and even for the whole world, they can make great decisions by themselves to achieve it. And they can benefit a lot during the process. On the other hand, leaders need to stand with their coworkers daily. Leaders need to coach the team members not only to do the correct things, but also do the correct things in the correct way. With the coach they can be cultivated to handle more complicated scenarios by themselves in the future. Only in this way, the team can grow organically in the business style of a professional service company. What would be your advice to other leaders? Pay special attention to be a visionary. Be confident of the subjective initiatives of the team members. Believe they can make great things happen when they believe what you believe. At the same time, help them in the operation level in the coach way. Day by day, they will grow naturally until they surprise you. Chinese version 你会如何介绍自己？ 大家好，我叫黄进军，来自中国武汉，是 Thoughtworks 的数字平台团队的一名产品经理。 我有2个孩子，一个11岁的女儿和一个5岁的儿子。 闲暇时，我喜欢带他们出去自驾游，偶尔也会跟他们一起打篮球，玩switch游戏。 你能告诉我一些你的职业生涯吗？ 是什么促使您担任领导职务？ 我2008年毕业于哈尔滨工业大学计算机专业，获学士学位。此后在多家公司担任软件工程师超过10年。在2018年，我作为技术主管加入Thoughtworks，然后在2020年转职成为产品经理。 一开始，因为我比其他团队成员都更资深，所以担任技术负责人是一个很自然的事情。但是在担任技术负责人之后，我发现带领一个团队来实现团队目标远比单打独斗地完成开发任务要困难得多。 当我发现我的领导能力可以提升团队的整体绩效之后，我开始喜欢上了我的新角色。 你在旅途中遇到的最大挑战是什么？你是如何克服这些挑战的？ 对我来说最大的挑战是心态的改变。 我曾经习惯于从纯技术的角度来思考一个产品。但当我发现技术并不是使产品成功的唯一决定因素时，我开始从不同的角度了解商业成功意味着什么。在这个过程中，我的 MBA 课程对我帮助很大。 我从一些失败的商业案例中学到了很多，其中一些如果从技术角度来看甚至是非常先进和超前的。 你每天的动力是什么？ 激励我的每天的工作所带来的成就感。可以把它们分为三个层面： 第一，借助我们团队的产品和支持，我的客户和目标用户的日常生活会变得更加轻松。 第二，我的组织领导者相信我的团队正在以正确的方式做正确的事情。 第三，我的队友享受他们的日常工作，并觉得他们的辛勤工作对组织和整个世界都有意义。 你的生活中有榜样吗？ 你能说出几个你敬仰的人吗？ 我的岳父是我生活中的榜样。 我的岳父是一个普通的农民。 他的哥哥去世后他养大了4个侄子和侄女，尽管他自己已经有了3个孩子。 他非常努力地工作来养活这个大家庭。他一直在学习并成为一名出色的电工。 凭借高超的情商，他可以应付日常生活中各种棘手的谈话。 我从他身上学到了很多，包括责任感、勤奋和乐观。 它们在我的职业生涯中对我帮助很大。 我敬仰中国企业家、福耀集团创始人曹德旺。 他是一个非常成功的商人，一个非常有名的慈善家。 同时，在他的传记中他也承认了一些个人错误，包括一些非常敏感的部分。我从他身上学到了什么是勇气和自省。 我敬仰中国商人褚世建。 他将自己的第一家卷烟公司成功的经营成跻身亚洲第一，却在71岁高龄时因故入狱。74岁出狱后又开始二次创业，直到84岁成为中国橙王。我从他那里学到了什么是坚韧不拔。 领导对你意味着什么？ 您如何描述您的领导风格？ 对我来说，领导力就像是一种催化剂，它可以让整个团队达成他们不曾预想的成就。 我认为我团队里的所有成员都非常有才华。我所需要做的只是加速团队中发生的化学反应，让他们都成为更好的团队成员、更专业的职场人、更好的人。 我想建立的领导风格是成为有远见的人和教练。 一方面，我认为作为领导者，成为一个有远见的人真的很重要。 当整个团队能够以同一个愿景团结在一起，并且所有团队成员都认为这对他们自己、对他们的客户和最终用户乃至整个世界都有意义时，他们就可以自己做出伟大的决定并实现它。 他们自身在此过程中也会受益匪浅。 另一方面，领导者需要每天与同事站在一起。 领导者不仅要指导团队成员做正确的事，还要用正确的方法做正确的事。 有了教练，他们可以培养自己在未来处理更复杂场景时的能力。 只有这样，团队才能在专业服务公司的经营模式中有机成长。 你对其他领导人有什么建议？ 成为一个有远见的人。 相信团队成员的主观能动性。当他们相信您所相信的愿景时，他们可以成就伟大的事情。 同时成为一个好的教练，在操作层面帮助他们。日复一日，他们会自然生长，直到让您大吃一惊。

Emerging leadership series - In conversation with Junjun Yang (Lily) 14 Feb 2023 Junjun Yang, also called as Lily, is part ofthe Digital Capabilities team with @Thoughtworks IT. She started her career in China in in Digital marketing & communications, before moving to Silicon Valley technology start up as a Marketing director. She is motivated to learn new things, gain new skills and taking on new responsibilities and solve problems. How would you introduce yourself? My name’s Junjun Yang, and most people call me Lily. I am from China, and I joined the thoughtworks as a business analyst in 2021. Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? What inspired you to take on the leadership role? After completing my master degree in Environmental Science from Peking University, I started my career in the digital marketing and communication industry by coincidence. Even though the problem that people are trying to resolve in digital marketing is different from that in the science labs, the approach is basically the same, namely systems thinking and analytical skills. Since moving to a Silicon Valley technology start-up in 2016, I've held positions as marketing director. That gives me an opportunity to do lots of different things and develop skills, like capital raising, product localization, and have a full experience to build a business and expand the brand in China. I'm very motivated by learning new things, gaining new skills, taking new responsibilities, and trying new ways to solve problems. That’s what inspired me to take on the leadership role, and why I joined the thoughtworks. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? One of the biggest work challenges I’ve faced is selling ideas to others or persuading colleagues, who are just willing to listen to themselves and never listen to others’ opinions. It made the collaboration difficult, and work was proceeding slowly. First, we need to build trust. I initiated many conversations to focus on what they have to say and let them know I truly understand what they care about. Second, invite them to identify the root of the problem together. Instead of proposing the solutions, we discussed what the current situation is, and answered essential questions together. After fully communicating, we were finally in alignment with the problem and reached a consensus on the solutions . What motivates you everyday? I believe we are the sum total of our experience. Experience motivates me. For positive or negative, at home or at work, be it together or alone, I may want to experience something different and progress every day. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? My role model is my last supervisor Brian Yang, and he is also my mentor because of his strong leadership and lifelong learning. We built a great team, pulled through the tough situation and accomplished business goals. He led by example and taught me how to think globally, how to communicate with staff and upper management effectively, and gave me advice on how to plan my career. Currently in thoughtworks, many long-term thoughtworkers and great women are inspiring me everyday, such as Gregory Schalliol, who is always shown concern for social vulnerable groups and starts a program to help the unemployed in his retirement, and KK, who is willing to spend time developing others and provide learning opportunities for the junior. What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? Leadership means collaboration to me and leading by examples. I would describe my leadership style as delegate, and open minded. I enjoy taking the lead and responsibilities, planning for the strategy, and considering future growth. But I also like to stay involved, work hands-on and know how to help coworkers do theirs better but not get in the way. What would be your advice to other leaders? What I expect from myself is continued self-improvement, like thinking critically, communicating clearly, and establishing connections with others to build trust, share ideas, develop their strengths and achieve the work. This could be my advice to other leaders as well. Chinese version 简单介绍下你自己？ 我是杨君君，大家也叫我Lily。在2021年我加入thoughtworks武汉办公室，作为一名业务分析师。 可以分享一下你的职业经历吗？ 是什么促使你承担领导者的角色？ 在完成七年的环境科学专业学习之后，机缘巧合使我在数字营销传播行业开始了自己的职业生涯。我发现尽管人们在数字营销领域试图解决的问题，与在科学实验室里的不同，但运用的思考和方法基本相同，比如系统思维，和逻辑分析。 在2016年，我加入了一家硅谷科技初创公司，担任市场总监。在五年的时间里，我有机会锻炼多样的能力，也有幸实践了很多不同的事情，比如支持公司不同成长阶段的融资、响应市场的需要进行产品本地化，以及拥有在中国市场建立业务，和扩大品牌影响力的宝贵经验。 学习新事物，获得新技能，承担新责任，尝试新方法来解决问题，这些激励我积极担任领导者角色，也是我当初加入thoughtworks的原因之一。 在这段经历中你所遇到的最大挑战是什么？又是如何克服的？ 我曾经遇到的最大挑战之一是如何推销自己的想法，说服共事的人。如果对方过于果断，只想听自己的声音，从不听取他人意见，合作往往会格外艰难，事情的推进缓慢。 首先要做的是，构建信任，为此我发起了许多次对话，专注于让对方表达自己想说的，确保他们明白我是真正理解他们所关心的。之后，我会邀请他们一起澄清问题，或者找到分歧的根源，不着急提出解决方案，而只是讨论当前的情况，共同回答一些重要问题。经过充分的沟通，我们最终对所面对的问题，以及下一步如何去行动达成了共识。 你每天的动力是什么？ 我相信，人是自身经历、经验的总和。每一天激励我的是能经历不同的事物。无论是积极的还是消极的，在家庭生活中还是工作中，无论是在集体里或独自一人，我期待每天有新的体验和成长。 在你的生活中有行为榜样吗？ 可以介绍几位你所钦佩的人吗？ 我的行为榜样是之前的上司 Brian Yang，他有很强的领导力和终身学习的能力。回顾一起渡过难关，一起达成业务目标的时光，Brian始终以身作则带领团队，也教会我如何从全局思考，如何建立与员工和高层的有效沟通，以及指导我如何规划自己的职业生涯。 现在，身边有很多资深的thoughtworkers令我钦佩，比如Gregory Schalliol，他一直关心和支持社会弱势群体，刚刚退休的他将启动一个帮助当地失业者的项目；KK老师，她愿意投入自己对时间发展别人，并为后辈创造学习实践的机会。 领导力对你意味着什么？ 你如何描述自己的领导风格？ 对我而言，领导力意味着合作带领进步，以身作则。 我认为自己的领导风格是知人善任，保持开明的思想。一方面，我愿意承担领导者的责任，为中长期的发展做规划；另一方面，我也很享受在团队中，处理实际的任务，帮助同事们更顺畅的创造价值，而非妨碍他们。 你对其他领导者有什么建议？ 我期待自己成为持续学习者，比如，持续迭代自己的思维能力，与他人更清晰地沟通，建立联系建立信任，持续分享自己的想法，发挥个人优势以更好的实现目标，等等。这也可以作为我对其他领导者的建议。

Women leadership series - In conversation with Jade Daubney 5 Mar 2022 Jade Daubney is a go-getter and the Global Programme Manager with Thoughtworks University How would you introduce yourself? I am Jade Daubney and I am the Global Head of Thoughtworks University. Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? When did you first get into a leadership role? I trained to be a Teacher at University, and after realising I completely disagreed with our education system, I 'fell' into Recruitment. I later joined Thoughtworks as part of the UK Recruitment Team and became our Graduate Project Manager; managing all UK Graduate hiring, University relationships, events and scholarships. I spent numerous years training in Change Management and Transformation and have spent the majority of my Thoughtworks career in the Global Recruiting Team, managing our portfolio of change. I threw myself into something new and joined the Digital Platforms Team, doing a very similar role but taking away a whole new wealth of knowledge in a new part of our business. I very recently started my new position as Global Head of Thoughtworks University. I have done a whole 360 and I am back working with our graduates! I would say my real first leadership role was when I joined Global Recruiting, although I have always seen myself as a 'leader' in some capacity at Thoughtworks. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? My main challenge was definitely due to my own internal blockers. As a 'non-technical' young woman, joining a Technology company, in an historically male-dominated sector, it took me a little while to overcome my fears. I would spend time doubting myself and my possible impact. I would even hold back on opinions, nervous that people would think I am too young to make senior executive decisions. I am happy to tell you that I am not that woman any more. I am extremely lucky to be surrounded by incredible colleagues and the most valuable coaches. I overcame my challenges when I realised that I am actually the Subject Matter Expert in MY own area, I don't need to understand how to code, that isn't what I was hired for. When I understood my strengths and how to utilise them, I grew tremendously as a leader and my business impact grew. It is important to remember that skills and attributes that come naturally to some of you, are skills and attributes that other people have to try really hard to learn how to do - that is our special power. What motivates you? Seeing people grow and achieve their goals/dreams is what motivates me to be a better cultivator. Seeing our business do things that we only ever imagined motivates me to think bigger, be more courageous and work smarter. Having siblings motivates me to be a better woman and lead my example. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? I am blessed to be surrounded by role models, but two that stand out... Emmeline Pankhurst is my hero. She was the leader of the suffragette movement that played a critical role in helping to win British women the right to vote. Her extreme courage and fearless nature constantly inspires me. Secret - I have her tattooed on my body! Iris Apfel is 100 years old - she is an interior designer and fashion icon. She is not afraid to be herself and she taught me that being different is a gift, not something to hide! What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? For me, leadership is the ability to lead, inspire and guide a team, whilst empowering them to reach their fullest potential. I like to think my leadership style is flexible depending on who I am working with. Some people like full autonomy and some people prefer more direction. I prefer to alter my leadership style depending on my team's needs. It is important that my team members are meeting their goals, are happy, are learning and growing, have clarity and direction and are feeling empowered ... Without these things, I am not succeeding as a leader. What would be your advice to young leaders? There is nobody else like you. Understand your strengths and what you bring to the table, and utilise those things. Be open to feedback...getting defensive will stunt your growth. Never stop learning - there is always more. Embrace change. Ask yourself regularly 'what would I do if I was not scared?'

< Back Learning innovation ! – Part II– Incremental & Radical Innovations The Incremental & Radical innovation techniques are most commonly used .. Last time I wrote about one of the techniques of learning Innovation called Innovation by Subtraction. This time, I would be trying to explain one more type of Innovation viz., Incremental & Radical Innovations. The Incremental & Radical innovation techniques are most commonly used across the world for innovation. They are also called Sustaining & Disruptive Innovation techniques. Incremental innovation generally relates to enhancements or small improvements in the existing products or services, whereas the Radical innovation brings a significant improvement in the product or the service. One of the most common examples of the Incremental innovations are the early Pentium chips developed by Intel. From Pentium I to IV, they were generally based on the similar pattern however as the new version came out they brought out newer technologies & innovations in their chipset, which could be attributed to the Incremental innovation. Moving from a single core to dual or quad cores in their latest processers could be termed as a Radical innovation though. Another example of Incremental innovation being Microsoft’s Windows 98 operating system, which was an enhancement over the Windows 95 operating system. The Windows 95, however was a Radical innovation over the previous Windows 3.1 operating system interface. Now you may ask me how to differentiate between the Incremental innovation from a Radical innovation or you may even ask, what should be the degree of deviation between an innovation to be considered as Incremental vs Radical? The answer to this question was defined by a team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . They recommend to consider an Incremental innovation as a Radical if it meets one or more of following characteristics, The innovation provides entirely new set of usage features and experience In terms of statistics, it provides about five times or better performance Or it provides more than 30% reduction in the costs of the product / service Normally the Incremental & Radical innovations go hand in hand. If you see my previous examples you would see that the Radical innovation has followed after one or more Incremental innovations. So you would relate to the fact that the Radical innovation is characterized by a long period of Incremental innovations before and after it. The important benefit of the Radical change is the fact that it can potentially and significantly change the basis of competition in the favour of the innovator. Incremental innovation is relatively easy to obtain than Radical one and I am sure by now you would have understood pretty much of it. There are significant examples of where the Radical innovations have given great advantages to the innovators. Some of them are as follows, IBM Introduction of electronic typewriter, nearly wiped off the manual type writers form the market and gave IBM a significant business advantage. Wal-Mart Innovated a radical process change in the way the supply chain was managed throughout its stores in the US that gave a significant advantage in terms of time & cost and helped it cement its position as No. 1 in the retail market. Incremental Vs Radical – Which one to choose? Radical Innovations are significantly risky, take more time to develop and are more expensive to obtain in nature, whereas, the Incremental are significantly less risky, relatively cheaper & based on a proven product or a process and are more likely to produce results in a shorter time frame. The Incremental innovations provide the businesses with a steady stream of enhanced and improved products / processes or services, but due to relatively simpler nature of these innovations it is required to keep in mind the following, Ensure that the innovations are focussed around the market demands. Since the nature of innovation is such that you would eventually keep on developing new enhancements, small features, there is a danger that you might do something which the customers would not want and may not need in their product. If you continue to churn out the improvements or new features that the customer does not want, the customer eventually might look for alternative products. Don’t forget Radical innovation! Incremental innovations do not necessarily envisage the future technology and attempt to provide a bridge between current and future technologies. Imagine what would have happened to iPhone if Apple would have used the traditional keyboard design of the phone !! Also, remember that its on Radical innovation that changes the business game in your favour !So when you look around next and do a brain storming about innovation, you might want to start with an Incremental innovation and who knows you might bring out a Radical innovation in your product / process or your service! Good Luck! #Softwareengineering #Innovation #productivity #learning #techniques Previous Next

< Back Trust does wonders to people A little story of a conversation between me and one of my product managers .. [ Originally published on Linkedin here ] PM (A bit worried) to me – Hey Swapnil, we have a 1:1 catch up scheduled every two weeks right now, but I would like it to be a bit more frequent. Can we talk weekly or daily? I would like to validate my thinking and decisions I make before I talk to the team and stakeholders and communicate them the updates and decisions. Me – Hmm. Why do you want to validate your decisions with me? PM – I just want to ensure that I am on right track and making right decisions and have thought through from all perspectives and I think you can help me validate my thinking. Me – What if I say No? PM (Puzzled) – But, what if I make a wrong decision? And how would you know what decisions I make every day with regards to the team? Me – Well, that’s exactly why I say No. I want you to know that I trust you one hundred percent and you should feel comfortable being in-charge and make decisions. Its OK, some decisions will go wrong and we may need to revert those, but that’s the learning you will get through the process. Intent is important and even if you make some decisions wrong keeping right intent, it will not impact my trust and my backing to you. PM (A bit relieved) – Thanks. Feels better now! What if the team members, do not agree with my decisions? Me - Well, it’s not enough just to communicate decisions. You should also be able to communicate ‘why’ you made those decisions and what was the reasoning behind them. Tell them the story, constraints, context and intent behind making that decision and be open and transparent with them. I am sure they will understand each decision you make and by doing this, you are also strengthening the trust bond between you and team members. PM (Happy) – Makes lot of sense. Thanks! But I would still like to come and talk to you on things that puzzle me. Me – Anytime! Like you just did today! Trust does wonders to people! #trust #leadership #decisions Previous Next

< Back How would you define leadership? On the face value of the question, it looks very simple to everyone, however ... What do you think leadership means to you? How would you define it? I was part of a discussion with the new joiners to talk about the leadership and one of the question I asked them was the above. On the face value of the question, it looks very simple to everyone, however what surprised me and probably others was that everyone took a pause and thought for a moment before answering the questions. Few interesting answers that came out of the discussion were, – Leadership is all about getting things done on time within budget & costs – Leadership means helping your team grow – Its about people management – Its about how you handle issues and the pressure cooker situations – Leadership is how you motivate people to do their jobs – Leadership is about managing the work and team – Leadership is controlling the behaviour and emotions of self and influencing in others – Leadership is all about setting the rules and helping the followers follow them! and the answer I gave was “Leadership is all about taking risks and making key decisions that help you grow your team”. However, after the session is now complete, I would redefine leadership as, Leadership is not a science, its an art. Its an art on how you understand the mindset of individuals as well as groups, connect with people of various styles and patterns and still form a successful team and achieve a common goal of growth & success. However, none of the above is possible, without yourself making a conscious effort to understand yourself, your own emotions and learn to control and channelize them to create positive energy around. Leadership is demonstrated by various people and they have unique style of executing leadership within the group. Previous Next

Women leadership series - In conversation with Sudeepa Ghosh Majumdar 7 Mar 2022 Sudeepa is an amazing photographer, likes to travel, has a great attention to detail and is an extremely hardworking individual. She works as the Techops Head of Finance with Thoughtworks. How would you introduce yourself? I am a Finance Professional with diverse experience in Controllership, Business Finance, Procurement, Revenue Compliance, Financial Planning Analysis and Asset Management software delivery over a period of 16 years. I feel I am in pursuit of challenges to keep learning. Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? When did you first get into a leadership role? I started my career with IBM and then worked with ITC before moving with HP for a period of 7 years across various roles in country and region which help me understand the dynamics of a well oiled organization with process and policies. Joined TW back in 2014 as I wanted to apply my learnings to a growing organization. My leadership journey started in Thoughtworks as I navigated my own through limited processes and policies to a Public Company. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? One of my learnings has been that as Finance professionals we struggle to tell the story behind the numbers and make it presentable in a way that helps drive decision making by business leaders. How to present the technical information to business teams has been challenging and it’s a constant learning process. Over the period I have realized that understanding the Business basics is very critical for Financial story telling, If you don’t understand the business- the numbers themselves will not make any sense. Playing the role of a Product Owner to understand software delivery has played a crucial role in understanding the intricacies of the business and eventually helped me model financials in a way to invoke discussion and thoughts among the business leaders and also play the role of trusted advisor to business leaders. What motivates you? New challenges and learnings always motivates me. I am not afraid of going into a situation where I have no clue as that is the biggest opportunity to maximize learnings. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? My mother is one of my biggest role model. I saw her studying along with working and managing kids and family. It showed me at early age that if you are determined , disciplined ,have a passion and with planning and support- one can achieve anything in life. In my professional work I have come across some amazing leaders and peers – from whom I am always learning. What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? Leadership to me means the ability to lead, influence and guide the business leaders with help of financial insights for decision making . For me leadership is also the way of building a strong autonomous team who are on a learning journey and able to grow. What would be your advice to young leaders? Embrace the unknown and always challenge yourself to learn new things. Build a strong diverse team which works on each other strengths and complement each other . A leader is indeed as good as his/her/their team. And lastly in all the crazy madness – always breathe – find something outside work which you are passionate about – which helps you to unwind .

< Back What exactly is a "collaboration"? When we gathered to discuss about Collaboration, questions came about What exactly is Collaboration? How we can achieve it? .. Recently I have been part of few discussions on how to increase collaboration within enterprise & at an industry level. The forum was volunteered by enthusiastic professionals who wanted to deliver value to their work through collaboration. Excellent thought ! When we gathered to discuss about Collaboration, questions came about What exactly is Collaboration? How we can achieve it? How different is it than team work? Simple questions, one might think, however when the question was asked to everyone round the table, we got few interesting answers. Few of those I would like to mention as follows, “Collaboration is what the F1 team does to ensure that the driver is on the track within shortest time. Its just another form of Teamwork” “Collaboration is what the Power Inverter company does with the Battery company to provide the customers a full set of power solution. Its more about knowing your strengths & weaknesses and match it with someone else’s so create a powerful combination that enables more success” “Collaboration is a process of knowledge management where people are important, but outcome is even more important. Look at Wikipedia, we have world’s biggest knowledge bank in one place, and we don’t even know who created it. Collaboration focuses on end outcome, rather than who does it.” Interesting ! What is your definition of collaboration? Previous Next

Women leadership series - In conversation with Chandni Stiehl 8 Mar 2022 Chandni is passionate about growing people, teams and companies in the data space and currently, working as the Principal Data Strategist at Thoughtworks. How would you introduce yourself? Hi. I’m Chandni. It’s nice to meet you. I always find it difficult to categorize myself into succinct buckets. People are inherently complex and I enjoy hearing about their experiences and expertise. So, usually I stop with a quick intro and start listening. When pressed I usually share that I am passionate about growing people, teams and companies in the data space. Currently, I’m working as a Data Strategist at Thoughtworks, which means I act as a practitioner leading implementation efforts, as a strategist providing advice, and as an evangelist. If you would like to know more about me, visit my linkedin profile . Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? When did you first get into a leadership role? My career journey started quite young. I would go into my father’s office when I was 14 and manage the front desk. Since then I worked most summers or took extra classes. My journey in leadership really started when I moved to San Francisco and took over the role for a Bank of America manager who was leaving. That was 12 years ago and my career has been a fun rollercoaster since then. I shifted from the Financial sector to start again as a data passionate developer at Thoughtworks. I’ve been at Thoughtworks the last 7 years sharing my passion for all things data. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? Early in my career, I believed that I could do anything I put my mind to. One of my first jobs after my 2nd Masters Degree in Financial Mathematics was with a global quantitative financial instrument trading firm. My hope was that it would open up opportunities to apply my knowledge in financial mathematics. However, being a trader involves going into the pits at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, standing side by side with competitors and yelling at brokers faster and louder than your direct competitors standing next to you. It was contrary to my natural strengths in strategy, negotiation and team building. So I worked hard to become more tactical, decisive and aggressive, believing I can do anything I put my mind to. The work hit me hard after a day with a fat-finger trade resulted in a flash crash causing an enormous uproar in the pits all day long. I left the company shortly after, and am happier for it. In retrospect I realized that believing that I can do anything I put my mind to was a red herring. My new guiding principle is to leverage my mind, time and energy to bring about the changes I want to see in the world. What motivates you? As part of my career journey I was a Statistic Instructor at Loyola University Chicago. There I was able to see when that proverbial light bulb turned on in people’s heads. Later on I would see how the right product, the right analysis, the right design would do the same for users. I love seeing people have that Aha moment, because to me it means that people are leaving that moment with a little more knowledge and power than they had before. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? Marion M. Lovett, one of my managers at Bank of America, is my role model. She is a brillant, strong, hard working woman who cared deeply for her team members. Working with her was the first time that I realized that a good leader understands the strengths in her team and how to foster a culture of excellence. Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google, is someone I have never met but admire deeply. In my work and interactions over the years, I had this idea of “common sense”. For example, First figure out what actions you want to impact, and then determine what data is needed, or that upstream UI and Decision Architecture will impact the downstream data quality and analysis. However, these things are not common sense for those who don’t work in this space, and that is why I really appreciate Cassie’s articulation of keep concepts in Decision Intelligence. I strive everyday to emulate her by articulating data concepts to non-data audiences. What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? My leadership style emulates my role model, Marion M. Lovett, in a lot of ways. I spend quite a lot of time getting to know the people that I’m working with and listening to their thoughts and ideas. This is nothing novel, but I have seen it pay dividend after dividend. The best articulation of this I’ve seen so far is in the book, Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams by Roger M. Schwarz. The book articulates clearly how your behaviors as a leader impact the outcomes achieved by your team and other teams that work with you. So my style is simple, listen and learn. What would be your advice to young leaders? Practically, if you haven’t done so already take the Strengthsfinder test by Gallup and read Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams by Roger M. Schwarz. As a leader you will need to invest in others. I recommend checking out Shine Theory , and supporting the people around you. Lastly, life will take you in unexpected directions, but no matter where you go, know yourself, know your strengths and leverage who you are to positively impact the world.

Emerging leadership series - In conversation with Vijayalakshimi Kandasamy 25 Jan 2023 Vijayalakshimi Kandasamy (Viji) comes with 19 years of IT experience and leads one of the most important project within internal IT. Viji is very passionate about solving problems and has a keen interest towards Project and People management. She loves to be close to nature and spend her spare time trying to maintain a small farmland. How would you introduce yourself? I am a Lead consultant at Thoughtworks with over 19 years of IT experience . I consider myself fortunate for being exposed to a variety of projects in different domains with many organizations. I am always passionate about solving problems with a keen interest towards Project and People management. This interest also led me to pursue MBA while parallelly working as a developer. On the personal front, I am a mother of two tweens. I love to be close to nature and spend my spare time trying to maintain a small farmland. Can you tell me a bit about your career journey? What inspired you to take on the leadership role? I started my journey as a Java/ J2EE developer in a small sized product company. Being in a small sized company one can’t restrict to a specific role and that helped me to explore and extend my knowledge on the end to end software lifecycle. As the product I worked on was acquired by a large software firm I moved to this firm as part of the acquisition. This opened doors for me to work more closely with clients and understand their perspective. I have spent considerable time in the automotive domain and also with DevOps in trying to set up CI / CD pipeline for toolchain and in automation to bring down lead time for release. During my journey , I always ensured to take up the opportunities that came my way and challenge my limits. Before Thoughtworks, I spent more than a decade with Bosch which helped me to shape my management skills. Being empowered , accountable and driving strategic initiatives to deliver results were some key factors that inspired me to take up leadership roles. What were the top challenges you faced during your journey and how did you overcome them? Collaborating with different teams to achieve a common goal is one of the challenges I could recollect . As a means to overcome , an alignment on the priorities, the benefits of the common goal and responsibility of each team involved will bring everyone on the same page. Following this, establishing a mechanism to uncover and track dependencies certainly helped in successfully delivering the results. Keeping the teams focus and delivering results while navigating through ambiguity and uncertain times is definitely a key challenge faced. Being transparent about the situation , constant communication with teams, working on solutions given the current clarity and openness to evolve as the situation improves were some actions we implemented to sail through the rough patch. What motivates you everyday? It is good to be surrounded by people who constantly motivate you however I feel the best is to be intrinsically motivated. The impact created due to our work and the value we add to the organization motivates me. Also I am greatly motivated while I am able to mentor people and make them realize their complete potential. Do you have a role model in your life? Can you name a few people who you look up to? I do not deny the fact that some training and leadership programs help play your role efficiently , but more than any other means I imbibe a lot of skills from the people I collaborate with on a daily basis. While I had opportunities to work with a lot of inspiring leaders , I still cherish working with my first mentor after moving to IT. He inspired the team by his way of approaching a complex problem , modularizing it and then connecting the dots. We were as freshers quite awestruck by his way of solving problems. Another great leader I look up to, empowers his team to be autonomous and stands by them during difficult times. My Mother has been a great inspiration in my Journey ,a Doctor by profession she has always been empathetic and I Am greatly astonished by the positive impact she has created on many people. What does leadership mean to you? How would you describe your leadership style? Leadership is just not a designation or role offered to you, it is a mindset where you assume responsibility and be accountable for the results. I do not stick to a specific leadership style always ,it is scenario based and a mix of multiple leadership styles. Although mostly inclined as a Democratic leader in some cases I also tend to be autocratic where specific guidelines have to be set and to keep the team focused on near term time critical goals. In a few other scenarios in my experience, where there was a strategic restructuring of teams based on product revamp I acted as a transformational leader in adapting quickly to change and supporting the teams to eventually sustain. It is not that I consciously shift between different leadership styles but this comes out naturally in a given situation. Only later when I reflect , will I be able to differentiate the approach taken and the correlation with the leadership styles. What would be your advice to other leaders? I believe there is no substitute for hardwork and commitment. As leaders, creating an unbiased environment that encourages open feedback is essential.While it is quite common to spend significant effort firefighting on the current priorities , setting up time to strategically plan the long term objectives of the Project will not only help the Business but also reassure the team of the opportunities ahead.