Design at Scale 2021-Make Space to Lead (Tutti Taygerly)

—> Good afternoon! I was a design leader for many years, and was known for being fierce, driven, and having strong opinions

 

—> Most people didn’t know I didn’t have any white-space in life, and no space to focus on what mattered

 

—> Today, I will show a way for you to make space for your key relationships using the tools of design

 

—> I had lot of space and creativity as young person

 

—> Bit by bit though, the space I had disappeared, and grew up learning I received love and attention when I achieved and did well
  • There was no time to breathe to rest and relax
—> Kept on path of doing this path of high achievement and kept climbing career ladder
  • From speaking at South by Southwest, to leading teams for video products at Facebook
—> I achieved on personal side as well, but I was running on fumes for decades

 

—> I learned to play the game, and kept the facade of strong, confident women in tech
  • Kept going but struggled with likability
—> The only way I moved forward was to do more
  • Focused on ruthless prioritization and moving forward and kept the armor on and worked harder
  • Went to work four weeks after maternity leave, and had few friends at work
—> I was continuously overwhelmed and anxious, but kept the pressure on
  • But within the space of a year it all came tumbling down and she was forced to reconcile
—> Three events happened:
  • My father-in-law passed, I got divorced from my husband, and  my father passed
  • Moment time I wouldn’t forget
    • My husband told me that he was done with the marriage
    • I then had a call with my performance manager, but when she asked how I was doing, I lost it
    • I had gotten a huge raise, a bonus, refresher of stock options, and got the coveted rating of “greatly exceeding”, but I didn’t care as my marriage had fallen apart
—> So I had to leave Facebook, and readjust,
  • I had to have the courage to leap into unknown
  • I transitioned into leadership coaching, and valued it more than building products
  • I believe in design thinking and the design process
    • Coach like a designer and help people find their north stars

 

—> So let me show how you can leverage design process to make space to lead
  • Whenever we become used to being good at something our work-life can feel like an endless to-do list and jumping from milestone to another one

 

—> So where are you in the scale of Being vs Doing?

 

—> In technology we are used to doing things all the time, but have little time for being
  • Imagine family at home on Sunday morning, doing chores
    • The dad is calm and efficient and slowly focusing on the work
    • The three-year old is having fun
    • The 14 year old teenage boy is stomping around and not a happy camper
  • Eventually the three of them start doing the same task of chores and settle into the power of being
—> Another example: A leader is conducting a design critique session, and wants to review the designer’s work and present it to the company executives
  • Scenario 1: Leader is critical and points out flaws of design. People pick up the energy of criticism.
  • Scenario 2: Leader is focused on learning and showing the team the way, to understand the design decisions. People follow the constructive energy of the leader.
—> The doing is the same, the being is entirely different

 

—> The face of doing is climbing the ladder, but what if the ladder leans across the wrong wall?

 

—> We are all designers and use various designer tools
  • We leverage the tools of design for products and for organizations but not for our selves
—> We need to look inwards and ask questions to figure out what matters in our lives

 

—> Ask how satisfied are you with your leadership. Are you too focused on doing?

 

—> For me:
  • I was good with money, and leading at work
  • But I had poor health,  was not sleeping, and going through intense couples therapy
  • Autonomy and freedom at work, but felt trapped with Facebook’s business model
  • I was struggling in relationships and wasn’t telling anyone about it (avoided friends and family, few friends at work)
  • Energy and passion were lagging as a result

 

—> Now for the interactive part of  thispresentation. Take outa  pen and paper and work on filling in the material
  • Draw out a circle and divided it into segments
  • Ask yourself what your level of satisfaction with area of leadership
—> Then once you are done, you will converge on other areas that you want to focus on.
  • You can continue exercise on your own afterwards

 

—> People are at the heart of all relationships
  • Do you have difficult people in your work life, such as cross-functional partners?
  • To quote Maya Angelou: People forget what you say, what you do, but not how you made them feel
—> I will share stories of how to dive deeper and strengthen your relationships

 

–> Focus on feedback of people over ideas: Struggled with this in my performance reviews, and being in love with my own ideas
  • Think like a researcher and think about what people are focused and their emotions
  • Think of the whitespace of how you are making people feel

 

—> There is a piece of art on my wall reminding me to simply listen

 

—> Think like researcher and listens for the 10% truth of a statement, and think of ways to build on the ideas
  • In May 2020, amid the tumult of BLM protests over George Floyd, a company CEO talked about rebranding a project with BLM, but didn’t consult a Black designer at the company about this potential decision. She was offended as a result.
  • That employee realized though, CEO cared about doing the right thing by his employees
    • So she shared her reflection about that 10% truth, and raised the issue with the CEO, and they agreed to do further consulting with the  internal Black ERG

 

—> Finally, the biggest way to build trust is vulnerability and sharing your story
  • In Facebook, I conflicted with engineering director on team, and was burning out designers who were working on constant iterations
  • At time there was a pulse survey to gauge employee happiness,  and I was ashamed of how my designers rated themselves
—> The survey asked: How often do you have ability to do your best work?
  • Engineering team felt they could do their work 78% of the time
  • Design team felt they could do their work only 33% of the time
—> This was hard, but I took data and judgment of team with the engineering director
  • They recognized that the design team was being burnt out and that designers would leave for teams and other companies
—> And today, I’ve shared deeply intimate parts of my story, but it built relationships

 

—> Now we are in the prototype space, and I wan you to apply the interactive design process to make space for leadership
  • Find something you want to do, or something you want to try to improve a relationship, and take a step to embrace more space
—> Contact me, to hear more and to learn how to make space

 

—> As for me, I learned to slow down and trust own leadership. I’m done with my story, and I hope you too can make space to lead

 

Q&A

 

  1. What does opportunity for leadership“ mean?
—> Can lead from any position, outside of conventional channels
  • Can be mentoring
  • Writing medium posts

 

2. How do you assign a number?  is there a question that we need to ask ourselves?

 

—> How satisfied are you with each quadrants in leadership.

 

3. Do you have any guidance for introverts who just have no aspiration to chase titles?

 

—> Be true to what matters for you
  • You work in tech: Do you care about people? The craft of design?
  • Titles don’t matter. Make space for what your unique leadership is