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
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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
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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
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Kept going but struggled with likability
—> The only way I moved forward was to do more
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Focused on ruthless prioritization and moving forward and kept the armor on and worked harder
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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
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But within the space of a year it all came tumbling down and she was forced to reconcile
—> Three events happened:
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My father-in-law passed, I got divorced from my husband, and my father passed
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Moment time I wouldn’t forget
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My husband told me that he was done with the marriage
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I then had a call with my performance manager, but when she asked how I was doing, I lost it
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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
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—> So I had to leave Facebook, and readjust,
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I had to have the courage to leap into unknown
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I transitioned into leadership coaching, and valued it more than building products
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I believe in design thinking and the design process
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Coach like a designer and help people find their north stars
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—> So let me show how you can leverage design process to make space to lead
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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
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Imagine family at home on Sunday morning, doing chores
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The dad is calm and efficient and slowly focusing on the work
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The three-year old is having fun
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The 14 year old teenage boy is stomping around and not a happy camper
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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
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Scenario 1: Leader is critical and points out flaws of design. People pick up the energy of criticism.
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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
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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:
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I was good with money, and leading at work
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But I had poor health, was not sleeping, and going through intense couples therapy
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Autonomy and freedom at work, but felt trapped with Facebook’s business model
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I was struggling in relationships and wasn’t telling anyone about it (avoided friends and family, few friends at work)
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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
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Draw out a circle and divided it into segments
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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.
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You can continue exercise on your own afterwards
—> People are at the heart of all relationships
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Do you have difficult people in your work life, such as cross-functional partners?
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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
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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.
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That employee realized though, CEO cared about doing the right thing by his employees
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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
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—> Finally, the biggest way to build trust is vulnerability and sharing your story
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In Facebook, I conflicted with engineering director on team, and was burning out designers who were working on constant iterations
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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?
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Engineering team felt they could do their work 78% of the time
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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
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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
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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
- What does opportunity for leadership“ mean?
—> Can lead from any position, outside of conventional channels
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Can be mentoring
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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
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You work in tech: Do you care about people? The craft of design?
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Titles don’t matter. Make space for what your unique leadership is