DesignOps 2020: Day 3-Opener: Chief of Staff-An Unexpected Journey (Session Notes)

Speaker: Lisa Gironda- Chief of Staff, CapitalOne

— Lisa will share her journey in becoming a chief of staff
— She arrived in the role through a degree in French and English LIteratrure, as being a writer, communicating, telling stories, and adjusting  messaging  is a key part of how her work is done
  • Solid foundation of liberal arts guiding life and career
— She has officially been a chief of staff for four years, but in reality she has been a chief of staff since birth
  • Lisa is the family manager, and enjoys being behind the scenes and making things worked
—90% of what she does is confidential, so Lisa will talk about how she got where she did as a chief of staff

 

— There was nothing Lisa could have planned to become a chief of staff
  • Lisa not know chiefs of staff existed outside government
— If a person asks 10 chiefs of staffs about what they do, the person gets 20 job descriptions
— As a contrast, Lisa met a portfolio manager who studied the topic of concrete for 10 years.
  • This was not Lisa’s journey
— Her Chief of staff work is not a surprise.
  • Lisa learned organization and got to make new connections

— Lisa became a beacon for people to solve questions.
  • She knew exactly where to find blue copy paper, for someone who desperately needed it. For Lisa, it was thrilling to save the day.

 

  • Lisa would always observe, recall, and help people do their work

— Lisa’s old boss was committed to getting women into technology.
— At the time, Lisa was one of four women, out of 200 men.
  • Boss taught her to be systems analyst, QA engineer, than a web writer
  • Lisa umped in and became a happy sponge, absorbing all kinds of information about the company
— Thousands of reorgs happened in her career, so Lisa grew where she was planted
  • She learned how to write SQL scripts
  • Worked in technology with liberal arts degree
— Eventually Lisa became a UX manager and understood technology, connections between form and function, and knew how technical constraints impacted the business
— In the end, Lisa spent 10 years UX- ing her heart out
  • Something about design method and thinking gave her confidence to do something quite beautiful

— At the heart of  her UX work, Lisa worked at an industrial engineering company.
  • One of her goals was to re-design sample ordering process on the company website
— Knew how to manage re-design of website, and challenged people to order free samples (free and small) to make jewelry
  • The company CEO found out by Lisa’s effort was surprised and delighted
  • Team was elevated by project and became well known

 

— Lisa then switched from UX to DesignOPs to build on her knowledge
— The DesignOps team grew from nine to 40 people in six months
  • As DesignOps, Lisa was constantly fielding unexpected requests, and things were constantly changing
  • It was like being a junior COO, and  Lisa got a lot of energy from work
— Lisa learned that there would be intense and difficult conversations in DesignOps
  • These required levity, as well as compassion and understanding
— Everyone in operations has intuition for helping and crisis management

 

— Lisa, did all of the things and loved it, and boss gave her more responsibility
— Lisa was introduced as a chief of staff by the boss, and Lisa wanted it to be her official role

 

— The boss was open to defining chief of staff role and making sure it was right for the organization

 

— What does a chief of staff do?
— The role generally includes managing operations (people, place, practices), communicating (writing narratives, and big picture work), financial planning (workforce strategy), strategic initiatives (also known as ad-hoc emergencies)
— Finally, the chief of staff acts as a proxy for  the boss
— Focus shifts from day-to-day and energy to show up each day is a must

 

— Lisa did all the things as a chief of staff. Always focused on being flexible/creative
— Her goal was giving one day week back to her boss, so that the boss could focus on strategic actions. Lisa acted as a shock absorber for what was happening day-to-day and let boss focus on work
— MBA is helpful for staff work, but Lisa didn’t have it
  • She told people who she was, why she needed something done, and worked from there
— She found a backfill for her prior position
— Comfortable from lack of clarity
— Learned that saying no or  requesting more realistic timeline has to happen, in order to clarify what needed to be managed.

 

— Org maturity matters for a chief of staff role to work, the timing has to be right
  • Lisa was on a team with incredible growth and ready for a DesignOps practice that was led by a chief of staff

— Chief of staff would boost team effectiveness and let leaders manage up and out
  • Leader could be more strategic without worrying about day-to-day
— Lisa wrote first chief-of-staff job description to focus on highest value work, and being transparent about what is done with the boss

— Biggest opportunity is practicing communication
  • Writing role and sharing feedback
  • Learning to step outside with team and focus on making sure others connected
— Lisa’s background in content strategy helped. She understood how content systems work, and this informed designing communication media
  • Tricky part is that all communication Lisa conducts is representative of the boss
  • It is a marathon and not  a sprint in refining this

— A benefit of Lisa’s UX background for chief-of-staff work is that she is not attached to things if they are not valuable
  • Life is like a classroom
— Goal is improving communicating to the right message to people at right time. Lisa’s tips include:
  • Be honest with people when you can’t share communication
  • Learning how to communicate as a proxy for the senior leader
  • Focus on finessing peer to peer communications
  • Making sure your tone appropriate–non-verbal communications matter

— Lisa is a guard dog. Her energy to protect people is activated, and she can tend to hyper-vigilance
— Lisa let her team  know this was tendency, and they provide her feedback when she becomes too hyper-vigilant
  • They throw stuffed animals or make barking noise, allowing Lisa to pause when she notices her hyper-vigilance
  • Lisa even had a ring made that said pause to slow down and adjust communications

 

— Strategic initiative are a huge part of Lisa’s  job and hard to track
— It is incredibly intense work. Visible, high pressure, and urgent
— Not knowing what is coming next is important fuel and has driven Lisa to grow and learn through career
— For example, Lisa recently had to learn Risk and Compliance as part of her job. This required:
  • A deep dive into the technology of the field
  • Use of design thinking
  • Building strong relationship with team building requests
— Lisa enjoys learning new things and supporting team
— It is part of the fun of knowing that strategic initiatives are around the corner

 

— Lisa can handle most situations that head her way, and can blend acquired skills and technology:
  • UX practices
  • Love of database design
  • Comfortable adapting and changing
  • Her love to learn and grow

 

— Now to the disco ball. Friend gave Lisa a spare disco ball
  • It needed to be hanging, but couldn’t be hanging from office walls, according to facilities management
  • Lisa figured out the disco ball size of bananas So Lisa put ball into banana holder
— This problem solving within specific constraints is metaphor for her career
— Disco ball to make connections

How to be a disco ball

  • Lisa has three broad principles:
Be the Beacon
  1. The chief of staff is a way-finder beacon, and a landmark for the company staff to reference.
  2. This metaphorically means people come to you first, and this trait requires a lot of stamina.  As the proxy for leader you are asked to resolve conflicts, and you need to handle things that need to be handled
  • Being beacon requires strength and fortitude and leading by example
  1. Know reputation is key and your reputation is tied to your leader
  2. Even when experiencing difficult days you are still the company beacon
Spread the Light
  1. Shine light on the great work done by team that may not be recognized day-to-day
  2. Be informed at what’s happening at all level of the design org
  3. The goal is to help people in the org shine on
  4. Spreading the light also means shining light on situations
  • Speaking truth to power in supportive way to bring about constructive solutions
Support the People
  1. Disco balls spin, and the chief-of-staff role is like being the den mother to hundreds people
  • The chief-of-staff should leverage any momentum in a positive way
  1. Supporting others means supporting yourself
  • Try not to over-commit, even if life says otherwise
  • To-do lists are good, but afternoon journaling is good to process all information received
  • Phenomenal way to process what happens on a single day
  • You are never alone, since admins are all there.  The admins know the team players, secrets, and are anchors for the staff

 

— Lias’s disco ball is just a disco ball. But her chief of staff role is an ideal place to leverage all experience she  has gained
—The role felt incredibly organic, and Lisa liked that her job was to keep the metaphorical disco ball spinning.
— Lisa thanks the conference organizers, thanks everyone for listening, and encourages audience to reach out if they want to connect

 

Questions

  1. What happened with the fairy-light incident of 2017?
— Lisa explains. She couldn’t put items on walls in corporate office, as she was told by an engineer that she couldn’t hang anything on walls

 

  • This was converted into a design thinking conversation, about why sticky notes shouldn’t cause a building to collapse
  1. What was one of the most memorable moments in  her career?
— Presentation at DesignOps 2020 is one of her memorable moments, as Lisa enjoys being behind scenes and fixing things.
— Outside of the conference one thing she did dealt with ordering Legos
  • Ordered 800 lego mugs for month and what volume of boxes to store in office
  • Learned phrase of error budget—> Needed it for Lego mugs
  1. A common super-power is being a shook absorber for the team, but how do you protect yourself from overwhelm and burnout?
— There is a saying: If you don’t have ten minutes to meditate, meditate for an hour
  • Give yourself at least ten minutes for silent meditation every day
— Be sensitive to somatic responses, and find small ways to practice peace without external triggers
— A life hack recommended by Lisa: Don’t confuse business travel with time off, and  you need to schedule time to recover from from work
  • Again business travel is not a vacation
— Burnout is real, and needs to be acknowledged and attended to
  1. What are distinction between Chief of Staff and DesignOps leader who supports highest level of org?
— Lisa’s journey is weirdly specific. Basic things you need to know as part of team
  • Whose doing what? What’s needed to grow?
— The benefit of her background in technology and UX, is that Lisa understands minutiae and relevance of all roles in an organization
— She can write job description in 20 minutes, thanks to 30 years of experience
  1. What to do to self-care to manage stress levels? And how do you deal with  presenting confidential information?
— Lisa references practices for self-care from the previous answer
— Regarding confidentiality, being chief of staff involves keeping confidential information
—  The goal is to not lie, but speaking the truth is not 100% disclosure of information.
  • Authenticity and compassion help
  • As much info as possible that can be disclosed, should be disclosed
  1. Career trajectory for chief of staff and how to grow?
— Most important thing to ground yourself in YOUR goals
— If you are committed to a leader, have honest conversation with leader to stay with them
  • Most Chiefs of Staff burn out in two years, so be transparent about it
— Moreover DesignOps is hard, especially with COVID
— You need to align with the goal in person’s career, and be transparent about that goal with others. Directness will get you far
  1. Ops work is behind the scenes, and difficult to connect to org results. Did you have to justify Ops value to org, and if so how?
— Did not have to justify Ops value, and doesn’t have framework for it
— For Lisa’s path, no DesignOps, then there was, then to 100 people
  • If you have four ops managers or more, boss likely needs chief of staff or portfolio ops manager who can become staff
— It is a numbers game
  1. First time a person has heard of chief-of-staff. How is design org structured? Can you share your job description?
— Love to share job description
— Mint chocolate chip flavor.
  • Aptitude and growth is tied to work that is given
  • Heard risk and compliance and say no, she said yes
— Solid understanding of what’s design for pro bono work
  • Depends on person’s asking
— Depends on person’s strengths, how you can contribute, and saying to leader you want to grow
  1. Given close relationship between the chief of staff and the principal boss they report to,  how do you go to new job or get promoted within?
— Helps to know the leader
— Chief of Staff is not a mentorship program. The role is to stand in for boss and to be person in meeting, and act as surrogate for boss
— You should explore organizational needs and find special skills to support leader
  • Can you give boss back a day a week to focus on strategy
  • If you can do this, you are on your way
  1. Being a chief of staff means you are always on or available. How to prioritize priorities that are not your own? While still being  the beacon to the team?
— Acknowledge request, understand it, and reflect it to person that you  heard request, will work on request, and will provide It by deadline
  1. How does  your metaphorical bucket get filled when no energy or stamina?
— Lisa recommends chanting for twenty minutes. For her it is akin to wind-shield wipers for her mind
  • Scream therapy can also work
— More broadly, find a personal thing you can use to recharge
— Have night-time to turn off all lights, and having night-time ritual to transition to sleep
  1. Advice on being the digital disco ball and being beacon?
— Introducing a team curfew. When you signup to be chief of staff.
  • Concession that no boundaries
— Important conversation with leader and the leadership team, to clarify boundaries
— Clear communication and calendar reminder
  • Not being transparent can be equivalent to not doing your job
  1. Can you be Chief of Staff for a VP of Design?
— From her experience, helps to be director plus to act in a chief-of-staff role
— From HR perspective, lot of confidential information is involved. Certain level of experience helps to be in a director plus role
— Expections apply to every role
  • It’s UX design
  • If you see person who needs staff, suggest you can support things that will help person do their work
— Do the work, and then you will get a time change
  • Show that you are showing up
  1. Can we get French poetry?
—  Lisa provides the end of the poem “Gather Ye Rosebuds” from Song for Helen in French.