The Weekly Hagakure #20
Layoffs are an unfortunate event that — courtesy of COVID-19 — we have been seeing a lot more of lately. Having had the crappy job of helping plan one a few months ago, and in hindsight, there’s three things that stuck with me:
Layoffs are an emotionally charged situation for everyone. The folks eventually getting the news take the brunt of it, but those faced with planning and executing have no simple or easy job either. It’s drawn out, difficult process, full of impossible decisions about human beings. It is physically and emotionally draining.
No matter how dire the situation may be, caring for those affected is something to be done with actions, not words. Building up (in advance) a recruiting network folks affected can fall back on, making sure no legal detail is overlooked or miscommunicated (e.g. work permit situations and next steps), and adequately preparing the final conversations are just examples. Kindness is not optional.
Often, the circumstances leading to the layoff mean that leaving can actually be a better outcome. Staying in a context that is not favourable, or that has been mismanaged and nothing is changing, might be worse than leaving. Depending on the specific situation, this is something everyone involved would benefit from keeping in mind.
Layoffs suck and should never be taken lightly. But, if completely unavoidable and done with utmost kindness, after the initial shock wears out life goes on. And never underestimate the very human capacity to recover, adapt and move forward.
3 Articles
✍️ Top 5 Challenges Surfaced by Berlin’s Product Community
It should come as no surprise that these top 5 challenges are not exclusive of the Berlin community. In my experience, they're universal. Arthur Mor, Senior Product Manager at Kontist, dishes out some excellent, actionable advice for tackling these and build engaged, high-performing teams.
Have you ever been in an environment where "working hard" is a panacea? The be all, end all? I hope not for long. Unfortunately, too many leaders aren't equipped to realize someone's value beyond their ability to... literally burn themselves out. In this brief personal story, John Maeda gives us a slightly different, yet crucial, perspective.
Ah, the good old "technical debt vs. features" debate. Undeniably a pain point in many tech teams, but it doesn't have to be. Communication is usually an issue, as well as a lack of tools and techniques. This 3-part series by Aviv Ben-Yosef addresses all of these in a pragmatic, applicable way.
2 Videos
While I certainly don't mean to compare our colleagues and team members to children, the issue of creativity sure feels like an important one in driving great collective outcomes. In this part stand-up comedy, part serious exploration of how we're killing creativity very early on, Sir Ken Robinson gives a powerful message that any Engineering Manager should heed.
The Manager's Path author and Engineering leader Camille Fournier tells the compelling story of how she first became Head of Engineering, initially (and inadvertently) creating a culture of fear. In this 2017 talk she describes the drivers of turning that culture of fear into a culture of trust: speed, structure, relatedness and (healthy) conflict. This is such a good talk. #PublicSpeakingGoals
1 Book
📚 Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heat & Dan Heath
There's this idea about startups that “change is the only constant”. In my experience, I tend to agree. Everything is in flux all day, every day, and it's no wonder: in the end, it's all about people. And we're beautiful snowflakes.
The other thing I hear a lot is that “we can only change ourselves (not others)”. This is helpful wisdom when it comes to managing our own emotions. It's too easy to fall into the trap of trying to change everybody around us. But as Melissa and Johnathan Nightingale wisely remind us in the excellent How F*cked Up Is Your Management?: An uncomfortable conversation about modern leadership:
If your rider for coming to work excited to get shit done includes a bunch of things being different than they currently are, your attitude is likely standing in the way of you being successful in your role.
What Chip and Dan Heath's Switch taught me is that changing behaviours (and therefore outcomes) is possible, as long as we understand — and act on — what truly drives change. And to begin to understand that is, they highlight three surprising truths about change:
What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.
What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.
I don't want to give too much away for fear that you take the soundbites and move on. This is a book that any organizational leader should read because it frames change from both the rational and the emotional perspectives — and how both need to be addressed, along with the environment, in order to drive lasting and positive change.
🙌🏽 Thank you for reading! Enjoyed this week’s edition? Have feedback on how I can make this more valuable to you? I’d love to hear it — my DMs are open on Twitter or just write a comment below.
✍️ Find some of my own ramblings on tech and org stuff over at The Evolutionary Manager.
👉 You can also follow me on Twitter @prla