Planting the Seeds of a Healthy Organization
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Nurturing a strong, vibrant organizational culture takes work. There's no magic bean you can plant and then expect caring and collaboration to spring, fully-embodied, from the ground. What are the seeds that grow into a healthy organization? How do you plant them, care for them, and let them bloom into a self-sustaining culture that people love to work in - and that excels at getting things done? Melissa has been an engineering leader (and a gardener) for quite some time, and is excited to share her experiences in planting and tending to blossoming teams of software professionals that, together, exceed the sum of their parts and get done some TRULY epic things.
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Planting the Seeds of a Healthy Organization
- 1. Planting the Seeds of a Healthy (Women-Led) Organization Women Who Test STAREAST 2021 Melissa Benua Director of Engineering mParticle
- 2. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) About Me Melissa Benua Director of Engineering mParticle Get in touch! mbenua@gmail.com @queenofcode https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbenua/ https://www.slideshare.net/MelissaBenua/ https://github.com/queen-of-code/ https://www.queenofcode.net 2
- 7. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Creating a beautiful, healthy garden! 7 … and this has what to do with software, exactly? Choosing a garden plot Planting seeds Care and feeding
- 8. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) My Leadership Style Cooperation and collaboration over fiat Focus on mentoring and training others Iterative improvement Transformational leadership approach 8
- 9. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Transformational Leadership “Transformational leadership serves to enhance the motivation, morale, and job performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms; these include: • Connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to a project and to the collective identity of the organization • Being a role model for followers in order to inspire them and to raise their interest in the project • Challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work • Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, which allows the leader to align followers with tasks that enhance their performance.“ 9
- 10. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) 10
- 11. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Adverse Environments 11
- 12. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Traits 12 Grounded in equity Celebrates diversity in opinion and experiences More experienced train / mentor / sponsor the less experienced Safe to disagree – seek consensus or disagree- but-commit Iterative improvement in all things Self-sustaining culture over time
- 13. Planting Seeds
- 15. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Repeat x 100 Sowing Behaviors 15 Seed an idea Positive feedback Tie behavior to desired outcome Desired new behavior
- 16. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Maturing Results 16 Great job giving robust, constructive feedback to the new hire. Thanks for partnering with the new hire at game night, it helped her feel welcome. “Sarah did a great job updating our onboarding process for new hires!” I was able to get you an extra $1000 in your review due to your support of our new hire!
- 17. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Weeds Maladaptive behaviors => Crowd out desired behaviors => Completely overtake culture 17
- 18. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Pests! 18 Aphids Leach the life out of your plants Moles Undermine your garden Slugs Chew up your tender seedlings Locusts Mass destruction out of nowhere
- 19. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Support Structures 19 Buddies Mentors Sponsors
- 21. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) References https://www.helioshr.com/blog/2015/06/a-review- of-gender-leadership-styles-common-traits-in-men- vs-women/ https://hbr.org/2019/06/research-women-score- higher-than-men-in-most-leadership-skills https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/is_t here_a_female_leadership_style https://careeradvancementblog.com/male-female- leadership/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformational_lead ership
- 23. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) 23
- 24. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) 24
- 25. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) 25
- 26. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) The Problem Changing Climate Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Water Shortages Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Longer Winters Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit New Terrain Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Industrial Impact Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 26
- 27. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) The Solution Clean Water Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Evergreen Foliage Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Healthy Vegetables Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 27
- 28. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) The Product Web Deep Links Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Instant Communication Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Networked API Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 28
- 29. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Digital Product Emphasize your main benefit Other benefits include • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus 29
- 30. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Divider Slide Title Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue 30
- 31. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Business Model There is an opportunity for success Fortify Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit De-Marginalize Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Research Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 31
- 32. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Market Opportunity Opportunity to Build $3B Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet Freedom to Invent $2B Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet Few Competitors $1B Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet 32
- 34. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Growth Strategy How will we scale in the future Phase 1 Month, Year • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus. Phase 2 Month, Year • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus. Phase 3 Month, Year • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus. 34
- 35. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Traction Forecasting for success Vendors Users Gross Revenue Company Revenue 20YY 0 0 $0 $0 20YY 10 100 $6,750 $1,013 20YY 50 500 $33,750 $5,063 20YY 200 2000 $135,000 $20,250 20YY 400 4000 $270,000 $40,500 $0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 1 2 3 4 5 Gross Revenue 35
- 36. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Timeline Our two-year action plan 20YY JAN FEB Design Feb, 20YY MAR APR MAY JUN Focus Group Jun, 20YY JUL AUG SEP OCT Feedback Oct, 20YY NOV DEC JAN 20YY MVP Jan, 20YY FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL Launch Jul, 20YY AUG SEP OCT NOV Design V2 Nov, 20YY DEC 36
- 37. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Financials Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Detailers 5,000 40,000 160,000 Users 50,000 400,000 1,600,000 Sales 500,000 4,000,000 16,000,000 Average Price per Sale 75 80 90 Revenue @ 15% 5,625,000 48,000,000 216,000,000 • Cost of Revenue 0 0 0 Gross Profit 5,625,000 48,000,000 216,000,000 Expenses • Sales & Marketing 5,062,500 38,400,000 151,200,000 70% • Customer Service 1,687,500 9,600,000 21,600,000 10% • Product Development 562,500 2,400,000 10,800,000 5% • Research 281,250 2,400,000 4,320,000 2% Total Expenses 7,593,750 52,800,000 187,920,000 EBIT -1,968,750 -4,800,000 28,080,000 13% 37
- 38. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Funding Fund Category Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing emit Fund Category Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit $82,000 $32,000 $14,000 $12,000 Fund Category Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit Fund Category Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 38
- 39. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Summary Summary tagline or sub-headline • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna • Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus • Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra nonummy pede. Mauris et orci 39
- 40. Thank You Kalle Persson +1 23 987 6554 kalle@email.com www.fabrikam.com
- 41. Melissa Benua (@queenofcode) Customize this Template Template Editing Instructions and Feedback 41
Editor's Notes
- Hi everyone! My name is Melissa, and I’m here to spam you with pictures of my garden while I torture a metaphor to death! I’m currently a director of engineering at a startup called mParticle, where I’ve literally built my team from the ground up – from one hire to twenty, and one team to four. But teams aren’t the only thing I build. I’ve built a family, and I’ve built not one but TWO gardens. And honestly, as I moved to my new house and started working on garden number two, I’ve found a lot of parallels in how to build something strong, something lasting, between my work outside and my work inside.
- And this is what we’re going to talk about today! We’re going to talk about what it takes to grow a healthy, woman-led team from the ground up. And I say women-led, because honestly that’s the only way I know how to do it. I’d like to think that these principles aren’t specific to our gender, but I’ve certainly found them especially important in perhaps a way that wasn’t obvious to my male colleagues.
- The very first time I planted a garden, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had a vague idea that plants liked light, and plants liked shade, and that they grew. I knew I had a theme – I wanted an edible garden that was safe for children – so I used that as a vague set of guidelines, and I ran with that. I went to the nursery and bought a bunch of plants that seemed interesting, that weren’t going to get enormous, and that were edible in some way or another.
- And I did… sort of ok. Most of the plants survived, but it turns out I’d put some in full sun that would rather be in part, and some in part that would rather be in full. And I’d put some in a spot where they had room, but some grew very quickly and within a year had outgrown their space! I put a plant that liked to have dry feet next to a plant that liked to have wet feet. I picked plants that seemed pretty, but didn’t really have a tolerance for our climate and they ended up sick! The nice thing about gardens, though, is they can be forgiving. So I bumbled along, learning, moving plants around and reverse-engineering a plan.
- . Eventually the end result was pretty nice, and met my original goals of being a foraging garden for children.
- This is great, right? But I’m sure you’re asking yourself – what does this have to do with testing, exactly? Well, there are a couple questions about setting up a garden that I think are pretty relevant: How do you find your garden plot? What are the seeds you want to plant? How do you nurture them?
- And let’s talk a little about woman-led leadership. There are statistical differences in how women and men lead. I’m not making any claims about nature vs nurture, or innate behaviors vs learned behaviors. What I CAN say, though, is that I’ve found much of my leadership style, and the style of leadership that feels natural to me, aligns with what studies say correlates to female-led leadership. References at the end
- Let’s start with that first one, because WHERE you are building your garden matters a lot – it probably matters the most, because it tells you what kind of garden you have and what kind of things you can grow in it. Are you growing in Siberia? In Hawaii? Do you have sandy soil or rocky soil or volcanic soil? Is your location sunny or shady or a nice mix? Is your next-door neighbor a locust farmer or someone who sprays roundup when you’d rather be organic? See what I’m getting at here? When you are thinking about leading and building a team, the kind of team you can build and the way you can build it depends A LOT on the culture of the organization that you’re in. The existing behavior of your peer leaders and your bosses will dictate not everything, but a lot. Are they champions of DEI? Then you might have very fertile soil and ample sunshine and can grow anything. Are they a traditional good-old-boys’ club? Then you may have thin, rocky soil and only the toughest plants will grow. Are they mostly fine, except they defend that one a-hole that all the women in the org knows to avoid? Then you might have a crop-dusting neighbor who’s could spray herbicide on you at any time.
- It’s critically important that you take a look at the environment around you before you even begin to evaluate making any changes or building anything. When you’re managing people – especially say entry-level people or ones who are more vulnerable in the industry or who don’t have the experience to push back – and you want to expose them to concepts like ‘healthy limits’ and ‘work-life balance’, it’s going to be super tough to do when you work for a manager who’s a firm believer in crunch time and anyone who leaves before me is a slacker. It’s not to say you can’t do it – but you’re setting yourself up for as much work and angst as if you were trying to grow a cacao tree in Seattle. Not every job is right for every person, and not every company can support the kind of organization you may want to build. Sometimes you can fix it – you can amend a clay soil to be lighter – but some changes are so large or all-encompassing that you really can’t - like trying to move a mountain so you can get better afternoon sun in your valley.
- In any garden, we need to plant things. Right? That’s the point of a garden! So in this analogy, planting seeds means seeding the BEHAVIORS we want, and not people. Individual people are going to come and go on your teams. Hopefully they stay a long time, and hopefully they learn and grow, but the culture of the collective – of the TEAM – should outlast any specific person. So we want to plant the seeds of the behaviors we want, so that with time and nourishment and repetition the seeds will grow into a beautiful, healthy culture for us all to enjoy – leaders AND ICs. So what are the behaviors? For me, it’s the behaviors that will support that team that I wanted – one founded in equity and psychological safety and continuous improvement. If that sort of organizational garden is my goal, then the processes I put in place and my actions and the actions I encourage in my reports should all support those things. And I call it planting seeds, because these cultural behaviors emerge not from one heroic effort, but from lots of little bits that add up over time.
- I’ll give you an example: I had a direct once who was limiting herself. She self-described as someone who didn’t like change, and wanted to be the owner and authority over an area and own it forever. She was also relatively junior in her career. I knew that, in order for her to get to the next level – which she VERY MUCH wanted to do – she was going to have to step out of her comfort zone and also get out of the authoritarian mindset of THIS IS MINE I OWN THIS and her own fear of collaboration. But I couldn’t just tell her this. Moreover, I couldn’t demand she change her beliefs. Instead, I could plant seeds. I found things we both agreed on – that she wanted to get to the next level – and identified at the thousand-foot view on the things she needed to do to increase her technical expertise. I also planted a couple seeds – offhand statements that teaching other people a thing can increase your mastery of it. That documentation updates can be a good way of letting other people know that YOU know a thing. Little things. And over the course of months, I kept planting seeds. When someone wanted a peer reviewer, I suggested her. I made a special effort to praise her when she was being collaborative or providing good feedback. I paired her with engineers that were good at the technical things she wanted to learn. I suggested this person for projects, in increasing difficulty, that would stretch her in the ways she needed to grow. I made sure to always emphasize that tech skills are great, but the collaborative skills are the real force multiplier. I coached her through difficult conversations with teammates. And, over time, this person blossomed into someone who JUMPS at the opportunity to pick up a new skill; who won praise across the whole company for creating standards and templates;
- Notes about sowing: No surprises Make people bored of hearing about the thing Not every seed is going to take – you may never know which time you planted one it was the one that took root and flowered Gentle but persistent
- Fighting off pests