Karen Tay, Smart Nation Director for the Prime Minister's Office of Singapore, is on a mission to transform Singapore into the world’s leading smart nation, where technology is used for maximum public good.  She chats with Barry O’Reilly about how she is helping to modernize government by applying product development thinking to policy, organizational and talent development. She shares how this is changing the way the Singaporean government works.  [note: this was recorded before the coronavirus outbreak in the US. If you want to chat about how these insights pertain to Government management of the coronavirus, Karen is happy to chat] User-Driven Design In charting directions for a country, being responsive to citizen sentiments is important, but there is also a place for Governments to exercise leadership in decision-making, eg. the decision that investing in preschool education is critical to social mobility, decisions on how to manage crises such as the coronavirus. Regardless, how the central government implements their decisions should be driven by user behavior. Karen points out that using an iterative process is beneficial in many cases. She relates that they combined user research and iterative testing for policies in the Ministry of Education and found that stakeholders felt more engagement and ownership of the new policies. You have to be willing to listen to what your educators need and want from your product, and change it to something they are willing to implement, Karen says. Barry agrees that you should use user data to reframe your problem, then look at ways to improve. Make Customers Feel Valued Karen and Barry discuss several unlearning moments in Karen’s career. She points out that in government it’s not about what ideas you have, rather whether you can execute them. She says that she was surprised by how little she needed to get something done. She found that it was often as simple as listening to her potential customers’ needs and designing around them, instead of feeding into prevailing assumptions. “You want to make [your customers] feel that you thought about them when you designed the product,” Karen says. Go Deep First When you’re trying to build a policy or product, you must “go deep first,” Karen says. “You need to really get to know the people you're trying to serve… Focus on building that relationship and that trust with the community. Everything else - the dividends - come later.” As you respond to those needs, you learn more about how to scale later on. Barry agrees. He argues that a one-size-fits-all solution never works because each company and culture is different. “The way to scale innovation is actually to descale it, to start with a small group of people. Go very deep with a narrow focus and demonstrate new behaviors. Show what works and doesn't work in your context,” Barry emphasizes. It’s All Relational Building talent pipelines and communities is all relational. Magic happens when you get to know people as human beings, Karen says. You achieve outcomes by connecting on a human level: people feel inspired to change when they have an emotional connection to the change you’re trying to make. Barry comments that the most successful leaders role model the behaviors they want their employees to adopt. Looking Ahead Karen outlines several differences between engineering culture and management culture. She wishes that more hierarchical organizations would adopt the hands-on approach of engineering culture. This is the experience economy, she argues: people want to feel that your company is thinking about them, that they are valued. In fact, you should see all your customers and your employees as ambassadors. As such, you should treat them well and create an amazing experience for them. Resources Karen Tay on LinkedIn

This week’s guest on the Unlearn Podcast is Eric McNulty, head of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard. Eric is a crisis leadership expert who has worked on crises such as the Boston Marathon bombing, Hurricane Sandy and Deepwater Horizon, the BP oil spill off the coast of Mexico. He offers valuable insights about making decisions in crisis situations, in light of the Coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world. A Helpful Decision-Making Tool The leaders who respond best to a crisis are those who can weave several disciplines together to see three-dimensional patterns others miss. Such leaders see what’s missing, and can make connections between different domains to come up with a new solution. Host Barry O’Reilly says that it’s important to recognize the effects of your decisions. He asks Eric about tools to discover potential obstacles when implementing decisions during a crisis. Eric says his colleague, Peter Neffenger, created the Situation Connectivity Map for this very purpose. This tool helps you map out secondary situations that may arise, and allows you to connect the dots and get a richer picture of the overall impact. He says, “You think you're solving for problem X, but around that are different stakeholders, different aspects of that, and the extent you can map them... and to say What's gonna play off in this? How are they connected? Who are the stakeholders? Then you begin to really figure out where you need to put your attention.” How Can We Be Our Best? This is a time to be aspirational, Eric says. Your old bureaucratic process will keep you from innovating, and actually prevents you from doing right by your customers. Ask yourself, “How can we be at our absolute best right now?” He encourages leaders to make changes, to rise above the situation to come out better and stronger. Barry adds that when you empower people to be their best, you will be amazed by what you can achieve together. Eric shares some interesting stories of resilience and innovation that he saw during crises. It’s About Creating Order In a crisis, Eric says that he is “completely uninhibited about asking stupid questions.” He wants to understand why things are done in a certain way. Sometimes, his questions help others open up to doing things differently. He always asks these questions first: Who or what has suffered here? Are they being taken care of? Who should we have helping us who’s not here? He says that failure often happens when you try to control everything. However, the very nature of a crisis is that it’s partly beyond your control. As such, you should aim to create order, not control. You only impose control when it brings more order, he says. He advises leaders to trust their people and delegate as much as possible. That’s how you give yourself space to contemplate the bigger decisions and understand the potential unintended consequences.  Looking Around the Corner “If you're looking around the corner what's coming next actually is pretty obvious,” Eric says. He gives some practical tips to help leaders look ahead during a crisis: Think about what’s likely to happen and the future consequences, based on the evidence you have; Micro-journal your decisions and the information that led to them. Resources Eric McNulty on LinkedIn

Alberto Savoia had a successful career as Chief Technology Officer in major companies such as Sun Microsystems, SunLabs, and was Google’s first Engineering Manager. As an entrepreneur, however, he realized that building the right thing was more important than building things right. He chats with Barry O’Reilly about the pivotal unlearning moments in his life and his new approach to product development. The Beast of Failure You work hard to create a great product, you launch it and the market rejects it. That’s one of the most painful experiences for any software developer. Alberto relates his first experience with ‘the beast of failure’: even though the market told them “if you build it, we will buy”, they did not actually buy. Alberto says that this failure felt as if someone had pulled the rug from under him. However, it was also a seminal unlearning moment for him. The first lesson he took away was that if you’re building the right ‘it’, you will find a way to succeed in the market. The second lesson was that you have to own your failures before you can move forward. Unlearning Market Research There is an 80% chance that the original version of any idea will fail. As such, Alberto now goes into a venture expecting failure, and the market has to prove him wrong. Optimizing to be wrong rather than to be right, flips traditional market research on its head. Barry comments that it’s at the heart of the scientific method since you have to conduct experiments to invalidate your hypothesis; if you can’t invalidate it, then it’s probably a good hypothesis. Alberto’s most important experiment to test his ideas is his ‘skin in the game meter’. Asking the market if they will buy if you build is due negligence, he argues; that’s just promises and opinions. Instead, he tells them, “If you buy, we will build.” The ultimate demonstration that someone wants a product is when they put down a deposit. Money is the ultimate skin in the game, as Elon Musk’s example proves. Pretotyping Engineers usually know whether a product can be built. The uncertainty lies in whether it should be built. Alberto says that when he looked at how creators approached this problem, he saw many examples of pretotyping. A pretotype is something you build before you start to build something that works; for example, how Jeff Hawkins developed the Palm Pilot. The only data that is valuable, Alberto says, is YODa - Your Own Data. Just as Hawkins did, Alberto only counts YODa that is backed up with skin in the game. Barry adds that YODa has the ability to shift mindsets. He has found that the people who own their results, and are continuously learning and unlearning to enhance their product, get exceptional results. Change Takes Time Logic does not convince people to change their age-old thinking. It takes time and dedication to get people to buy in to new ideas and methods. Start with one project, Alberto advises, and incorporate some traditional techniques. Let them experience the results firsthand: that will start to open their minds up to a different way of thinking and acting. Barry agrees that logic is not enough to change minds or behavior. “You have to act your way to a new culture,” he says. “You start to see the world differently when you do things differently, and that’s what challenges your mental model and shifts it.” Looking Forward Alberto has written a book to teach entrepreneurs and innovators about pretotyping, so they work on ideas that are likely to succeed. He advises them not to depend on luck and to assume failure. If you iterate enough, however, you will find the idea that succeeds, he says. That is how to play in a systematic way. “Unlearning is learning. It just takes courage to flip it around.”  Resources AlbertoSavoia.com

For 20 years, Jen Grace Baron has sought to discover the secrets of sustaining inspiration. Her findings are the subject of a book which she co-authored with Allison Holzer and Sandra Spataro, entitled Dare To Inspire: Sustain the Fire of Inspiration In Work and Life. She chats with Barry O’Reilly about his interesting topic in this week’s show. What makes it worthwhile? In entrepreneurship, as in life, there are going to be tough days. Jen says that she and her co-authors asked each other, “What is the difference that we want to make that will make bad days worthwhile?” Inspiration is a muscle and a resource Jen’s research proved that the traditional view of inspiration is erroneous. Inspiration isn’t something that happens to you. In fact, it can be generated: inspiration is a muscle that you can build and it’s a resource that organizations should manage. She outlines three ways we get inspired:  We inspire ourselves; We are inspired through, with and by others, mainly in relationships; We’re inspired through situations.  Jen adds that there are predictable pathways, or engines, that people use to inspire themselves. Rituals and culture Barry and Jen talk about how simple ‘reset rituals’ spark inspiration and prepare us for success. Systematized rituals are essentially the building blocks of great culture. Culture, Jen says, is the hardest thing you’ll ever build in your company, but it’s the most precious. Barry adds that exceptional leaders role model the behaviors they want their people to adopt. Sustained change does depend on leaders, Jen agrees, which often means unlearning past beliefs and behaviors. The desire for the change has to be stronger than the fear of changing, she says. Am I inspiring? Many leaders believe that they are not inspiring, or that being inspiring is the same as being charismatic. Jen describes the strategies and tools she uses to help her clients see their strengths and uniqueness. Barry comments that our capabilities are often our blind spots because they come so naturally to us. However, we inspire others just by being ourselves. Inspiration is about being authentic; it’s about knowing our strengths and how to use them, Jen adds. Situational leadership is also an essential element of inspiration as leaders today must be agile. Some engines of inspiration We’re inspired by people who share their fallibility and vulnerability with us. Jen comments that just needing other people, and expressing that, is magnetic and inspiring. She shares an important unlearning story from her own life. It was humbling, difficult and uncomfortable, she says, but it taught her how to be a better leader. Another engine of inspiration is overcoming adversity. Past constraints have motivated and inspired many people to succeed. Jen explains that a surprising engine of inspiration is failure, loss and grief. She shares the story of Dr. Joe Kasper to illustrate that grief can be a deep source of inspiration and can be channeled for good. Finding your inspiration If you can reflect on traumatic events, failure, loss or grief, Jen says, and find ways they can serve you, you will grow stronger. This is called Post-Traumatic Growth. Barry asks the best way someone can figure out what will inspire them. Jen responds that inspiration helps you have your best days more often. As such, write down what your best day looks like for you, and why. What’s next for Jen Jen wants to work with companies to measure inspiration and build inspiring partnerships to increase it. Resources Dare To Inspire: Sustain the Fire of Inspiration In Work and Life

Testing Business Ideas with David J. Bland David Bland’s work includes the product death cycle, a classic anti-pattern innovators and entrepreneurs fall into when trying to create a new product. He highlights that building what customers say they want is not the way to be successful; instead, ideas need to be tested to see what they need to succeed. In this week’s show, Barry O’Reilly and David discuss his new book, Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation, including what it takes to do experimentation right. Stick To Your Vision or Walk Away? “It doesn’t matter how beautiful something looks, or who you think your customer is, if they don’t want it they don’t want it.” His early experience in a financial services startup taught David this valuable lesson. He says that at some point you have to decide whether to stick to your vision and pivot to another segment, or walk away. Having the market reject your hard work is humbling because you personally attach yourself to what you’re creating. However, David comments that the way to move forward is to listen to the data. Being Open To Being Wrong Your vision may need to be tweaked in some way for you to be successful, David says. As such, leaders should adopt the mindset that they’re testing their vision against reality and that they might be wrong. Unlearning Ideas About Experimentation Barry asks David to comment on what organizations need to unlearn about experimentation. David responds that much of it boils down to leadership mindset. People usually become leaders because they are experts in some area and have proven that they can produce results. It’s an ego-driven path, David says. If you’re not careful, you can become a CEO who still thinks that it’s all about you. Building a culture of experimentation means however, that you have to create more leaders around you. Barry adds that so many leaders are used to managing to output-based measures of success. Asking them to measure outcomes seems an alien concept, so they are resistant to the idea. David says funding is another area organizations need to unlearn. He contrasts the traditional method of annual budgeting for projects with the concept of internal VC funding, and explains why the latter is better suited to experimentation. Big Leadership Questions Technology is changing the world so quickly that organizations need to be able to adapt. The static business model that can run for years without change cannot survive in today’s market and economy, David comments. A very important question leaders need to consider is, What would happen if a startup is created today that would make us obsolete? Barry adds that another question leaders should ask is, What would stop us investing in this idea? It’s not enough to optimize only for the happy path; pairing it with metrics that tell you when to kill an initiative creates a clearer picture of what success would look like. Start Manually David shares the story of an SMS dating app to illustrate that you can use manual processes to test the validity of a business idea without building sophisticated features. You can use what you learn to find a strategy or automate a process to scale. It also de-risks the process, Barry comments, as you find out if anyone cares about your product, if anyone would use it, and if you should build it. Starting manually makes for safe experimentation since you’re only investing your time, but you learn so much. Looking Ahead David hopes to influence change in funding startups, as he believes that it should be based on evidence rather than emotion. Resources Testing Business Ideas book David Bland on Twitter

Dr. Gail Lebovic is a surgeon and entrepreneur whose work has made a great impact on the healthcare space, particularly by devising innovative surgical techniques and developing medical devices aimed at improving the lives of women with breast cancer. Host Barry O’Reilly describes her as a world leader with a passion for problem-solving and for thinking outside the box, which makes her unique in the highly structured field of surgery.  Challenging The Accepted Culture Surgical thinking is founded on achieving good outcomes and avoiding risk. Very few surgeons would think about trying a different procedure if the accepted way is working. Gail, however, knew that there had to be a better way to do breast cancer surgery. She felt that when a surgeon performs a mastectomy, he or she should also be doing a reconstruction. This was a radical idea at the time. Eventually, she sought out Dr. Donald Laub as her mentor and together they explored how to make this idea happen. Barry comments that everything pushes against you when you’re trying to innovate, especially in highly regulated, high consequence scenarios.  Breakthrough Even with a sought-after practice, and data to support her methods, Dr. Gail still found herself marginalized by the mainstream surgical community. Nevertheless, she focused on helping her patients and became involved in medical technology. She realized that she could impact many more people by creating technology and teaching others how to use it. Her MammoPad invention has now been used by over 100 million women. Another step she took was teaching surgeons her techniques. One surgeon can impact more than 250 cancer patients a year, she points out. To date, she has trained over 1000 surgeons around the world, escalating the opportunity to impact many more women than one on one. She created a post-graduate course that has hosted more than 18 conferences thanks in part to a grant from the Mary Kay foundation. Recognizing Opportunity  Barry asks Gail to describe how she recognizes an opportunity, including the steps she takes to determine if it’s worth pursuing. He quips that most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs start with a solution that’s looking for a problem! For Gail, it’s just the opposite – it begins by recognizing a problem or a basic need - for example, how to help more women get life-saving mammograms. Then you have to diligently research many different aspects of the problem as well as the potential solutions you may have. Then you can start prototyping. Ultimately, choosing the right prototype is a complex problem, but in the end you have to rely on gut instinct, she says. “That’s the key moment that ultimately will drive adoption.” Critical Thinking Skills People tend to optimize for the happy path, and very rarely do they think about unintended consequences, Barry comments. He finds that critical thinking is often a missing component in product development. Gail says that successful product development takes a cohesive team. You can’t get married to an idea just because you like it. The objective is to keep critiquing your designs and anticipating the risks until you have a prototype that you feel confident in. Barry adds that leaders should role-model accepting criticism of their own ideas; it's one of the most powerful things you can do, he says. The Value of Empathy Automating manual processes is great, but technology cannot replace the human touch. The medical process is both an art and a skill, Gail points out. Empathy is what drives the identification of needs, which inspires creation of technology products that save people’s lives and provides an avenue for compassionate care along the way. Resources Dr. Gail Lebovic

Barry O’Reilly opens Season 2 of the UnLearn Podcast by commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. He welcomes special guest Dr. Ed Hoffman, NASA’s first ever Chief Knowledge Officer. Ed is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University School or Professional Studies, and serves as Strategic Advisor for the Project Management Institutue. In these roles he works with industry leaders to develop capabilities in leadership, projects, teaming, and future of work dynamics. He is a sought-after consultant and speaker, and the co-author of Shared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects.  Knowing Why Knowing what you’re doing is important, but it’s also critical to know why. Ed has always believed that NASA’s work contributes to the good of humankind. His thoughtful response to the interesting test Deputy Administrator Dr. Hans Mark put him through during his internship, proved that he knew why he was there. Barry comments that we can achieve amazing outcomes when we are connected to mission, when we know why we’re doing what we’re doing. It Starts With The People The best organizations have thoughtful, effective leaders; they build teams who are themselves leaders; and they share a common mission. Ed says that when you work with people that you respect and care about, when you have a sense of purpose, and you feel that your skills are being utilized, then work feels like a special place. Barry asks how leaders can build such high-performance teams. Ed responds that the best leaders create - and are part of! - the best teams. “It starts with the people aspect,” he says. A sense of pride, appreciation and gratitude, and commitment to the dream are components of the best teams. Only then should the management part come in, Ed says. A Lack of Communication Leads to Tragedy Ed relates how a lack of communication and collaboration at NASA led to the 2003 Columbia tragedy. When you’ve had a period of success, it’s common to feel pressure to produce faster results. Communication between teams often suffers and that’s when danger happens, Ed says. The Discovery mission six years later was successful because of the high level of communication and collaboration. The psychological safety to talk about anything is the most important ingredient in teamwork, Ed insists. Barry adds that information-sharing is crucial because making good decisions depends on having high quality information. A Process of Unlearning  Putting yourself in an uncomfortable environment, where you have to actively learn, synthesize information and present it back for feedback, is a form of iterating, and a powerful mechanism for personal and team growth, Barry says. Ed had to go through this process of unlearning when he assumed the leadership of NASA’s Program Project Management Initiative. What he had in his favor, he says, was that he knew what he didn’t know. He has learned that knowledge is profoundly social: the answers are out there in the community, so the best teams learn from each other. Ed says that he is in awe of his technical and engineering colleagues because they’re doing work that he can’t understand. Enjoying the people you work with, appreciating them and the work you do together helps the whole team grow. Be in tap with what you enjoy, Ed advises. “It’s not work when you love something,” he says. A meaningful interaction with a mentor was another powerful unlearning moment for Ed. Thanks to his mentor, his approach to finding solutions now involves setting up boundaries to know whether something is working, as well as the tools to recover. All of this has to do with an emphasis and commitment to building reflective leadership skills for learning and unlearning. Resources Dr. Ed Hoffman

In this finale episode of Season 1, Barry O’Reilly takes the time to answer questions posed by listeners. He reached out via social media and allowed his followers to ask him anything about himself, the podcast, or things they might want to learn and unlearn. Here are several of the questions posed and Barry’s answers: Q: What takes up too much of your time? (Helen, Melbourne AUS) A: Noisy notifications. Non-specific interruptions that disrupt my flow are frustrating for me. I don’t like interruptions or context switching because it limits my progress. Q: How do you measure success for the podcast? (Caroline, New York USA) A: I’m more interested in outcome-based measures of success. I know it’s going to be a great show when a guest says “I’ve never shared this story before,” or “I never thought of it like that.” Those authentic conversations, and getting feedback from listeners that they feel they’re part of them, are really powerful for me.  Q: What has been the single best day of 2019, and why? (Prithi, Bangalore IND) A: Being sent a photo of Serena Williams reading Unlearn. It was especially poignant because watching her story on TV was a major unlearning moment for me. It forced me to acknowledge that there were things I needed to adapt in myself to achieve the outcomes I wanted. Seeing her reading my book was inspiring and felt like a closed feedback loop. Q: What’s the most counterintuitive skill to unlearn? (Simon, San Francisco USA) A: Definitely the concept of coaching. We seem to think that only people who are underperforming need coaching. However, the highest performing persons have and actively seek out coaches to help them improve. Coaching has certainly been one of the best investments I’ve ever made in myself. Q: Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is nearly impossible for me. What do you do to actively get uncomfortable? (Kirstie, Helsinki FIN) A: Actually, I feel uncomfortable if I’m not doing something uncomfortable! Trying new things, embracing counterintuitive ideas challenges your thinking and your belief systems, but it also gives you evidence that either supports your original beliefs or the new idea. I encourage you to think about one small step you can take on the edge of your comfort zone. How can you improve by even half a point? Get someone you trust to rate you in that area at the beginning, then at the end of one week. Q: It’s often said that the biggest blocker to success is fear? How do you unlearn fear? (Adrian, Johannesburg, SA) A: By thinking big but starting small. Taking small steps lets you find out what works and what doesn’t. You being to feel successful. As you continue to take those small steps, you improve and gain momentum. You start to see change happening. This is the antidote to fear: small wins create belief, show evidence and make it safe to fail. Q: What’s the best piece of advice you have been given? (Yuko, Tokyo JPN) A: That you don’t only get one shot at success, there are actually many. Entrepreneurship for me is about life and life is about growth through learning experiences. When things don’t go the way you want, the trick is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get ready for your next shot. As my cousin Phillip would say: “if you’re still breathing you haven’t failed. Make sure you learn something for the next spin and go get inspired and do it again.” What To Expect in 2020  Barry says that in the next iteration of the Unlearn Podcast, he will be interviewing guests from a broader range of industries, not just technology. He’s excited to hear about their journey to unlearn.

Tanya Cordrey started her career as a journalist for a road haulage magazine. Today she serves on several boards and consults with many leading organizations. She has led teams and international expansions in companies such as BBC and eBay, and oversaw the transformation from print to digital media at The Guardian Media Group in her role as Chief Digital Officer. She joins host Barry O’Reilly to discuss her role in leading difficult change in often very traditional organizations. Doing Something Different Doing something different can lead to new and wonderful opportunities. Tanya’s unconventional decision to do an MBA to pair and contrast with her literary arts degree resulted in creating the opportunity for her to lead a strategy team at the BBC and later to be recruited as part of the European executive team for BabyCenter. Barry comments that many people don’t realize the challenges involved when you’re trying to do something different. Tanya says that she seeks out high-paced environments. She takes calculated risks that she believes will yield good results, like the MBA and working with technology. Both decisions gave her in-demand skills and an advantage in the market. Identifying Scalable Opportunities Convincing stakeholders to grasp new opportunities is often a difficult task. However, being clear on your vision and giving them a taste of the expected results makes the task easier. A little survival anxiety can help as well!  Tanya and her colleagues wanted to convince eBay to introduce fixed price selling—her data supported it. They were turned down initially but were later told that if other countries wanted it, they could give it a try. The international partners were all interested. At the time, Amazon was talking about launching its marketplace, which spurred the decision-makers to see fixed price selling as a defensive maneuver. The project was eventually rolled out, to phenomenal success. Within a few days of seeing the results around the world, eBay US also rolled out fixed price selling. This experience taught Tanya to think big, and use data to support her beliefs. She says that it was the first time one of her ideas led to such a huge impact on revenue. By leveraging external competitors to accelerate action, and collaborating with many different stakeholders, she was able to cause a huge transformation. Shaking Off Existing Paradigms Leading change, especially in traditional companies, involves unlearning your tried and true methods and learning what works in the current context. Having spent several years in purely digital companies that were largely data-driven, Tanya found that using charts and logical arguments derived from the data didn’t really work at The Guardian.  Tanya learned that she had to appeal to hearts as well as heads in order to persuade the media giant. Barry agrees that you need a well-constructed value hypothesis grounded in evidence and data, as well as an aspirational vision and mission to show people where you want to go. Three Phases of Change Tanya’s says The Guardian’s transformation fell into three phases: Phase 1: Changing as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Phase 2: Communication. Phase 3: Cross-functionality. Resources Tanya Cordrey on LinkedIn | Twitter

Stephen Orban found an old TI-99 in his uncle’s attic when he was eight years old. The first thing he did, he says, was take it apart to learn how it worked. Soon he was writing programs to make things move around on the screen. He knew since then that he wanted to work with computers. Throughout his career he has brought exponential technology to many traditional organizations, such as Bloomberg and Dow Jones. He is now leading a new initiative in Data Analytics at AWS.  Killed by Traditional Technology It was during his tenure at Bloomberg that Stephen became infatuated with cloud computing. He relates to Barry O’Reilly that they were experimenting to create new businesses. However, the traditional method of trying to build best-in-class technology was making the process slow and expensive. We were building too much into disaster recovery and business continuity for things that might not even be there tomorrow, he says. He recognized that cloud computing would allow them to test and scale on demand, only using the resources they needed. When he moved to Dow Jones he pushed towards using cloud technology and dev-ops methodology, which allowed them to create a more agile organization. Unlearning Leadership Massive technology changes come with people changes. Stephen soon realized that the way he led at Bloomberg would not work at Dow Jones. Barry comments that it’s almost a reflex to use the behaviors that brought us success in the past. However, those same behaviors may not yield success in a new context. Stephen says that he failed as a leader for the first six months. His advisor told him that there’s no glory in being the only one at the finish line. From that day, he says, he learned to be more empathetic and open instead of the top-down leader he previously was. He wanted his team to buy in to his vision. In order to share their wins, he increased communication with employees from quarterly to monthly town hall meetings. Team members were invited to share what they were doing and how it was aligned to the broader vision. Barry says that when you recognize that you’re not driving the outcomes you want, the first step is to acknowledge it. He commends Stephen for the subtle but impactful changes he made. Building Cross-Functional Teams When Stephen decided to change the siloed IT functions into two cross-functional teams, he expected everyone to be as excited as he was. Each team was responsible for a measurable customer outcome. This required unlearning silos and learning cross-functional team behaviors. Stephen relates that the engineers were not pleased. It was hard for them to understand this new paradigm, and Stephen comments that it was hard for him to lead through the change. Barry comments that a first step is to help people feel successful as fast as possible. If they have some quick wins, they would be more willing to embrace the new behaviors. To reinforce the paradigm shift, the IT department was renamed Dow Jones Technology. Respected persons in the company started to share positive stories about the impact of the new changes, and the metrics showed that the new methods were working. Barry agrees that metrics paired with local success stories leads to breakthroughs. Looking Forward Stephen now works at Amazon, an organization that has a very high performing, well-prescribed culture and operating model. He is excited about the pace of innovation that’s going to happen. Those who can’t move fast enough will feel the impact on their profitability, he says. Don’t be stuck in analysis paralysis, he advises; there are lots of opportunities to start and learn what works and what doesn’t for your organization. You can’t think your way to a new culture, Barry adds, you have to act your way there.