• Manager or managing is a short hand form of "working with a team".
• I don't manage, I work with people. You manage things, not people.
• The basis of working with people is trust. Trust is bidirectional.
• If you have to resort to your title as a manager, you have lost. Reputation and trust.

Types of change

• Technology changing in the org
• Changing the organizational structure
  • Growing the org
  • Moving people around
  • Layoffs

Topics involved

• Actual changes
• Stress
• Emotions

Supporting Sciences

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Systems theory

• Technical change is ubiquitous and permanent.
• There are tech changes that are perceived as a threat.
• Underrepresented groups are often affected disproportionately by anxiety.
• Hence, technical change never is purely technical. It's not like just changing a tool.

AI Skill Threat

Opportunity Gaps for Minorities

• Rated the output quality of AI significantly lower.
• Less likely to plan upskilling for AI-assisted workflows.

Principles

• Adding people to a team makes it slower.
• The team culture will change.
• Don't expect the new hire to "just run with the pack".
• Treat their experience during the first weeks/months as an insight from an "external consultant".
• Parts of the org will be in different phases.

What to do [scaling]

• Adjust expections on performance. Inside the team and from stakeholders.
• Remember: getting up to speed in a complex project can take up to six months.
• Have a really good onboarding process. Hint: that takes several weeks.

What to do [onboarding]

• Part of the onboarding should be a "get to know each other" meeting, or several of those.
• Connect the new hires with senior leadership.
• Find an onboarding buddy for the new engineer.
• Have an onboarding retro 90 days after start.

Principles

• Starting to work with people you don't know (well) and who don't know you (well) requires building up trust.
• Expect some disorientation.
• Don't do reorgs too often.
• Have reasons for the reorg. Good reasons everyone can understand.

What to do

• Have an introductory "get to know each other" session.
• Make sure to explain what people can and can not expect from you.
• Build up trust by actions, not words. If you don't trust them, they will not trust you.
• If you're actively involved in the planning: ask people before moving them around.

Principles

• Most of the time a layoff is not your own idea.
• People will be mad at you. The ones who have to go and the ones who stay.
• This is stress for you, because it probably goes against your personal values.

What to do [1/2]

• Don't blame others, but don't defend what is not defendable.
• Be kind to yourself.
• Maybe ask for an outplacement agency to be involved.
• Provide useful letters of recommendation.
• Avoid "You've been made redundant".

What to do [2/2]

• Provide an extranet with resources that will be unreachable once people have left.
• Process of communication:
  1. Talk to the person affected.
  2. Agree with them on how to proceed.
  3. Common sequence: direct team, department, company

Amygdala hijack

Mirroring & Body Language

• Your body language will determine, how you are perceived.
• There is a high likelihood that a person mirrors what they perceive from others.
• So if you seem to be upset (by something personal), the other person might seem like they are upset too.
• Mirroring someone's bodylanguage creates rapport.

Thermometer vs. Thermostat

• If you are on a constant lookout for signals from your colleagues, you function as a thermometer.
• The vibes your colleague gives off work like a thermostat, setting the temperature of the room.
• As soon as you notice the temperature changing, you can function as a thermostat too.