I had a great experience speaking at QCon San Francisco last month, where I shared three defining moments from my career, offering lessons on navigating job loss, embracing continuous learning, and leading through organizational chaos. In this talk I provided actionable insights on building personal, technical, and organizational resilience to remain relevant and effective in the evolving tech landscape, including the impact of AI.
Below I’ve summarized the key takeaways from the talk. You can watch video or read the transcript, or even download the slides: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/culture-resilience/ During the talk, I provide a rating system so you can rate yourself on varying aspects of resiliency.
Ever feel like you’ve lived a hundred tech years in just a few decades? 😅 That’s the sentiment I used to kick off my recent conference presentation (complete with an image of a hundred-year-old tortoise I met on the Galapagos Islands), reflecting on 27 years in this ever-evolving industry. From navigating the dot-com bust to the rise of AI, the one constant has been change. My talk focused on sociotechnical resilience: how we, as individuals and organizations, can not just survive but thrive amidst this constant flux.
Drawing on personal anecdotes and key learnings from my journey – from structural engineering to tech consulting, startups to Wired, Twitter, and now Capital One – I shared three defining aspects of building resilience:
Personal Resilience: Bouncing Back and Finding New Paths 🛤️
I’ll never forget getting laid off just days after announcing my pregnancy during the dot-com crash. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. But that experience taught me a crucial lesson: resilience starts with acknowledging the ending. William Bridges’ book “Transitions” highlights the importance of disengaging, grieving the loss of the predictable future, and then navigating the uncomfortable “neutral zone” before a new beginning can truly take root.
The unexpected gift of that layoff? Play. As Dr. Stuart Brown notes in his book “Play,” it’s through experimentation and imagination that we develop new skills and adapt to uncertainty. Teaching SQL, dabbling in graphic design, and even developing a restaurant menu on a Palm Pilot led me to the world of web development, a path I never would have predicted.
Key Takeaway: How you deal with failure shapes your future success. Cultivate adaptability by imagining multiple paths and recognizing that setbacks can lead to unexpected and better opportunities. Rate your own adaptability – are you resistant, cautious, flexible, proactive, or thriving in dynamic environments?
Technical Resilience: Staying Relevant in a Sea of Change 🌊
Remember feeling on top of the world when you first grasp a new technology, only to realize how much you don’t know? That’s the Dunning-Kruger effect in action, and navigating the “valley of despair” is a familiar part of the learning curve.
In tech, the landscape is constantly shifting. Think about the evolution of programming languages (C, then JavaScript, now Python), browsers, and frameworks. Choosing to become a deep guru in a specific area has its merits, but I’ve found greater resilience in cultivating breadth. By cycling through different domains – backend, frontend, infrastructure, ML – I’ve gained the ability to see patterns and apply lessons across disciplines, a crucial skill in our rapidly changing world. As David Epstein argues in “Range,” the more contexts in which you learn, the better you become at seeing overarching patterns and coming up with novel situations.
Key Takeaway: Embrace lifelong learning and cultivate curiosity. Don’t be afraid to feel like a beginner again. Regularly explore emerging technologies and assess your own curiosity levels – are you dismissive, minimally curious, moderately curious, frequently seeking information, or insatiably driven to learn?
Organizational Resilience: Navigating the Storms ⛈️
The rollercoaster of 2022 at Twitter was a stark reminder of how quickly things can change within an organization. It felt like “bombs” of news were dropping daily, executives were walking out, and rescinded job offers created an environment of immense uncertainty.
Navigating that period required a focus on the basics: sleep, exercise, healthy eating, and strong support systems. Finding perspective, even by reading about leaders who navigated extreme crises like Winston Churchill through the Blitz during WWII, helped me lead my teams through the chaos by acknowledging their stress and offering a path forward.
Crucially, I had an escape route. By continuously keeping an eye on the market and maintaining my network, I was prepared for a change even before the major upheavals began. Remember, 70% of people get hired through connections!
Key Takeaway: Be resourceful. Develop your ability to solve problems independently, even when traditional resources are unavailable. Rate your own resourcefulness – are you dependent, limited, functional, making the most of resources, or a MacGyver-like problem solver?
The Age of AI: Resilience is Key 🤖
As we stand on the cusp of a new era with the rise of AI, the lessons of sociotechnical resilience are more critical than ever. The potential for disruption across industries is massive. How are you engaging with AI in your own life?
Ultimately, staying relevant in the long run requires a combination of adaptability, curiosity, and resourcefulness. By cultivating these core traits, we can navigate the inevitable twists and turns of the tech landscape and continue to thrive in the face of uncertainty.
Kathleen Codes 