Navigating Change, One Turn at a Time

Overview The article narrates a personal experience of confronting a low-engagement engineering department and draws parallels to the rescue of the Ever Given ship. It explains why working with the environment and making incremental changes can achieve lasting improvement.

Key Takeaways

• Small, focused changes outperform massive, disruptive overhauls.
• Understanding and adapting to cultural, product, technology, and talent currents is essential.
• Empowering existing team members as "tugboats" amplifies impact.
• Patience and precision are more effective than brute force.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers facing low team morale or engagement.
• Technical leaders navigating organizational change.
• Senior engineers interested in people-centric leadership.
• CTOs looking for incremental change strategies.

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Incremental change management.
• Environmental analysis of team dynamics.
• Collaborative leadership model.