Insights
Transform Your Organization Through Team-Powered Leadership
Most organizations approach leadership development backwards. They send individual managers to expensive training programs, hoping these solo experiences will somehow translate into organizational transformation. Meanwhile, the most powerful leadership laboratory sits right in front of them: their existing teams. The truth is, exceptional leaders aren't built in isolation—they're forged through the daily crucible of team collaboration, conflict, and collective problem-solving.
Herding Squirrels Ep 10
When Your "Band of Misfits" Becomes an Engineering Powerhouse
Your most unconventional team member might be your secret weapon. Your weirdest hire could drive your biggest breakthrough. Ready to stop building cookie-cutter teams?
This week on Herding Squirrels, Val Akkapeddi (Director of Engineering at Collectors) builds some eye-opening models about why the quirkiest teams often deliver the most extraordinary results.
Herding Squirrels Ep 09
This week on Herding Squirrels, Ilya Lazebnik (Director of Infrastructure at Placer.ai) built some eye-opening models about what it's really like leading distributed teams across continents and generations.
What You'll Discover:
The "Show Me" Leadership Revolution - Why saying "just show me" cuts through more communication BS than a dozen Zoom calls ever could
The Multi-Dimensional Team Nightmare - Managing Gen Z developers, international time zones, and cultural differences simultaneously (spoiler: it's as messy as it sounds)
AI as Your Communication Translator - How smart leaders are already using AI to decode whether that Slack message was passive-aggressive or just poorly written
The Invisible Hand of Peer Accountability
In our increasingly virtual world, we need to be more intentional about building these peer connections. Because when team members truly see each other as people they're responsible to (not just people they work with), everything changes.
Herding Squirrels Ep 08
I sat down with Allison McHenry (CTO at Daily Kos, formerly NYT, Meta, Daily Beast) for a conversation about leading through uncertainty—and she dropped some serious wisdom about career paths.
Stop Treating AI Adoption Like a Light Switch
I've had multiple friends and colleagues tell me AI is making their work HARDER. Seriously? The technology that's supposed to revolutionize everything is creating more friction, not less. Why? Because "AI as a strategy" doesn't work. AI is a tool. A powerful one, sure, but still just a tool. And like any tool, it's only useful when you understand what problem you're trying to solve.
Herding Squirrels Ep 07
In this engaging episode, we explore leadership through the lens of technical teams with Dave Walters, former CTO of Hired, Lacalle Group, and Spa Finder Wellness. With 13+ years at The Knot Worldwide (XO Group) and 20+ years as a volunteer firefighter, Dave brings unique perspectives on leading high-stakes teams. Using LEGO® Serious Play® methodology, Dave shares powerful insights on team alignment, staying calm under pressure, and nurturing collective success.
The Million-Dollar Miscommunication
The best teams don't assume less—they confirm more. They've built a culture where asking "What do you mean by that?" isn't seen as incompetence but as professionalism. Next time you catch yourself making assumptions, try this: "Let me confirm what I'm hearing..." It's the simplest way to turn workplace fiction into workplace facts.
Behold the Power of the Notetaker
Stop treating the note-taking role like you're asking someone to clean the bathroom. This person is literally determining which ideas survive and which ones die in committee. Celebrate this role. Appoint someone who's actually good at it if possible. And if you're stuck doing it yourself, remember: you're not just documenting a meeting—you're preserving the thinking that could transform your team.
The Complete Guide to Building Strong Team Foundations
Every high-performing team shares the same secret: they've stopped pretending everything's fine and started building foundations that actually work. Look at your team right now—some engaged, others checked out, most somewhere in between. That's not a people problem. That's what happens when teams run on assumptions instead of agreements, personality clashes instead of psychological safety. This guide reveals the hidden architecture of exceptional teams and the specific steps to transform yours from a collection of individuals into a unified force. Because the difference between teams that struggle and teams that soar isn't talent—it's the foundation they build together.
The Spaghetti Tower Challenge
Have you heard of Peter Skillman's Spaghetti Tower Challenge? (If you haven't participated yet, spoiler alert: I'm about to ruin the surprise.)
I did this exercise a few years back, and what happened completely flipped my understanding of how teams really work.
The Hidden Gift
We use LEGO bricks to help create psychological safety, but the real breakthrough isn't about the toys. It's about externalization—shifting focus away from the person and onto something external they can use to tell their story.