Summary: Tomorrow is my last day at Insight. This is my self-retro for my nearly six years as an Azure engineer, a team lead, a technical pre-sales solution architect, and a Power Platform Developer/Application architect.

Continuous Improvement

This is a phrase that we embrace in tech and would be wise to hold onto no matter what various shifts in the weather patterns suggest. My career has been carefully mapped by lessons—both the wins and the losses.

Continuous Improvement in Agile is about fostering a culture of learning and adaptation, where teams strive to be better over time by consistently evaluating their work and making incremental improvements.

From Glazer’s, solidifying my understanding of business problem solving, SaaS solutions, and cloud. To Cardinal Solutions, with the fear of constant change being my prior barrier to tech services consulting. To Nationwide Insurance as a system architect because, and for once, I chose my boss for her brilliant way with people and incredible ability to map out an entire organization’s technology roadmap over a five-to-ten-year period (the secret that she taught me was simple: listen, negotiate, illustrate). Then, most recently, Insight, to get my hands dirty, lift the weights every day in the gym of Visual Studio, and lean in to accomplish a dual goal of helping sell and win the work while keeping people off the bench toward helping our clients do what was needed. Ultimately, T-shaping even further by going back to my deep roots with Power Platform/M365 and pro-code solution stacks that empower the people we all serve—our product owners and their customers.

Parting Words to My People

  • Reach out to a colleague 1:1 style and check in to see what is recently exciting or challenging them, what they are struggling with, or what they’ve been doing for fun. Just be there and listen.
  • Write an (internal organization) recognition within Insight for someone and give line of sight to not just the big things, but the small ones we all do for each other and our clients.
  • Go to LinkedIn and write a recommendation for someone who has been laid off, or any of your clients and/or current/former colleagues, to start building a public trail showing how that person has touched your career in some way.
  • Volunteer your expertise to assist in any pre-sales activities to keep moving all of us toward our mutual goals and lining up the kinds of work that we love to do.
  • Volunteer your coaching, speaking, writing, presentation, and/or code review time/skills to our peers and keep learning from and inspiring one another.
  • Challenge yourself when you start to feel “comfortable” (my cadence has been roughly 3 to 5 years).
  • Most importantly, be kind to yourselves, think the better kind of thoughts, speak gently when you address yourself in your heads, and know that you are truly amazing in every way.

Next Chapter

I’ve been searching for a little over a year for the right scenario where I can bring all this to a head in service of an organization and its people in a way that does exactly what my “leader’s intent” is all about: empowering people to accomplish small goals, together, toward the larger ones, with innovation and strategy in mind. I’ll be announcing that next week, but tonight - this is about the Insight retro. I’m humbled and grateful for my time at at this evolving organization. I actually cried after one of Nick’s code reviews, not something I normally do but it was a come-to-Jesus moment and it was for a personal quest that I got there. But then, I bucked up, learned from the knowledge shared toward my own goal of continual improvement. I made two lifelong friends through the pandemic—they kept me going, I mean that in a very deep sense of the phrase, I love you Michael & Patrick (ps: Eddie is not jealous). To the good folks whom I had the honor to work with on jobs together? I hope what I did for you got you a step closer to your goals and I respect everyone of you and your team mates, deeply. Then all the opportunities allotted to help my Insight teammates, as their lead, deal with day-to-day life as living, breathing, and growing professionals. What an honor it was to be a servant leader for them.

My Retro

And finally, the five+ year retro that made me smile in how much, as difficult as some of these years were, made me stronger and more connected on a human level. Insight, our people, our partners and those who hire us to support with excellence and clear leadership, well, included my own efforts. That’s the idea we should all hold right up front. Our creativity, in everything we do together, should be used collectively for the greater good of our consumer.

“First came the light,” – ‘Evolve’: Phish

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║                             RETRO BOARD                                     ║
╠════════════════════════╦═════════════════════════╦══════════════════════════╣
║      ACCOMPLISHED      ║    GOALS FORWARD        ║   OUT OF MY CONTROL      ║
╠════════════════════════╬═════════════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣
║ - Built Up: .NET,      ║ - Empower users/people  ║ - Tech culture embraced  ║
║   Azure, API Patterns, ║ - Listen & help others  ║   fear & disconnection   ║
║   leadership, pre-     ║ - Prioritize & Plan     ║ - GP% > human value      ║
║   sales, PowerPlatform ║ - Value vs time/energy  ║ - Strategy declined      ║
║ - Team Lead for 5      ║ - More time w/spouse    ║ - People as $ liablities ║
║   years                ║ - In-person work:       ║ - Office shutdowns       ║
║ - Presentations on     ║   remote < face-to-face ║ - Pandemic interrupted   ║
║   hope/career/tech     ║ - Promote friendship    ║   everything & our       ║
║ - Hikes/camp/family/   ║ - Focus on self-care    ║   response was horrible  ║
║   life transitions     ║ - Innovate              ║                          ║
╠════════════════════════╩═════════════════════════╩══════════════════════════╣
╠════════════════════════╦═════════════════════════╦══════════════════════════╣
║      WENT WELL         ║       LESSONS           ║     GIFTS                ║
╠════════════════════════╬═════════════════════════╬══════════════════════════╣
║ - Azure functions      ║ - I am not an           ║ Tech's choice to embrace ║
║   stepped up my game   ║   Angular/React dev     ║ 'herding' by laying folks║
║ - Made true friends    ║ - Balance is not a      ║ off, repeatedly?         ║
║ - I was there for my   ║   buzzword, it has      ║ Well, It tought          ║
║   family when needed   ║   real consequence      ║ me to look to Eddie.     ║
║ - Working in a         ║ - Culture is not a      ║ To embrace my loved      ║
║   remote silo became   ║   cost center,          ║ fellow tradesfolk.       ║
║   possible but         ║   it's either tended    ║ To embrace a stoic style.║
║   not desirable        ║   or it dies            ║ Hold everyone around me, ║
║ - Survived w/my values ║ - Go camping!           ║ current, past and future ║
║   intact               ║ - My spouse is my reason║ as my actual work.       ║
╠════════════════════════╩═════════════════════════╩══════════════════════════╣
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║                                 OUTCOME                                     ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║        - People are worth every ounce of energy we have to offer            ║
║        - Be wise, listen and uplift                                         ║
║        - Lead with heart and compassion, not ambition                       ║
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