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The purpose of the IT Leaders Council is to bring together IT Directors and Managers for leadership training, educational content from guest speakers, and peer discussions in a vendor-free, collaborative environment. IT Leaders Councils are currently offered in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH, with more cities coming soon!
00;00;00;06 - 00;00;30;19
Morning. I'm here in a store. I'm a client executive with Spark. Some of you Spark with a Q. I know I'm going to be very techie. Some of you may be familiar with us as rural sourcing. We changed our name about nine months ago. I, for one, am particularly happy to not have to say the word rural every day, so I have a bit of a tongue twister, But Spark is a custom software development digital engineering firm to partner with our clients to build cool digital products and experiences.
00;00;30;21 - 00;00;52;05
We think we do it in a little bit of a unique way. We've got around a thousand technologists all across the US and Latin America, and so US led 100% W2 employees of Spark. And so we come in and help our clients build cool things up. A little bit about Spark. Michael I was a little nervous about this this morning.
00;00;52;05 - 00;01;16;03
I've done a lot of presentations. Typically, they don't involve me talking about me, so this feels a little bit uncomfortable for me. I told my 12 year old daughter, I said, I'm a little nervous about this. This morning. She said, Bring candy. Everybody likes candy. That's so clever. He's got me covered there. But then she said, Well, maybe bring something everybody likes.
00;01;16;03 - 00;01;40;26
Why not? Why don't you bring wine? So that tells you a little bit about our but risk taking. I'm going to discuss this topic today somewhat from my own personal purview and and the risks that I've taken throughout my career that have helped me grow, learn, adapt some of the uncomfortable moments that existed around that. I hope that it provides some value and context.
00;01;40;28 - 00;02;08;18
I'll tell some stories around that, but mostly it'll be means. So why take risks, right? You got to start with a Dilbert. Yeah. We'll need a risk analysis on this project before we can approve it. Risk one in decisiveness over analysis. Cluelessness. Micromanagement. I don't understand these risks. That's number 36. So I'm just curious. What are we afraid of?
00;02;08;22 - 00;02;16;24
And I'm a little bit interactive, so I'm curious, what are we afraid of? What comes to mind when you think risk? What are you afraid of when you say, I'm going to take a risk.
00;02;16;26 - 00;02;17;15
Speaker 1
Value.
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Failure.
00;02;18;09 - 00;02;19;06
Speaker 1
Looking stupid.
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Looking stupid.
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Speaker 1
Wasting money.
00;02;22;13 - 00;02;47;25
Wasting money? Yeah, there there are all kinds of different risks, you know, personal, professional, hopefully, but legal risks in there. But I chose this topic because Doug and I were talking and I thought, you know, I don't know that I'm a particular early risk averse person, but I don't know that people would be like, gosh, she's so she takes these huge, broad risks.
00;02;47;28 - 00;03;17;08
But I think there's been moments in my career that I've taken risks and I've learned something from them. I hope some of these things that I share today will be of value to you. I personally subscribe to the it's called the Crumble. The guy. The last it goes, last name is crumble, crumbled career theory. It's a dynamic nature of career development that has a importance on adapting to changing circumstances, seizing opportunities and learning throughout one's career.
00;03;17;10 - 00;03;43;24
I know when I went to college at Indiana Tech, I'm a proud Indiana Tech alum that I changed my major three times and I was really jealous of everybody that knew that they wanted to be an accountant and had a very direct career path. My career path has been anything but direct, and so I subscribed to that kind of career theory, and I think it lends itself to risk taking, right?
00;03;43;24 - 00;04;04;27
Seizing those opportunities, adapting to the circumstances and learning throughout one's career. How many of you like risk? Two of you. I could have guessed you two. That doesn't surprise me. So everybody else, not really a big fan, a calculated risk. We'll get to that calculated risk.
00;04;05;00 - 00;04;09;16
Speaker 1
In budget or.
00;04;09;18 - 00;04;36;09
All right. So we're going to discuss the five things that I've learned throughout risk taking. Trust your instincts sometimes, Right. We'll get to the sometimes here in a second. But we live in a world and we all work in a world where data is king and instinct is the jester. And we often think that those two can't coexist with each other.
00;04;36;09 - 00;05;07;24
Right? We need a very clear what does the data say? And that's the choice that I need to make. Data can help, right? We know that we love data. Data becomes more and more important in this world. I often hear your data as the new oil data. Is the new oil is useless if it's not refined, right? Oil is useless at the sacrifice of being able to look at data in a way that gives you feedback and creates those feedback loops.
00;05;07;26 - 00;05;33;19
And intuition and instincts can help you ask the right questions about that data. So an example of this, I'm going to give an early example of my first job out of college. I was it was 2009, the Great Recession, graduating from Indiana Tech. None of my friends were getting jobs. I was really lucky that I was in a position that I had two job offers.
00;05;33;21 - 00;06;01;21
One was with a very well-respected, wonderful company, insurance company that I had done my college internship at and great opportunity. The other was working at Indiana Tech and staying here and working in the admissions office. And I was it was I think it was February 2009, getting these job offers. I was set to get married in July and I was ready to buy my first house in May.
00;06;01;23 - 00;06;22;15
And I looked at the data and I looked at all the things and compared these to job opportunities. And I thought about what was important to me. And I looked at all the data points, this, this one has better insurance, but this one pays, you know, $10,000 more a year. And so the data showed that I probably should have taken one job over the other.
00;06;22;17 - 00;06;44;24
My instincts told me that I should take the job at Indiana Tech, and that's what I did, much to the chagrin. When you tell your parents after graduating that you're going to take less money immediately, they didn't love that. Or or your future, your soon to be spouse, that you're going to decline $10,000 a year. But that intuition felt right to me, Right?
00;06;44;24 - 00;07;10;24
So I trusted my gut in that moment after looking at that calculated risk and saying, No, I'm going to choose this, we had a speaker recently down in Indianapolis and familiar with Pippa mann. She's a race car driver. She's based in the Indy 500, and she has a racing school that does all kinds of cool stuff. But she came and spoke to some i.t.
00;07;10;24 - 00;07;31;26
Leaders about data and intuition as well. And she said, you know, all the things that they're looking at on the car as it's going and they're going around a turn and you know, what's the torque and what's the speed and all of these factors and they've got all of these connected devices. And she said at a certain point, the driver has to choose.
00;07;31;29 - 00;08;09;10
Right. And so they can have all the informed decision that you want. Sometimes you need to trust your instinct. And the reason I say sometimes is because I think, as I asked before, who likes risk? Sometimes our instinct is to avoid it at all cost, right? And not do it. So sometimes we have to push ourselves to embrace risk taking calculated risks based on intuition can and I think does and has for me, led to unexpected success, start small and build momentum.
00;08;09;10 - 00;08;32;25
So I think it's easy to be like, gosh, I got to this is what this wasn't my favorite one of all the means, but start small and build on that momentum. So I told you my early it's all me guys. There's no real content here. It's all means, you know, starting small. I told you, I took that initial risk and I felt like, gosh, I'm going against the data.
00;08;32;25 - 00;09;05;24
I'm choosing something that in my intuition felt right. My career journey has kind of followed that path in many ways. Working in higher ed, I moved to Manchester University, excuse me, and I was the director of career services there, did a lot around the region in terms of I took some risks. And I think when you look at like not just career shifts and movements and jobs, but looking at the projects that existed in front of you and the opportunities that you have to take advantage of those.
00;09;05;27 - 00;09;36;20
I was asked if I would lead our employer relations program and actually start it and go out and talk with employers around northeast Indiana in hopes of helping us align academic offerings with workforce needs. This was in 2011. And so going out there and having those conversations felt a little risky, right? I was pretty young and trying to get in front of executives and talk to them about their talent needs and their growth needs and their expansion needs.
00;09;36;23 - 00;09;56;14
And it felt like a big risk at the moment and doing something that was outside of my my comfort zone. I also took on a project there. We had a really old I think some of you might relate to this. We had a really old software system that kept our kept all over information around our students in the career office.
00;09;56;16 - 00;10;30;01
We actually in 2011 were still doing handwritten notes and passing physical files around. And so we needed the software system was no longer going to be supported. We needed to upgrade it. But we also needed to then take a look at our business requirements and understand how are we going to use this new system. I had no idea what I was doing, but I said, Sure, I'll take this on because I thought, here's an opportunity to make myself invaluable to my department, my organization.
00;10;30;03 - 00;10;49;01
And it was kind of my first toe dip into the technology world and understanding, okay, how do these how do these software applications drive value? How do we make sure that it aligns with business needs within our organization? And so taking those kinds of small risks, even though they don't seem big, they can lead to bigger things, right?
00;10;49;01 - 00;11;14;27
The employer relations program really taught me that. I loved talking with businesses about their problems and their strategies and their growth goals. And and personally, I'm born and raised Fort Wayne, New Haven graduate, love. I love this city, love this community. I don't know if many of you are all everybody. Everybody's from here. But I know growing up here it was move away, you know, go go to Indianapolis, go to Chicago.
00;11;14;27 - 00;11;40;20
There's not opportunity here for you. And I think we saw a lot of that change in momentum started in the early 2000s. You know, especially I think in 2009. There's, you know, stadium opened and all these good things that were happening in the community. And I was personally involved in a lot of those, not a lot of those, but I was personally involved in, you know, young leaders of northeast Indiana and whether the Fort Winter Festival and other things that I was excited about.
00;11;40;20 - 00;12;05;16
And so I was at Manchester, I was doing my job, I was talking with leaders, I was volunteering here. I said, if I could do anything else, I would want to work with businesses and sell our region. I don't know if that's a thing. It is. It's called economic development. I did not know that at the time. I just was like, if I could create a job, this is what these are the things I really like doing.
00;12;05;18 - 00;12;27;15
And I was very fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work at the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, which is an economic development agency representing the 11 counties of Northeast Indiana. And so that was my second jump, right? I had taken some risks that helped me build that confidence and some manageable steps during my early career that made me go, I can do this.
00;12;27;21 - 00;12;51;16
I can tackle that Next thing that helped me feel like I could take that next big leap into a space that, quite honestly, I didn't know that well. I went into the Northeast, into a regional partnership, again, continued. Some of those things were taking on projects or opportunities that helped me adapt, grow, learn, you know, seize opportunities that other people might not want.
00;12;51;18 - 00;13;11;11
And so at the regional partnership, I was there for about five years and I traveled all over the country and and sometimes the world to talk with businesses about their expansion and relocation plans and, you know, what were their challenges and barriers to that success and why how and why Northeast Indiana might be able to solve those those challenges and problems.
00;13;11;14 - 00;13;31;12
And I was doing that and again, seizing an opportunity. I heard about this little company called Rural Sourcing that was thinking about expanding into northeast Indiana. And I said, hey, I kind of inserted myself. It really was not my place, but I heard about it. I thought, this is cool. I really want to be a part of that.
00;13;31;12 - 00;13;54;18
And so I inserted myself. I became the regional lead economic developer on that project and met our executive team and just hit it off with them in general. And so really fortunate they chose to come to Fort Wayne. At that time we were around 400 people and growing, so it was exciting to see them choose Fort Wayne. They didn't even know.
00;13;54;18 - 00;14;15;15
Friends don't love Indianapolis, but they didn't even look at Indianapolis. They looked at Fort Wayne. They knew that creating jobs, software development jobs in this community had a greater economic impact. You know, be more of a drop in the bucket and, you know, in a larger market. And so they said, hey, you know, we really like you. You did a great job.
00;14;15;17 - 00;14;38;08
Would you be interested in coming to work for rural sourcing when we come to Fort Wayne? And I thought, I am not a technologist, right? I I've done a few technical type of things. I've been a webmaster for a nonprofit organization. I've done these other projects, but it felt like a really big risk at the time. In fact, I said no initially.
00;14;38;08 - 00;14;59;24
I think this is for me. They said, That's okay, we don't need you to write code. Thank God we'd be in a world of trouble if that was the case. When you come to be a project manager. Well, I had managed many projects and I thought, okay, that seems like something I could do. And so I took I think that was from a career standpoint, one of the largest risks I've ever taken.
00;14;59;27 - 00;15;23;13
The regional partnership not going like it's a cool job. You get to do all kinds of really cool things and meet people that I can't believe I've gotten to meet just by being within that organization. And so it was leaving a very comfortable, successful job to go into something that actually at that moment paid a little less than what I was making.
00;15;23;13 - 00;15;50;29
So I was a little nervous about taking this risk, jumping into an entirely different profession that I didn't know. But I think I had built this habit, right? I had built this habit of taking small risks to take bigger risks and identify opportunities. And so I made that switch over in 2019 to the tech world. And and I've seen so many great things.
00;15;50;29 - 00;16;19;16
And you know, from an example from clients that I work with in the tech world, I think all of you probably have more experience with this than I do. But my experience is oftentimes we're looking for opportunities to carve off a PFC, an MVP. Let's let's not try to eat the whole elephant. Right? And so some of that risk taking applies to our individual work and our technology jobs and saying, how do we care about this pilot project?
00;16;19;22 - 00;16;45;14
How do we manage expectations? How do we show value throughout that process? And then how do we adapt and learn throughout? I started as a project manager. I was, quite frankly, probably not a very good one. You could ask my developers. They were probably like, Can you please stop bugging us? But I raised my hand. I knew I wasn't exactly in the right place for me anymore as a project manager.
00;16;45;14 - 00;17;05;09
I enjoyed it, but I, I knew that that passion around helping businesses and understanding their problems was still very much what I was interested in. And so I raised my hand and I again, a risk. I had been there for months at that point and said, Yeah, I don't really like thanks for the job, I don't really like it.
00;17;05;11 - 00;17;22;15
I'm not very good at it. Can I do something else here? Can I join the sales team? Because I think that's the aspect that I really enjoy and I would be better at that. Luckily, great leadership, you know, says Don't. I thought they were going to pat me on the head and say, sure, maybe in a couple of years we'll talk about that.
00;17;22;17 - 00;17;43;26
And they said, No, I think I think you're right. Let's try it. We'll give you a shot. And so that that was a great opportunity. Now, it's been almost four years within the sales or four years within the sales organization, helping clients in Indiana, in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky. And so it's been very satisfying. But that was a risk to go to your employer again.
00;17;43;26 - 00;18;08;24
And really, I don't really like this. Again, none of my research, all that impressive or all that, I don't know big, but I do think that there's an aspect of of not taking the risk that you want to be, you know, not making a choice is still a risk, right? Not vocalizing. It is still a risk. Be agile.
00;18;08;24 - 00;18;41;11
I know we all love this one. You've got to know that I love we build bridges. You can't do TDD with bridge building. Exactly. But. But be agile, be adaptable. A part of that is knowing that not all risk will pan out and that unexpected setbacks are inevitable. And that the key is navigating this, adapting and navigating to unexpected outcomes.
00;18;41;14 - 00;19;07;19
Throughout that process, I can think of a client story around this who came to us and they had this idea that they wanted to create a scheduling system and that this was going to solve all of their problems. The real issue was this and if we just fix this, it'll fix everything. And we said, okay, let's take a step back and validate that approach.
00;19;07;19 - 00;19;27;23
And I think this is something we can do within our own professional careers too. Sometimes it's looking at and going, I really hate this job right now, or I'm unhappy. And and we immediately want if I just had a promotion, if I just got this opportunity, then I'd be, you know, then I'd be satisfied. Sometimes taking a step back and evaluating what is important to you.
00;19;27;25 - 00;19;51;29
What is it that you're looking for? What problem are you trying to solve can really drive a greater outcome. And so we did that with a client as well in the technical spaces. You know, we said, Yeah, we could build you this, but it's going to sit on top of a hunk of junk electronic health record system that's going to slow.
00;19;51;29 - 00;20;16;15
It's going to be slow. It's going to go out of date all the time, like you're going to build a Ferrari engine and put it in a Camry. Right. Let's let's make sure that this can be supported. And so taking that step back and making sure then creating the right path and plan forward, so be agile, be nimble in this process and knowing that you're going to hit roadblocks.
00;20;16;15 - 00;20;42;24
Right. When I when I took the risk and I jumped to then rural sourcing now spark the first few months, I thought I just made the biggest mistake of my career. I had a sweet gig and now I'm asking, you know, where are we in the sprint and what block? And I didn't Yeah, I was a little confused at times.
00;20;42;24 - 00;21;21;11
I was Googling, so I'm not a technical person. I knew soon enough, technical I knew how to manage projects, but there were aspects of it that were difficult and confusing to me and that I had to challenge myself through. But being agile and adaptable to those situations, I think ultimately can help you move past these setbacks. I thought this one was fitting as well.
00;21;21;11 - 00;21;49;27
I think embracing failure is I really hate failing. I hate losing. I failing. I don't know that anybody really likes it, but I think there are certainly things that you can learn from it. I played basketball at Indiana Tech here and and that's not really a brag. We were we were terrible at that time. And so I've lost, unfortunately, and I failed, unfortunately, a lot in my career.
00;21;49;27 - 00;22;23;22
And I would say I've learned a lot more from those losses and failures about myself, about people, about situations than I ever did from the successes. And so I think if you can look at the risk that you might be taking and understand that there could be failure, you could take on a project and not be successful, being okay with that can help you make that first step into making the choice anyway, right?
00;22;23;25 - 00;22;51;13
Having calculated risk understanding the risk reward, but trusting your instincts, being willing to adapt to try to roll all of these things into one is, is how I consider it. And I think I said it already, but the risk of not doing something is still a risk. I often sit with my clients and I ask What happens if you don't do this?
00;22;51;16 - 00;23;12;27
Because they'll come to me with an opportunity and they're, you know, we want to build this cool thing or we need to modernize this application. I have a client right now that they need to modernize an application, actually have a bunch of VB six stuff that they need to upgrade to dot net framework and hundreds of applications actually in.
00;23;12;27 - 00;23;30;17
They're they're nervous about what they're going to do. They don't have a clear strategy about going about that. And I said, well, what happens if you don't? You know, they're trying to make the case. And I think we're often trying to make the case of why we should do something right. well, this is why. Well, I've got it in the budget this year.
00;23;30;19 - 00;24;09;04
Well, you know, it needs to happen like this. Ask yourself, what happens if you don't, because oftentimes that can be a very clear motivator, an indicator of why you need to move forward. But knowing that if you don't, it's still a risk and failure is still still an option, celebrate your success, even the small ones. So things that you can do to move the needle to carve out work, whether it's in your professional career or, you know, as work projects come up or if it's in your your personal life as well.
00;24;09;05 - 00;24;33;08
Take those risks and celebrate the successes. Right. Even if they're small, it helps you boost your confidence. I think it's helped me boost mine. Help me take a look at at the small risks I've taken that I want to say I have a wildly outstanding, risky life or career. I'm born and raised in this community, stayed here for college and never really left.
00;24;33;08 - 00;24;54;00
I wouldn't say I'm super risky. I don't gamble, but I think I've taken some calculated risks in my career and those have made me confident in the next risk. Actually, the thing you put up, the battle, what was it battle? Something I always say to myself. I say battle tested.
00;24;54;02 - 00;24;55;11
Speaker 1
And think about the great.
00;24;55;13 - 00;25;26;22
Battle proven. I always say battle tested. I that's one of my kind of mantras in life. I talk about battle tested because I think of hard things that I've had to do in my personal and professional career. And and I take stock of them and I, I celebrate their successes and some of their failures of what I learned from them and being able to do that then makes me less afraid when I get tested again, when I have that battle battle proven battle tested opportunity.
00;25;26;24 - 00;25;50;18
And so reinforcing positive behavior and it helps you take risks again in your future. All right. So in conclusion, I don't know where I am on time, but this is probably short. So in conclusion, these are the things that I've learned. Trust your instincts sometimes. Sometimes you need to push yourself, right? Our instinct might be not to take risk.
00;25;50;20 - 00;26;12;10
Sometimes we have to push ourselves a little bit to investigate that. Look at the data, take calculated risk, but trust your gut. Start small and build momentum. Those things will last a lifetime. Be battle tested Battle proven to help you move forward, be agile and nimble in that process, knowing you might fail and things might not go right.
00;26;12;12 - 00;26;33;12
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Right. You only get to live once. So take those opportunities to move the needle within your own professional or personal life. And like I said, embrace failure. It's got to happen. Not everything has worked out perfectly, so you have to be able to embrace that part and then celebrate your success. So any questions?
00;26;33;12 - 00;26;41;00
I that's my career path and journey. And and I've had some risk. I've taken some risks and there's risks. I wish I would have taken, too.
00;26;41;04 - 00;26;57;00
Speaker 1
So I've got a question. Yeah. You took on the chapter leadership weapon and hijacked a lot of. Yeah, Sounds kind of risky and open a lot of work. Why don't you take those risks?
00;26;57;03 - 00;27;43;17
Well, I mean, what I'm particularly passionate about that organization. I work in a male dominated profession. Most rooms and most people I interact with or sell to our men. And so I love I'm a communication public relations major with a masters in liberal studies and literature like nothing about my educational background screams technology. Right? And so I'm particularly passionate, actually, in Indiana Tech, serving on an advisory committee for the College of Business and talking with them about how do we make sure that people without technology backgrounds know that there's a place for them in tech?
00;27;43;17 - 00;28;07;06
I didn't know I could work in tech until I was 30, right? I thought and my whole family is engineers, mechanical engineers, but engineers nonetheless. So I'm the weird one that moves like I like talking and writing. My mom has her master's in mathematics, and so for me it was a passion that I believe in the organization and the mission of the organization.
00;28;07;09 - 00;28;22;08
I also am really like, I'm super competitive and so I'm kind of like anything Indianapolis can have, Fort Wayne can have, right? So I'm like, Well, we need this here. And I guess if I have to try to make it happen, then I'll make it happen. So that's why.
00;28;22;11 - 00;28;44;19
Speaker 1
I would just encourage, you know, each of you as leaders, I mean, you took a big risk taking a leadership position. You were probably pretty good as an individual contributor. What did that mean? You know what? You know, what did you what was the reward for taking that risk? Don't forget to consider that on Monday mornings when the phone.
00;28;44;22 - 00;28;51;26
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.