Insights
Those Who Don't Build Must Burn
As talent becomes harder and harder to attract and retain: Don't sacrifice your A-players to accommodate your C's.
That negative team member who's "not that bad" and "has some good qualities"? They're costing you far more than their salary. They're costing you the engagement, creativity, and performance of everyone around them.
There's an old Hindu proverb that says, "There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading in the same direction, so it doesn't matter which path you take. The only one wasting time is the one who runs around and around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong."
The Blacksmith's Guide to Team Transformation
Is your team ready for change? Look for these signs:
Trust that runs deep enough for people to be vulnerable about their struggles
Communication that flows freely without political filtering or fear
Shared commitment that burns bright enough to sustain effort through difficulty
Without these foundational elements, your change efforts will feel like hammering cold steel—lots of noise, little progress, and potential damage.
Building Resilient, Adaptable Teams That Thrive Through Change
In today's rapidly evolving workplace, your team's ability to adapt isn't just an advantage—it's essential for survival. But here's what most leaders miss: resilience isn't about toughness or pushing through adversity. It's about creating systems, relationships, and mindsets that allow your team to bend without breaking, to evolve without losing their core identity, and to find opportunity in every challenge.
This comprehensive guide explores team adaptability, drawing from real-world experiences and proven strategies to help you build a team that doesn't just survive change—they leverage it for growth.
Team Performance Systems: Building High-Performing Teams That Deliver Results
Team performance isn't about working harder—it's about working smarter together. Research shows that teams with effective performance systems are 25% more productive and deliver 2.7X more value than those without structured approaches. Yet most organizations struggle to move beyond surface-level team building to create lasting performance improvements.
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.