It was my fourth coffee meeting of the day, and the conversations had fallen into a surprisingly predictable routine. I’d ask my friends how their new job as design leader at XYZ Corp was going, and the answers were the same.
What can you expect this year?
This year I’m hoping to build on the last, breaking the days down into separate themes.
The first day is all about the individual as leader. What makes a good leader? What skills should a great leader have, and how do you grow this skills into a long and fulfilling career? I also wanted to touch on the topic of self care, as you can’t look after other people if you’re not happy and healthy yourself.
The second day is all about the team. How do you find the right people and nurture their talent? How do you grow the team, and maintain its cohesion, and how do you execute at pace? I also wanted to explore the issue of team culture and organisation structure. What makes a healthy culture, and what makes an unhealthy one?
The first two days are all talks, mixing inspiration with education.
On the final day we switch to practical, hands-on workshops. I want to allow folks to dig into the key topics in more detail. We have sessions from Peter Merholz on organisational design, Julia Whitney on stakeholder management, Alberta Soranzo looking at management principles, and Samantha Soma on the essential elements of great design teams.
I’m really pleased how the schedule has turned out. We have some amazing speakers, keen to share what they’ve learned through leading design at a range of well-known companies like Google, Facebook, IBM, Spotify and the BBC. So this is a great opportunity to learn what works (and what doesn’t) and apply those learnings to your own organisation and team.
You can find all the details on our speakers and schedule at www.leadingdesignconf.com. There are still some tickets left, but they’re selling fast, so snap them up before they go. We hope to see you there!