Abstract
Debugging is both an art and a science. But more than that, it's an activity undertaken with deep intention: to understand and improve your systems. In the purely technical realm, we have an extraordinary range of tooling and techniques that can help us tackle this problem. People problems are much harder, but we still have tried and true methods and expert networks of experienced leaders to go to when advice is needed. However, when it comes to blending the two? That's when the trouble seems to start. In this talk, Hazel Weakly shares how she has developed a toolkit for debugging organisations and learning how to address the sociotechnical challenges that arise.
This session looks at the overwhelming complexity of a modern organisation and how to approach solving the seemingly impossible problems that one encounters. Hazel will discuss the uncomfortable truths, say the quiet part out loud, and walk through the methods she's used to go from surviving to thriving.
Along the way, attendees will learn how to first build their own toolkit in a way that fits them, and then use that toolkit to understand their organisations, debug and execute strategy, and deliver in even the most challenging of conditions.
Main Takeaways:
- Understanding what today's reality looks like
- How to build your toolkit for debugging sociotechnical systems
- Learning how to understand the rules your organisation is playing by
- How to graduate from playing the game to thriving
Speaker
Hazel Weakly
Fellow @Nivenly Foundation; Director, Haskell Foundation; Experienced Leader Focusing on Organizational Change, Developer Experience, and Resilience Engineering
Frequently described as a "firehose of insights", Hazel has become known for her uncanny ability to solve impossible problems, create centres of continuous innovation, and to inspire those around her to show up as their authentically whole selves. Hazel weakly serves as the Central Product Owner and Enterprise Architect of the Guardrails platform for a leading European financial institution, where she is responsible for directing product strategy, delivery and architecture, and developing the next generation policy governance framework across the firm's global internal engineering platform.
Previously, she has held positions in Architectural and Platform Engineering leadership, and has sustained a track record of delivering successful and ambitious projects. Her unique approach to blending cutting edge research with pragmatic excution has resulted in industry wide impact, changing how observability, resilience engineering, and developer experience is perceived in the industry.
As a distinguished technology leader with expertise in sociotechnical systems and organisational transformation, Hazel has rapidly made a name for herself due to her ability to enact lasting change. Known for her holistic and empathetic approach to engineering leadership, Hazel excels in building high-performing, diverse teams and fostering cultures of technical excellence. Her leadership philosophy emphasises developer thriving, cross-functional collaboration, and data-driven decision-making. She believes, and demonstrates, that excellence and high performance does not require sacrificing what makes humans magical.
Excelling as a respected voice in the technology community, Hazel serves on the Board of Directors for the Haskell Foundation and holds the distinction of being the first Fellow of the Nivenly Foundation. Hazel's writing is read worldwide and she is an internationally sought after keynote speaker who has spoken at some of the most prominent conferences in the world, including UK's State of Open Con, QCon London, and Kubecon EU. Her mission is to help teach the world to build self-organising ecosystems that enable people to learn together and thrive.
Hazel's vision centres on transforming how humanity approaches knowledge work with a focus on understanding emergent behaviour. Systems that enable rapid innovation, maintain stringent compliance standards, and embrace the complexities of humanity, are natural outcomes of that understanding. As she guides the industry to push the boundaries of what's possible, she remains determined to continuously make the world better than she finds it.
Find Hazel Weakly at:
Date
Tuesday Mar 17 / 10:35AM GMT ( 50 minutes )
Location
Windsor (5th Fl.)
