Retro time!
G’day
We have a team lunch every couple of weeks and the last one we had for the year included a team retrospective. We had delicious savoury mazniks and our standard coffee of choice while we reflected on the year. We started off with listing the “happies” of 2022 from each team member followed by the “sads”. Then we had a third list where we jot down the “actions” to take for improvements. I walked away feeling great about what we have achieved throughout the year, how everybody felt with where we are at as a company as well as a team, and where we need to focus on next year.
Retrospectives (retros for short) are a common type of meeting held at the end of each sprint cycle. Retrospectives can also be run at the completion of a project or chunk of work. They can also be run periodically to review how the team or company operate. Does your team or company have a ritual like this?
Retrospectives facilitate communication and reflection as a team. Doing so on a regular basis can help create transparency and trust, boost morale, and empower team members. It can also help to identify issues and bottlenecks, improve learning and adapting to change, and save projects. If you don’t make the time to reflect, some things won’t come to the surface as soon as they could, and some may never come up at all.
So how do you run a good retro? Set the scene by defining ground rules. Provide a basic framework to collect people’s reflections of what’s working and what isn’t. Allow enough time to talk through these reflections. Take note and action anything important. You can run retros online using various tools, templates, and products. Or you can use some good old paper and post-it notes and let people walk around the room and add their thoughts. Whichever format you choose, make sure it is simple enough that your team focuses on their reflections rather the mechanics. Consistency is key so set a regular frequency for your retros, put it in a shared calendar, and stick to it.
Hope you had a good retro of late and all the best for 2023!
~ Sarah
What’s been happening?
Sunrise22 Conference
We attended Sunrise22 last month in Sydney to learn and mingle with folks who are building products or investing in them. It was a huge turnout at Carriageworks with an app to assist networking. There was a great mixture of speakers, panelists, and topics that included climate action and AI products. The branding was all about the moon and its intergalactic counterparts. Food was delightful and bubble tea and coffee flowed all day long. We caught up with some old friends and made some new ones. It was great to attend a conference in person again!
Blackmill with Sophie and Amanda from Kickstand
Community of Practice
In this program, engineering leaders come together to share their challenges, learn from experiences, and help each other to succeed. It starts on March 7th, 2023 with a maximum of eight engineering leaders. Join us to connect with people who you might not usually collaborate with to explore new creative ideas to address day to day issues. Secure your spot here https://blackmill.co/do/community-of-practice
Work update
Forage
Lachlan recently finished a lengthy engagement with the team at Forage as their Interim VP of Engineering. It was his first time leading a larger org again since leaving Neo Innovation seven years ago and he loved taking the ideas and work we’ve been coaching, consulting, and teaching at Blackmill Consulting back into a workplace and applying them directly.
Next year
More details next newsletter but our team is growing!
We will be available for new engagements from mid January. We’re particularly looking for new coaching clients and consulting opportunities.
What are we reading?
- Earn trust and lead inclusively — Inclusive leadership has shown to directly increase team performance. The trust that leaders place in those they lead allows both the leader and their followers to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity. The process of earning trust involves a series of conscious investments over time. So how do we earn trust?
- To avoid DEI backlash, focus on changing systems — not people — Backlash from all directions is often due to DEI initiatives being framed as solutions to individual problems to be fixed rather than to correct for systemic issues at play in an organization. This article suggests five steps to reframe the conversation
- Giving kind feedback instead of nice feedback — Giving kind feedback takes true care to build up the other person and help them improve. You have to put in work to be respectful, intentional, and committed to challenging your team members to grow
A cuppa with Gavin Ballard
1 . What do you do? And what do you like about your work?
I’m the founder and CEO of Disco Labs, a small software company based in Melbourne that focuses on solving problems for e-commerce merchants. I love working with software because of the incredibly quick feedback loop between building something and seeing its impact in the real world.
2. What aspect of your work do you find most challenging?
Wearing many hats as a small company founder means a lot of context switching and jumping around to put out fires — this means there are plenty of days without opportunities for deep work and the sense of making significant progress on things.
3. What are you passionate about?
Building things. Previously, that was most often software (both in and outside of work); these days it’s teams, processes and the company itself. It’s really important to me that the company I build is one I’d want to work for, and one that prioritises human beings over making oodles of money.
4. What are recent accomplishments you are happy with?
Diverging from work briefly, my 18 month old daughter Cecilia is probably the best thing I’ve ever shipped - she’s the absolute best.
Within work, I’ve found a huge amount of satisfaction from seeing the team I’ve built executing independently and delivering work that’s so much better than what I could achieve on my own.
5. What is one mistake that you will never make again?
Not listening to my instincts around difficult calls or choices (I mean, I’d love to say I’ll never make this mistake again, but I’m sure it’ll happen once or twice more at least).
This has cropped up time and time again in the context of taking on a client that doesn’t feel quite right, holding back from probing out of fear something could be confrontational, or not addressing a potential point of friction with an employee as soon as possible.
6. How do you manage stress?
When I’m doing it well, with a proper disconnection from work — that’s often getting out into nature for a walk or swim. When I’m not doing it so well, with wine.
The last few years have really highlighted the importance of mental health for a lot of people, and I am certainly no exception. I’ve worked with a couple of psychologists over the past couple of years which has been an absolute game changer.
7. What is the best advice you can give?
I think it’s that pretty much everyone is making it up as they go along, and that it’s more important for you to have an internal idea of what’s “right” and follow that than try to emulate the success or strategies of others.
8. What one thing would you change about our society?
A guaranteed liveable wage (aka UBI) and access to essential services (health, education, housing) for everyone. (I’m a capitalist, I promise.) We can absolutely afford this in a wealthy country like Australia and I genuinely believe that providing this baseline level of support would drive massive improvement in creativity, productivity and liveability.
9. What are your goals or aspirations for this year?
We set some really important goals for the business this year (we’re in the middle of a complete business model transformation from agency to product). If we get to December 31 and have hit those transformational goals, I’m going to feel incredibly satisfied and very much excited for 2023.
What are we cooking?
Sautéed mushrooms
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A bunch of mushrooms, sliced
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1 garlic clove, sliced
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2 tsp salt-reduced soy sauce
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1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
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1 tsp sugar
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Salt and black pepper
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Olive oil
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Eggs, cooked your way, to serve
How to?
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Mix the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and sugar together.
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Heat up the oil in a fry pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic first until the garlic begins to sizzle but not brown, about 30 seconds. Then add the mushrooms, stir, and fry for another 30 seconds to a minute.
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Add the sauces mix, season with salt and pepper, and fry for a few minutes until all moisture is evaporated, and the mushrooms begin to brown.
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Serve with eggs your way.
Aside
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I usually serve these mushrooms with fried eggs for breakfast.
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If you’re in the mood for pasta, instead of the sauces mix; fry the garlic, then mushrooms, then add a splash of white wine, 1/4 cup of cream, and 3 tablespoons of grated cheese.
Happy holidays!
Thank you for your interest and support in 2022. We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season filled with love and deliciousness. Take good care and see you in 2023! ✨
Everyone at Blackmill