Code Leaders ’23 Session 1

Despite our capacity for intelligence and logic, human are biological creatures. In biology, near enough is good enough, efficiency is relative, and we are all subject to hidden processes.

Our savannah-evolved brains are tuned to find patterns where none exist; better to think you see a predator in the undergrowth and be wrong than miss the threat and end up as dinner.

Whether you're working in machine learning or product design, you're still using the same cognitive wetware and this can have a direct impact on the work we produce.

In this presentation, we'll examine how perception works, how it can be tricked or misled, and how we can all work counter our natural biases to make the world a better place, for ourselves and others.

Feedback is essential for improving skills, performance, and building trust within the team. Giving feedback can sometimes be very confronting. How comfortable is your team at giving candid feedback? Or receiving it? What about you? Having to confront someone puts us in a fight, flight, or freeze response, which is a physical stress condition. Wouldn't it be nice to feel more at ease when in these situations? Or have a plan for the conversation? In this workshop you will learn what makes feedback effective, a feedback equation, and a framework to approach a confrontation. You will also role-play scenarios with examples from real life engineering teams.