Another thing I learned along the way is how critical it is to have senior leadership support. And support in actions, not words. Senior leaders need to demonstrate their commitment to creating a learning organization. I will share the behaviors I try to model with my teams. I believe passionately in honoring and extracting reality. If I am a senior leader and my team doesn’t feel comfortable sharing risks, then I will never truly know reality. And, if I’m not genuinely curious and only show up when there’s a failure, then I am failing as a senior leader.
Courtney Kissler, VP Digital Platform Engineeering, Nike. From the forward of Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations.