🦧 End of Programming, Speaking Strategy, Context-Switching, Task Forces, Team Longevity, Energy Tracking: TMW #418

Hello again, welcome to the week!

There are two CTO Craft Mixer events happening next week in Munich 🇩🇪 and Toronto 🇨🇦 - we'd love to see you there if you're in the neighbourhood, it's a great opportunity to meet other technology leaders in your area for a relaxed conversation. And if you're a Torontonian, don't forget that CTO Craft Con is just around the corner in May - have a look below for your code for discounted tickets.

Headlining the event is the amazing Michael Lopp, aka Rands - he'll be giving the opening keynote on the power of storytelling as a leader.

Exclusively for TMW subscribers and CTO Craft members, we've partnered with coaching and learning company Skiller Whale 🐋 to bring you access to a grant which provides access to a broad curriculum of micro-workshops for a variety of technical and leadership skills. To see if your team is eligible for a grant, take a look below.

On with the links - see you next Monday!

Andy @ CTO Craft

PS: Don't forget to take part in our annual Compensation Survey! There's only one day left to go..

CTO Craft: 2025 Compensation Survey

CTO Craft alongside Albany Partners are conducting a survey on Compensation norms across tech leadership.

CTO Craft Events

Don't forget, as a TMW subscriber you have access to the Member Pricing for upcoming CTO Craft Con events.  You can unlock membership pricing by using the following access codes in the checkout when purchasing tickets:

CTO Craft Con: London 2025 - Community-Spring-25
CTO Craft Con: Toronto 2025 - Community-Toronto-25

CTO Craft Con: London 2025

CTO Craft Con will bring together over 500 Chief Technology Officers and other senior technology leaders from the most exciting start-ups, scale-ups, unicorns, and big tech companies to elevate their engineering culture in London, March 2025.

CTO Craft Con London 2025

CTO Craft Con: Toronto 2025

CTO Craft Con will bring together over 200 Chief Technology Officers and other senior technology leaders from the most exciting start-ups, scale-ups, unicorns, and big tech companies to elevate their engineering culture in Toronto, 2025.

CTO Craft Con: Toronto 2025

Reads of the Week

The End of Programming as We Know It

O’Reilly MediaTim O’Reilly

Culture as a Driver of Success (or Failure)

How workplace culture emerges and why it matters

Human-Centric EngineeringJohn Durrant

From our Sponsors

Exclusive Skiller Whale Grants for TMW Subscribers

In partnership with Skiller Whale this exclusive initiative provides grants to help CTO Craft community members and TMW subscribers access Skiller Whale’s coaching. There is a total grant funding available of £100K, with individual grants ranging from £2,500 to £15,000. Grants will be awarded depending on the needs of organisations applying.

To discover how investing in learning can help you and your team visit the links below. (Terms apply).

Learn more about the grants

A huge thanks to all our sponsors and partners, who make Tech Manager Weekly and the CTO Craft community possible:

AWS, Albany Partners, Code Climate, Coherence, Damilah, DoIT, Google Cloud, Jellyfish, Plandek, Skiller Whale, Softwire, Sema, Uplevel, Vention, YLD

If you're interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events, drop us a line at partners@ctocraft.com.

Leadership, Strategy & Business

How to Help Your Company “Speak” Strategy

Strategy is a mindset. To help your company embrace it, start with everyday discussions. Here’s how to make it part of the culture.

MediumNoa Ganot

Strategy vs. Situation Misfit: How to Recognize it?

Discover why your struggles might have nothing to do with your skills — and everything to do with the terrain.

Agile InsiderÁgoston Török

7 proven mental models for engineering managers

Use mental models to make sure that your decisions don’t hurt you and your teams.

Leading DevelopersMichał Poczwardowski

Managing Your Time as a Middle Manager

How to allocate your time when you’re being asked to do it all

Views from the CanopyClaire Lew

Culture, People & Teams

Context-switching is the main productivity killer for developers

I am programmer, interrupted.

Tech World With Milan NewsletterDr Milan Milanović

8 Ways Organizational Culture Kills Agility

Your goals may be lofty, but is your organization ready?

Ageling on AgileWillem-Jan Ageling

Jade Rubick - Task Forces can solve (some of) your cross-functional challenges

We talk through how to use a task force to cut through thorny cross-functional challenges.

LazywillLearn more

How to Encourage the Right Kind of Conflict on Your Team

Tensions are inevitable in the workplace. But there is a difference between healthy and unhealthy conflicts. Healthy team conflict moves a team towards its goals and builds productive, respectful, and trusting relationships. Unproductive conflict, on the other hand, holds a team back. Here are four ways to encourage healthy conflict on your team: 1) Tell your team that disagreements are expected and a normal — and productive — part of collaboration, teamwork, and innovation. 2) Name positive tensions. 3) Separate the people from the problem. 4) Stay calm.

Harvard Business ReviewAmy Gallo

Technology, Operations & Delivery

RDEL #78: Does removing author identity in code reviews reduce bias?

A look at findings from researchers on whether removing author identity from code reviews reduces bias or impacts overall efficiency.

Research-Driven Engineering LeadershipLizzie Matusov

The dangers of simplistic views on the Speed versus Quality tradeoff

Reacting to a series of disappointing statements heard in a recent episode of Lenny’s Podcast where Nan Yus, Linear’s Head of Product, spoke about the tradeoff between Speed and Quality.

Sudo Make Me a CTOSergio Visinoni

Longevity Indicators for Humans and Teams: V̇O2 max & Durable Delivery

First of all, how do we define longevity for humans and teams?

The Healthy Engineering LeaderSebastiano Armeli

Scaling Platform Building: Balancing What is Unique to Your Org and Common Across Teams

Platform engineering focuses on creating internal platforms that align with your organisation’s needs. But how do you design a platform worth building?

Syntasso.ioAbby Bangser

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

40 Activities Ranked by Happiness: Work Ranks 39th, Just Above Being…

A powerful study tracked people’s happiness levels throughout their day. Out of 40 activities ranked by happiness, work ranks second to last.

Corporate Rebels

Conscious Awareness — Organic Quality

Practising conscious awareness is the easiest thing to do when you know how. My journey to conscious awareness started 11 years ago when the Durham University counselling service first sent me to a mindfulness course. At the start of the first session, 10 total strangers sat down in a circle and wi

Organic QualityLauren Borodajko

Improve Your Mental Health By Tracking Your Energy Levels

Picture this - you are working hard all week and by the time you reach the weekend you are totally exhausted.

Healthy Team ProductivityTobi Tonner

How to Prevent Burnout When Working from Home

Working from home has become a standard practice for many employees and entrepreneurs, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic…

MediumOlivia Bennett

That’s it!

If you’d like to be considered for the free CTO Craft Community, fill in your details here, and we’ll be in touch!

https://ctocraft.com/community

Please do remember to share this link if you know of anyone who’d like to receive TMW:

https://techmanagerweekly.com

Have an amazing week!

Andy