In this episode, Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden speaks with Helen Chiang, head of Mojang Studios. Daryl and Helen’s relationship goes back many years, to the integration of Mojang, the Swedish creator of Minecraft, into the world of Microsoft’s Xbox. Despite the troubling reality of most acquisitions, they talk about how Helen and her team ensured continued growth and player satisfaction.
In this installment of our Women in Tech Series, Kenning Partner Cathy Boeckmann talks with Abby Kearns. Abby is a C-level business and technology executive who has held top roles at Puppet, Cloud Foundry Foundation, and Pivotal Software, to name just a few of the influential organizations she’s been a part of. She talks about how two roles – project manager and product manager – opened her eyes to the world of tech and inspired her strategic style as a leader. She shares her passion for enterprise infrastructure and for being a part of the open-source movement. Focused on the challenges of scale and complexity, Abby offers an inspiring take on how all of us, and women in particular, can look for ways to get more comfortable with risk.
Kenning partner Cathy Boeckmann talks with Julie Kantor, a business psychologist, and Felice Ekelman, an employment attorney, about their new book, Thrive With a Hybrid Workplace: Step-by-Step Guidance from the Experts.In this conversation, Julie and Felice describe what makes their book unique: a dual focus on both the “institutional” challenges of flexible work, like setting fair and clear policies, and the need to face up to fundamental leadership imperatives like ensuring good communication and fostering connection across a hybrid workforce.
Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden speaks with Philip Holt, head of Undead Labs, about his experiences running a gaming studio within the Xbox empire. Philip explains his unusual introduction to the business of gaming, and why he found joining Undead to replace a charismatic founder both challenging and rewarding. Daryl and Philip explore the deeper meaning of “State of Decay”, and how it might reflect on our own pandemic world.
Join Kenning Partners Cathy Boeckmann and Jerry Stauduhar as they speak with Mike Merrill about the challenges facing strategic business communicators today. Despite a wealth of data–or maybe even because it is so plentiful–drawing out the “so what” and generating business insights seems ever more difficult.
Continuing our series with Assistant Coach Ron Adams of the Golden State Warriors, Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden talks with Ron about coaching across the generations. A collegiate and professional coach for over 50 years, Ron has seen a lot of changes, but as he tells Daryl, he’s had to adapt himself in order to “stay in the game.”
“The Guru of NBA Defense” is how Raptors coach Nick Nurse recently referred to Ron Adams, assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors whose time with the franchise has included 3 NBA championships. Ron has coached not only Steph Curry and Kevin Garnett, but David Robinson, Ray Allen, and James Harden. In this wide-reaching conversation, Ron discusses with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden how he builds rapport with players, especially superstars.
Conventionally, we think of feedback as something we get from our immediate supervisor. But Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller explains to Mike Merrill how we can use 360° feedback to broaden our perspective and ultimately provide us a competitive advantage.
How is leadership like time travel? Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden explains to Mike Merrill an important tool he employs in his coaching practice: “The Leadership Continuum”. In this framework, Leadership is composed of three elements, all intrinsically associated with a facet of time: Administration, with the past; Management, with the present; and Vision, with the future.
On the eve of her announced retirement from Xbox Game Studios, longtime Microsoft veteran Shannon Loftis met with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden to discuss her storied career. Shannon talks about the early days of gaming at Microsoft, and what it was like to be a woman in that hard-driving environment. She explains how Microsoft’s culture has changed in the intervening years, and how she has as well. A timely talk by Melinda French Gates provided some rules to live by for Shannon, guidelines she still shares with the women she supports today.
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STAY IN TOUCH
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© 2023 KENNING ASSOCIATES
WEB DESIGN BY HARK
