Designer of Change: Minette Norman

Minette has a storied career leading technical teams in Silicon Valley through major transitions, despite not being an engineer, not being able to code, and not being a man. Her latest book, The Boldly Inclusive Leader: Transform Your Workplace (and the World) by Valuing the Differences Within, is getting rave reviews. We highly recommend it!

You came into tech from the unlikely route of the Humanities. Can you elaborate?

I didn’t study STEM, I studied drama and French. When I realized how hard it was to make it as an actor, I had to figure out my Plan B. I was living in New York, and got a job working at the Federal Trade Commission when IBM PCs were first introduced. It turned out I was really good at learning the software and explaining it to all the people who were afraid of it, which led me to my decision to become a technical writer, and I ended up getting hired at Adobe in 1989. I did technical writing for about 10 years at various companies in the Valley, then one of my former colleagues went to Autodesk and hired me there. I joined as a technical writer in 1999 and progressed through a series of leadership roles to become the Vice President of Engineering Practice.

What do you think your super power was?

I am a good manager of people. I actually love people, so that role was a natural fit. Also if I’m not learning, I get bored, so I took risks with my career. I looked for roles where I could bring value. For example, when I took over managing the Localization team, what I found really interesting was that they were smart, they knew their stuff, but they had no idea how to get the support they needed to get things done. For example, they had no idea how to get funding for new technology or investments. They didn’t know how to communicate and evangelize what they were offering. My skills were a really good complement to theirs. They had all the technical skills, and I could help them advance and give them what they needed.

My writing skills came in handy. I started doing regular communication to the SVPs in the company. In a quarterly newsletter, I’d list the highlights of what we had changed. Initially, I had to focus it on just numbers to get their attention. But I had these fantastic graphs where the curve was going completely straight down on cost, and the output was going straight up, and the headcount was down and the quality was flat. I kept being able to drive those numbers down, and by communicating regularly, I would clarify for the executives that if they don’t want to spend this money they don’t have too, but these are the trade offs. That’s when they started to see how this was working and what my value was.

It sounds like you used communication as a tool to get attention and respect?

Yes. I feel like the importance of communication is one of the things that a lot of leaders just don’t get. I constantly communicated to my staff as well. Every month I would do it in an all-hands meeting. Every quarter, I would do a newsletter internally for my own staff so they understood why I was making the decisions I was making, why we’re investing in these things and how their work was being represented to the rest of the company. Then I communicated up and out a lot. I felt like that was what we had been completely lacking before.

When you think about communication, what are the key guidelines?

I think number one is to know your audience. A lot of the people I’ve worked with use one style of communication. But as they’re dealing with different audiences — executives, technical people, and non-technical people — that can go badly because they’re not altering their style for the audience. So I always consider what is this group of people I’m speaking to and what do they need to know? What’s their mindset? What’s their background? What’s their level of expertise?

Second is simplicity. I truly believe that we overcomplicate everything, and that a simple, clear, shorter message is what’s important. So for me, it’s always about editing it down to the essence, and then spending a lot of time getting it down to an even shorter version because the short version is what people will read and absorb. When you communicate, you should make your audience feel smart, not make you look smart. I use simple language that everyone will understand.

Three is transparency. One of the things that I have always prided myself on is being authentic and no bullshit. In meetings, I may start by explaining “This is who I am. This is my background. I’m not an engineer, and I’d love to get your feedback.” I was always respected for being candid like that.

Do you think your approach works even in a highly disruptive time like now?

You know, I think this whole virtual world is exacerbating all of the difficulties that we have with people and with organizations in general. It’s just amplifying that because you can’t even be in the same room with others. It produces a much higher level of anxiety in people. So I think that transformation is still all about getting people on board. It’s about bringing people with you, communicating, and helping them understand why you’re doing the things you’re doing. You may have to slow down a little bit, because people are under such a high degree of stress, and they can’t take on as much as they could before.

You can only bring people along at whatever pace they’re able to be brought along. I think we need to be sensitive to where people are and the capacity they have for change. But I think the steps that you would take and the strategy you’d use and the way you communicate remains the same. You may just have to pedal a little more softly.

Thanks Minette!

Find more interviews and insights like these in our latest book, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World. Available now on Amazon or Rosenfeld Media.