People Driven Development

Eddie and Morgan delve into a listener's question about dealing with costly mistakes at work, particularly focusing on the tension between accountability and blame within engineering teams. They analyze a real-world dilemma faced by a new director of engineering at a series B startup and extend the discussion to include learnings from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. They discuss the difference between meta root causes of mistakes, strategies to create a risk-aware culture, and the importance of psychological safety. They also reflect on the principle of 'move fast and break things' and its relevance to different business models.

• (00:00) -  Listener's Question: Balancing Proactiveness and Reactiveness
• (01:34) -  Meeting the Team Where It Is
• (02:49) -  Introduction to the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
• (04:52) - Organizational Barriers and Failures
• (07:12) -  Analyzing Public Postmortems
• (08:08) -  Root Causes of Production Problems
• (14:35) - Meta Root Causes and Organizational Impact
• (19:08) - Applying Meta Root Causes to the Columbia Disaster
• (21:00) - Relevance to Smaller Companies
• (23:22) -  The Importance of Risk Management
• (23:49) - Meta Root Cause: Prioritization Challenges
• (24:53) - Psychological Safety in the Workplace
• (25:51) - DEI Programs and Industry Trends
• (26:43) -  Generational Differences in Work Culture
• (29:36) - Decision-Making Frameworks
• (30:31) - Addressing Burnout and Low Drive
• (35:32) - Handling Mistakes and Accountability
• (43:35) - The Role of Mistakes in Engineering Cultures