Over the last decade, I've watched MOps teams add more and more tools to their stack, yet somehow the work never gets easier. The requests still pile up. Priorities still shift daily. Stakeholders still bypass the process. And the team still feels like it's drowning. Here's what I've learned: the difference between a struggling MOps team and a high-performing one has almost nothing to do with technology. I've seen teams with Salesforce, Marketo and a six-figure tech stack that can barely keep up with demand.
Well, our guest today argues that the best way is by moving to a more project-driven model of work, up and down the organization from the corporate level to individual teams. He wants us to both ruthlessly prioritize as well as stay fluid so that we're identifying strategic goals, assembling teams to go after them, evaluating as we go, and then either continuing, shifting, or disbanding based on our outcomes.
On a December 4 episode of The Dave Ramsey Show, a caller named Michael, 27, sought help after falling behind on nearly all his bills. Raising his 17-year-old brother for four years while working as a door-to-door roofing salesman, he'd accumulated $35,000 in debt from a car lease, credit cards, and charge-offs. His commission-based income ranged from $3,000 to $3,500 monthly during the slow season, barely covering his $850 rent and other expenses.
For most of her adult life, Niro Feliciano's checklist for the holidays looked like this: Host the family gathering, write greeting cards, shop for gifts, decorate and peel carrots for Santa's reindeer all while raising four kids and going to work every day. All the effort to make things perfect for her family left Feliciano feeling frantic and disconnected when the holidays finally arrived.
Of course, you and your direct reports may both fear that more cuts are on the horizon. And yet, there's work to be done. How do you support your team, keep them productive and also find the opportunities in the middle of such a big disruption, especially when you may face the need to ' do more with less '?
Reacting is what happens when you move through your day on autopilot. You're constantly fielding every ping, every request, every "got a minute?" as it comes in. It's like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole-emails, Slack messages, kid drop-offs, last-minute meeting invites-pop, pop, pop. You are so concerned with responding quickly to each one that you never stop to ask yourself whether it deserves your time or energy in the first place.
