Author Archives | Liza Wood

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After a dozen years leading video game development projects in a variety of roles, I decided to pursue a Master of Data Science at the University of British Columbia. Studying data science doesn’t mean I’m moving away from leading people. Growing data science teams need collaborative, pragmatic, Agile leadership to connect data to all areas of the business. I would like to share that point of view, along with my experiences, on this blog.

Hiring From A Manager’s Perspective – Part 1: Surviving The Resume Triage

May 22, 2011

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Part of the reason I have been so busy the past few weeks is that one of my managers recently left the company and I have been actively working on finding a replacement.  Since everyone looks for a job at some point in their career, I thought I’d share my thoughts and tips on surviving […]

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What I Loved About Cisco

May 11, 2011

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Last week Bloomberg published an article about Cisco Systems that made me sad.  It describes the effects of a management process put in place shortly after I left the company.  According to the article, it has slowed down the company, led to executive resignations and damaged the predictability of quarterly results.  For those of you […]

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A Week of Awesome!

May 5, 2011

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This “motivational poster” shows how a bit of positive feedback goes a long way!  My Audio Director was on the ball (as usual) and I responded with “You’re awesome!”  He took a screenshot and quickly whipped up this poster and sent it to me, much to my delight.  This five minutes of jovial feedback even […]

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Diverse Teams: Are They Worth It?

April 23, 2011

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Have you ever had one of those moments where you wished everyone on your team was more like you?  Communication would be so much easier and everyone would just get along all the time.  Or so we think.  What about creativity and innovation?  Aren’t diverse teams better for coming up with novel ideas?  I am […]

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What Is Your Biggest Failure?

April 12, 2011

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“What is your biggest failure and what did you do about it?”  That was one of the questions I was asked following my presentation at ITESM.  I wasn’t prepared to answer that, so the only thing that came to mind are the handful of spectacular communication failures that have occurred in my career.  Busted!  While […]

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We’re Big In Mexico! Our Visit To ITESM

April 5, 2011

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When I was invited to speak at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I knew the Guadalajara campus is the 2nd largest of the largest technical university in Mexico and they offer multimedia, technical/engineering and business programs.  So I expected a large, fairly modern campus with […]

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