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When men and women look at the job position, men would apply if they have 50% of the qualification.

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Women would need at least 80% to even think about applying.

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Dealing with symptoms without dealing with the root cause is like giving

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cough drops to a lump cancer patient. I don't know how many hours I spent talking with her and

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trying to convince her to take this role and she didn't want to take it. AI has always been there,

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but what's happening now is that...

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Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast. Today we have an exceptional guest,

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T'Lila Millman. Thank you so much for being here today T'Lila.

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I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. I want to just jump right in and talk a little bit about

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you as a leader and how digital transformation has changed over the last few years. You've

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been at the forefront of it and I want to just get your perspective on some of the biggest trends

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that you're seeing in the SaaS industry today. That's a great question,

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Melissa. Thank you for asking me this. I think the pandemic had a lot of

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influence on the SaaS industry because one of the things that companies realize is the importance

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of having things on the cloud where it's accessible whether people are in the office or outside the

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office. They could see the flexibility and the scalability of SaaS and how easy it is to use it.

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So we're seeing more SaaS growth, we're seeing flexibility, we're seeing scalability. One of the

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biggest trends that we see in the last few years of course is AI and machine learning.

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And that's not just SaaS. That's across all industries, but I think SaaS is one of the industries

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that definitely is impacted strongly by AI. Yeah, I agree. I think I've seen a lot

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of changes myself in SaaS and I know you've helped clients streamline their operations to really

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increase growth and drive revenue. I want to talk a little bit about some of the challenges that

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you're seeing when companies try to pursue digital transformation in scale.

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Oh, there are many challenges. I would say that one of the biggest challenges is resistance to change.

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Change is not easy. And even when customers, even when people want to change, they just tend to

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naturally revert to what they've done before. So there is resistance to change because people

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don't want change and there is just the natural going back to what they used to do before.

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So that's a big, big portion of the challenges that leaders have to face.

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Another big challenge is fragmented systems where you have to change many things because companies

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have so many different systems and putting a one plan that works across the board is so big and

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complicated. And then there is another challenge that has to do with the fact that there is a lot of

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data. But when you try to automate, it's not that easy because the data is there, but it's not always

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accessible. And there's not always a plan on how to access and so forth. So it's very important to put

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in place a strategy on how to reach this data, what you want to do with it and how to best utilize it

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to increase the business value. Yeah, I think I would absolutely agree. Change is hard. And when you're

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developing products and being an engineer myself, I know we're very black and white people and we're

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moving through change. There's a lot of gray that is not really super clear. So I think I would absolutely

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agree. I want to talk a little bit about you created a really unique system called the Triumph

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Framework that helps organizations really pivot and make change. And so can you share a little bit

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about the seven steps of the Triumph Framework and maybe some key takeaways for our listeners?

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Yeah, thank you for the questions. So Triumph is actually an acronym, right? Triumph have

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seven letters and these are seven letters for the seven steps in the system. So T is for think

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and get to the root cause. And that really addresses the fact that in a lot of transformations,

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leaders look at the symptoms. And sometimes they rush to handle the systems without fully

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understanding the root cause. So it's really important to dig deep and understand where the problem is

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coming from. You know, it's like I want to give you a very stark statement. Dealing with the symptoms

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without dealing with the root cause is like giving cough drops to a lump cancer patient.

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It results in an immediate relief, but it does not solve the problem that continues to fester.

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So the first step has to be understanding the root cause of the challenge. That's the T.

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Then you go to the R. R. E's recognize the stakeholders. And we talked about the fact that one of the

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biggest challenges in a transformation is getting people to change the resistance to change. So once you

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recognize who the stakeholders are and you work with them, you bring them in, you form alliances with them,

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that kind of, you make them part of the transformation. That kind of helps helps a lot with the

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resistance because now they're part of it. They work with you. They don't resist. They just help you

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along. They push things forward. So that's the R. The next thing is I ideate plan. And I call it ideate

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because the first step is not to get into the details but get the strategy in place. And ideate is really

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looking at where you are now and forming a path from the present to the future without repeating

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the mistakes of the present, right? So that's the ideating plan. You is unwavering communication

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because if you don't communicate again, we need to deal with resistance to change. We need to deal

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with the fact that people want to know where they are. People are concerned. People have

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and the important thing about this step is that it's not a one-time communication.

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You have, that's why I call it unwavering communication because you have to continuously

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communicate. Otherwise, people forget, people don't always understand fully. You have to continuously

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communicate. After the unwavering communication, the next is M, mobilized grassroots support.

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And that gains these with the fact that change is hard and you as a leader cannot be

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always everywhere and talk with everyone. So you want the champions within the organizations,

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ambassadors to help you drive the message and drive the execution. And that makes it so much more

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effective because again, this is the power of everyone working together towards a goal.

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After M, we have P, that's put the plan to action, that's the execution and we can spend like

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hours just talking about this phase. And then H is hone your plan because no plan can

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go through execution and remain unchanged. There's always things that happen, right? Things never go,

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you have to plan, but there's always things that come from left field, from all directions. So you

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have to do something about it and that's that's hone the plan. You have to continuously work it.

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So to deal with what you're dealing with. I love that you, those are amazing steps because I was

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thinking as you were saying, how many times I've been part of change or process changes or technology

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changes where there were so many cooks in the kitchen. Nobody was communicating with the doers and the

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doers were looking to the leaders and they were all fighting. And so we kept trying to hone the plan,

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hone the plan, hone the plan. And two years later, we haven't even executed where we started. So I want

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to hear a little bit about some of your success stories with this framework and just from your customers

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and clients. So let me tell you I have a lot of stories. I want to tell you one story where I came to an

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engineering organization as as as the VP of engineering. And I was told the president of the division

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told me that the engineering organization was in terrible shape. They weren't meeting deadlines.

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They had terrible quality. The organization was really suffering because in that organization,

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if they were missing deadlines or if they were quality issues, they had to actually pay penalties

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to customers. So and they suffered reputation losses or reputation losses penalties, everything. And

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it was all because the engineering organization was terrible. But he said, you don't have to worry about

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it. I understand what needs to be done. I already got you the budget. I already started moving towards

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the right way to do things. All you need to do is come and execute. So I'm coming in and I did

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something kind of radical. I actually talked to myself, talked to the people, talked to my peers.

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And I found out that things were not what they seemed, right? This is the first steps.

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I understand the root cause. They were telling me my staff was telling me, of course, we didn't meet

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deadlines. We told them that we cannot meet the deadlines. But nobody listened to us. Apparently,

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what was happening and this is kind of a common, this is why I chose this story because it's very

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common in technology organization where sales go talk with customers, promise features without

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coordinating with engineering and product and engineering just cannot meet those deadlines,

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cannot meet those standards. And so they're set up for failure. But it's not really an engineering

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issue. So just solving engineering, improving engineering team wouldn't have helped. We have to change

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the entire process. And I just want to say it's not that I blame sales, by the way. They had,

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they had reasons why they were in this situation. Part of it was because engineering never gave them

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dates, never committed to anything. So it wasn't just sales, it wasn't just engineering, it was a

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problem of the entire organization. And so basically, once I realized what the root cause is,

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we had to put a plan in place. So I basically, I teamed with sales, I teamed with product,

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I teamed with the testing, I teamed with all other organizations. And the reason why it was kind of

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easy in that case to team with everyone was because the organization as a whole, the division as

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a whole was suffering and everybody wanted to correct it. There was a little bit of resistance,

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right, from the system because they had to change the way they did things. They, there was a resistance

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for my team as well because they had to change things. But overall, we formed a great partnership with

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all my peers, all of them were on board. The, the president of the division was on board. And we formed

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a plan. And the plan deal with the process, the breakage in the process between sales and

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engineering, it also dealt with problems and challenges within the engineering teams that led to less

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efficiencies that caused them not to be able to tell sales what would be the date. And so, and it was a

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big plan. We, we had like just for engineering, we had like 12 items that we were working on.

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And when it came to communication, I didn't want to just say we're solving this issue or that issue.

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I called it the, the, the campaign for greatness, the drive for greatness because I said, we are going to

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be a great engineer organization. We're going to be a great company. This is not solving this small

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issue, that small issue. This is us getting to be great. And, and so, that was the, the kickoff. And we

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kicked it off with engineering, with sales, with product, with support, with all the division,

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with all the organization within the division. And then we continue to communicate across time. So

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every month, I would have a monthly all hands engineering meeting. I would go to the sales and product

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and all the other organizations within the division to tell them how we were doing. Every success that

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we had, we celebrated. People had questions. They said, hey, look, it's three months and things are

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the same. And I said, yes, until we have the next release, things are not going to get better.

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And this is, and I, I gave them expectations. I said, this is what you should expect. And we met all

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the expectations, all the mice on that we set to ourselves. And that's why, and that's how we build

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the trust and the confidence and the success. And it kind of, once you build confidence and success,

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it's like a snowball, right? It keeps growing and growing. So that was the, the communication.

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From mobilized grassroots support, I had ambassadors who within my team that really drove this. So for

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instance, we had the initiative as part of this initiative for innovation. So I had an innovation

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council with people that were known to be innovator driving this. I had an agile methodology initiative.

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So I had a group within my, I had a 600 people group within the 600 people. We had the one small team

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of 20 people that were already agile. So they were the one leading that, that specific initiative.

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So we had ambassadors for each one of the initiatives. And then when we talk about put the

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plan to action, we had a lot of, we had regular, as I said, regular milestones. We followed. We had

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very strict project management processes to make sure that everything was running the way it should.

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And we kept honing the plan. We kept adding goals. We kept changing goals. And this was so successful. We

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to look at the outcome. We improved quality by 88%. We got to meet 95% of all the deadlines

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on time and some even ahead of time. And we, that was so successful that we were able to focus

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on innovation. And we came out with a product that was a market leader and resulted in 20% more sales.

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That's amazing. I, I, I love that you said that because I was going to take us down that road with

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innovation. And you know, you mentioned it a little bit at the beginning when you were talking about AI

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and technology is moving quick these days. And I think a lot of businesses are trying to find a way to

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you know, stay ahead of technology, but really making sure they also have operational stability, right?

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So if you're constantly pushing towards innovation, it's going to be sometimes like you're mentioning

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with sales, they're going to be selling one thing and they're going to be getting a different product.

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So I want to talk about, you know, some next gen technologies that you believe are going to have

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the greatest impact on businesses in the next five years, kind of looking five years ahead.

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What is your perspective on that? There are so many great technologies out there. Of course, AI.

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I mean, you have to talk about AI now as something that's already making significant change.

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And I believe that the AI revolution is like like the internet revolution, you know, internet

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really changed our life. And I don't think that when it was first introduced, we understood everything

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or all the changes, but now how can you how can you do anything without internet, right?

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So I believe that AI is the same. And I call it the one thing that I want to say about AI, we,

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we, it's like AI wasn't invented with chat GPT. I, I mean, this industry for more than 25 years.

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And two years ago, I want to say two years before chat GPT was introduced, I was working in a

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corporation when we were improving an AI algorithm that was invented seven years before. So AI has

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always been there. But what's happening now is that open AI kind of democratize the concept of AI,

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brought it to the forefront and the capabilities today are so much more than they used to be in the

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past. So I believe that this is, this is one of the biggest trends, one of the biggest things that

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will change our world for the better. So that's of course is one thing 5G and beyond. So this is

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about connectivity, right? And this is the the incremental growth that we see with more bandwidth,

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being able to do everything on the go from everywhere. It's already impacting us and I think it will

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continue to impact us. The other thing blockchain. So usually people when they think about blockchain,

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they think about Bitcoin. And I think crypto is important, but I think beyond crypto blockchain

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has has a potential to impact so many industries because it brings transparency. It brings

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security. So I can see more and more uses in finance, in technology, in well of course technology,

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but in finance, in security, in supply chain and so forth. It's been there and there has been a

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promise for a while. I believe at some point it will fulfill the promise that everybody is talking

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about. I would say, you know, AR and VR, this is something that I don't see that I see that continuing

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to evolve and having a big impact. I know that Google Glasses failed initially, but maybe in

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the future we will see a better version of it that all of us could use. And of course, this quantum

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computing that can solve complex problems that we cannot solve with the tools that we have now.

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Yeah, I love it. I think that's a great perspective. I want to pivot a little bit. I know in the

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tech sector we've seen a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the last few years and I want to talk a

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little bit about, you know, you've led successful mergers, successful change within organizations.

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I want to talk a little bit about your perspective and some critical steps to managing a merger

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and acquisition, which is significant change. We talked a little bit about change and just kind of

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get your perspective on how it's going in the tech sector and just things to look for when you're

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going through a merger. So I would say that a merger just like you said is a change. And so I would,

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the the trying framework is a great way to approach it, right? First of all, you have to figure out

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why you did that. And there are different reasons for mergers. Sometimes it's about synergy,

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sometimes it's about getting market share. It's not one size fit all. There are different reasons for why

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the merger occurs. So you, first of all, you have to define what is your root, what is

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the main goal with the merger, what you want to accomplish. And then you want the entire

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organization aligned around it. So this is about stakeholders. First of all, you have to talk with your

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customers, make sure that they understand what's happening. You want to talk with other industry

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players with your that with your suppliers. And you want to talk with people within the organization

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and make sure that they're all aligned and are supporting you. Then I, when we,

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at some point, I remember when we, we were, I was a part of a Motorola division that was acquired

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by infinite. And one of the things that the first thing that we did was we had a, after, after the

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merger, after the acquisition happened, not merger, the acquisition happened was that we went

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and spoke with all our customers. They had a lot of concern. I remember one of them saying, well,

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part of your, the way they put it was that part of our strength was our great people. What are we

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going to do to keep them? How do we know that in a few months, they won't all go away and it will

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not work? So we had to answer questions. They had real concerns. So we had to answer these questions.

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And answers, of course, are not enough, talks are not enough. You have to prove, but we had good

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answers. So it gave us the time to show them and prove them that it's not only that the merger is

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going to work and we're going to keep our people, but we're actually going to work better for them.

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They're going to benefit from this. So talking is the, and that leads to communication, of course.

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So ideating a plan is how you're going to execute on it. What are the steps that you need to take?

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Communication. So not only communication to customers, internal communication and transparency

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is one of the most important things being transparent, being accessible to employees.

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Employees are going through turmoil, they're going through, they don't know what's going to happen.

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And you can lose your best employees in this type of situation unless you talk with them and

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you explain exactly what's going to happen, what's expected of them, what are the steps that are

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going to be taken in the future and where we want to go. So on-way for communication, transparency.

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This is super, super, super important. Mobilize grassroots support. Of course, you want to get people

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within the organization to support and drive the main things that needs to be done in the program.

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And of course, execution and continuously honing the process.

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And I love that you said transparency. I think a lot of time like you were saying,

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communicating with your staff, morale is not at its all time high when you're going through a change

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or a merger. I think people are worried, you know, there's multiple executives at the same title.

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They're not going to have multiple of the same. They're going to shift organizations. So morale tends

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to be really low. And like you said, communicating with your staff and telling them, here's what I know.

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We're going to work through it and really going after those answers for your team is really key,

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I think, during any organizational change. I wanted to get a different perspective on

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when you're integrating teams and you know, you're the acquired organization you're coming into

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a new organization. Can you share some best practices and getting those teams integrated?

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Because they're coming from different cultures, they're coming from different experiences.

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And everybody's already, you know, on, you know, their spidey senses are up, they're already on tilt.

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They're not really collaborating. They're not really being transparent.

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Can you share maybe some best practices with integrating teams? So everybody's pulling at the same

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ends of the route versus working again, against each other. And maybe some key metrics on how to

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measure success with that integration of teams. Again, transparency is important, but I think the first

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thing that you do is you is shared values, right? You think what should the values of the of the

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new organization would be? And if you can unite everyone around these values, this can really help

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in creating the shared culture that you want to create. Because at the end of the day, what you

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want to do is you want to create a vibe of one organization. It's not us versus them. It's not us

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versus you. This is, we all work together for this goal. So you share the goal. You talk about the

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values and you bring the teams together. Maybe you bring the teams together to an offsite.

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And you have some team building exercises. I find that social events are important. Social,

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having, you know, we used to have social Sunday or we used to have once a week. Actually, I want to

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mention during the pandemic, I was working in Stanley Blackendacker and we had, we had a CTO. I was the

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CTO of two divisions. That was the CTO of the entire company. And he, what he did was he had happy

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hour once a week where we didn't, we talked a little bit about work, but it was mostly just getting

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to know each other and talking about things. And this is created such camaraderie, such a feeling of

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friendship and working together. And I believe that that's one of the ways that you

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unite people, right? You get them to know each other as people not just as this role or that role,

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but we're all people we all want the same and we all need to work together.

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Yeah, I think that's really a great nugget. T'Liola is taking people from from a human perspective,

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right? Not just this is a job. This is what we got to do, but really understanding who they are,

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what their life looks like and really being able to have that relationship with them before you

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have big asks and that could be staying late, you know, taking a different role, but really understanding

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the person, I think is a great, a really great piece of wisdom. I want to pivot. I know you're a big

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advocate for women in leadership, especially women in tech. I want to talk a little bit about what you

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see are some of the biggest opportunities for women in tech next year. There is a lot of growth

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happening and a lot of growth in a lot of areas and I would say that some of the biggest obstacles

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that standing in women's way are their own lack of confidence, sometimes lack of ambition, sometimes

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just going there. I during the a few years ago when I was working in corporate, I had, I had a

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leadership position within my organization. I had a leader at the cleft and I was looking to feel

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that role within the organization. I didn't want to take somebody from the outside and the best candidate,

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honestly the best candidate was a woman that was, she had a, she had a leadership role, but

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junior leadership and I wanted to make her a director. I thought she was the best candidate whether

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she was a woman, she was appreciated by everyone, the teams loved her, she was great technically,

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she had great insight and she worked with all her peers fantastically. So there was no doubt in

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my mind that she should be the first candidate and the leader that cleft, he told me, well, she is

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the best candidate, but I don't think she would want it. And I talk with her, I spent, I don't know how

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many hours I spent talking with her and trying to convince her to take this role and she didn't want

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to take it. She was afraid, she said, well, I'm working so hard the way it is. I want to see my family

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more, I'm this, I'm that and I think she was, and I said, you know, you're not going to work anymore.

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And I said, I'm here to help you, I'm here to support you, I'm here to mentor you.

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We will and I said, I think you're 100% ready. And she,

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though we had at least three calls and the leader that cleft had calls with her as well.

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And it didn't matter, it was at the end, it was her decision, right? And she decided not to take it.

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So a lot of the time we talk about obstacles, but that, that, that was a major eye opener for me,

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because I think that one of the things that we need to do is to help women find their confidence

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and help them get to the, they say, okay, and important statistics, they say that when men and women

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look at the job position, men would apply if they have 50% of the qualification. Women would need at least 80%

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to even think about applying. So I think, and you're right, you're right. And I think confidence is one.

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And I think life like you were saying the beginning change happens. So if you're taking a leadership role,

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things are going to change. Your home life may change, your, you know, your intimate life may change,

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but you make, you make space for other things to come in. And really, you know, I always say try it on.

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If it doesn't fit, you can make another decision or you could step backwards. And sometimes taking a

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leap of faith really makes all the difference in our life. And I know, you know, she's lucky to have you

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as a mentor and a peer to share those stories because I know a lot of times it was my mentors

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and my peers that believed in me that really helped me take a leap of faith and pivot my careers many

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times and take different roles that I had no experience in. And I really figured it out,

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Talila as I went and had it not been for mentors like you, I would have not made those jobs. And so I

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want to hear a little bit from you about what advice would you give to young women aspiring to

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move into attack and take leadership roles? So you said it, finding a mentor, finding somebody that

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would believe in you and would help you because you would run into challenges, you would run into things

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that you would not exactly know. So having a mentor and also the other thing is having a supportive

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peer group. That could also helps a lot. Yes. And I would, I want to unpack that a little bit. A mentor

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is not somebody necessarily that is your boss at your job. So they have a certain

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interest and their interest is more about their role and their company, not necessarily what's best

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for you. So I always say when you get a mentor, find somebody that's not in your organization that is

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doing some of the similar things that you are looking to do. And that doesn't mean that people's

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bosses aren't mentors. They just have a separate lens and say somebody that's not part of an organization

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you work for. So I think that's fantastic advice. And I also say, don't let people tell you you can't

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like what you were saying. If you have 50% of a job, apply for it and try to gain skills while you're

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moving through your career. I want to just kind of enclosing. We've talked about a lot of different

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things to Leela. I want to get any kind of things you feel that we may have missed or leaving our

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audience with any final thoughts that you might have. The biggest message in my book, the

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Triumph Framework is about partnering and collaborative work. And I believe that that applies

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everywhere. We're not an island. If we want to be successful, if we want to drive change,

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if we want to drive an initiative, if we want to be successful for ourselves, we need to team up

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with others and work together in a way that would benefit everyone for

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to forward this goals. And I believe that's the most important thing.

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Yeah, I agree. I think it's such an important nugget of wisdom. Thank you so much,

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to Leela for being here. I appreciate you sharing all that you shared with our listeners. That's the

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Executive Connect podcast.

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Thanks for watching.