Able Babu

The systems thinking principles I learned from Manish have revolutionized how I manage engineering teams and deliver complex projects. His workshop provided me with a powerful lens for understanding and optimizing the intricate relationships within engineering organizations.

As an Engineering Manager at Mastercard, I oversee teams working on critical financial infrastructure that processes millions of transactions daily. The complexity of these systems, combined with the need for absolute reliability, requires a deep understanding of how different components and teams interact.

Before the workshop, my management approach was largely focused on individual performance, sprint planning, and feature delivery. While these remain important, Manish taught me to see the bigger picture - how team dynamics, communication patterns, and organizational culture all influence technical outcomes.

The most transformative insight was understanding how team health directly impacts system architecture and code quality. Dysfunctional communication patterns in teams often manifest as overly complex or poorly designed systems. By addressing systemic team issues, we’ve seen dramatic improvements in technical quality.

The workshop also helped me understand the concept of leverage points in engineering organizations. Instead of trying to optimize everything at once, I now identify key intervention points where small changes can create significant positive ripple effects throughout the team and codebase.

Manish’s teaching approach creates lasting behavioral change rather than just intellectual understanding. The exercises and discussions help participants internalize systems thinking principles in a way that naturally influences daily decision-making.

One particularly valuable application has been in incident response and post-mortem analysis. Instead of just fixing immediate issues, we now look for systemic patterns that might be creating recurring problems, leading to more robust long-term solutions.

The workshop has also improved my ability to navigate organizational dynamics and build consensus around technical initiatives. Understanding systems helps me present proposals in ways that align with broader organizational goals and constraints.

I would enthusiastically recommend this workshop to any engineering manager or technical leader who wants to create more effective, resilient teams and systems.