How to Always Get Invited to Big Strategic Conversations

The presentation titled "How to Always Get Invited to Big Strategic Conversations" by Mark Allen focuses on strategies to maximize organizational and global impact by being part of key strategic discussions. Mark Allen shares insights based on his experiences across various engineering and managerial roles, providing practical tips for career advancement.

Key Points Discussed:

• Importance of Strategic Conversations: These include discussions where strategic topics are discussed, decisions are made, and projects are assigned. Mark emphasizes that being part of these conversations increases the likelihood of project assignment and organizational impact.
• Five Tips for Strategic Impact:
• Identify what matters in the organization and be aware of the strategic priorities of senior management.
• Be a beginner again and continuously learn new areas to gain diverse skills.
• Build strong relationships within the company to move up the information funnel earlier in project discussions.
• Craft your internal brand so colleagues and management associate you with expertise in specific areas.
• Choose the 'green button' opportunities that can lead to significant career advancement, albeit with risks.
• The Role of a Day Job: While pursuing strategic opportunities, one must ensure that the primary job responsibilities are not neglected.
• Real-life Application: Mark shares a story from Glovo where his strategic involvement helped his team avert a billion-euro fine, demonstrating real-world application of these principles.
• Cultural and Contextual Relevance: Strategies may need to be adapted according to different organizational sizes and structures.

Conclusion: Mark Allen concludes by stressing the gradual process of building strategic involvement and growing professional relationships, encouraging proactive steps towards becoming a more strategically rounded professional.

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Ever heard “you’re a great engineer/manager, but to get to the next level, you need to focus on the big picture and your business impact”? Early on in our careers, we focus on technical depth and excellence. Yet for most of us, our career stalls around limited opportunities to demonstrate strategic thinking and business impact, not a lack of technical depth.

This talk will focus on practical strategies and examples for getting invited to the big conversations where strategic decisions are made and projects are assigned. You’ll learn how to be the default choice across the company to represent engineering on specific topics, how to demonstrate you’re capable of taking the next step in your career when it isn’t technical skill holding you back and how to share these skills with others to build a strong product-focused company.

Key takeaways:

• How to identify topics of high strategic importance your peers and team aren’t aware of.
• How to become recognised as a topic expert within the business on non-technical and partially technical things.
• How to make sure when you do get in the room, you’re invited back a second time. And then are chosen to lead the projects and teams you really want to lead.