Significant Career Lesson From a President at i2i Corporate Strategies
Angel's most significant career lesson, learned at Intel, is "being able to disagree, but commit," a principle that fostered highly effective teamwork throughout their career. This approach, prioritizing decisive action after open discussion, enabled consistent project success at Medtronic and remains a cornerstone of their current management style, even within a fully virtual workforce.
Leadership, Project Management, Teamwork, Decision-Making, Communication
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Angel Orrantia
President
i2i Corporate Strategies
Stanford
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey; Notre Dame - JD
Engineering - Electrical
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing), Law
Business Strategy
International Student, Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. The "disagree, but commit" philosophy: Angel emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and vigorous debate in decision-making, but stresses the necessity of unified commitment to the final decision, regardless of individual opinions. This approach fosters efficiency and project success.
2. Building consensus and effective teamwork: Angel highlights the challenges of managing teams, particularly in achieving open communication and shared commitment. Her experiences demonstrate the value of fostering environments where team members feel comfortable sharing diverse perspectives.
3. Adaptability and consistent management style: Angel's ability to adapt her management style, incorporating the "disagree, but commit" principle, across various companies and, notably, in a fully virtual environment, showcases its versatility and enduring effectiveness in achieving positive outcomes.
Transcript
What is one lesson that you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
I started my career at Intel, which has a very extensive onboarding or indoctrination program. One concept I learned there that has paid dividends throughout my career is the idea of disagreeing but committing.
The concept is that when a decision is being made, everyone states their case for their position or their side of the argument, regardless of what it might be. You can state it as vociferously and aggressively as you want, but once the decision is made and everyone leaves the room, everybody commits to seeing it through.
To me, there was no more valuable lesson than that. As soon as I left Intel, I stepped into my first management role in my late twenties. My teams were all mid-career people, and getting them to feel comfortable enough to share their opinions openly so we could have an open dialogue was a challenge.
More importantly, and one of the reasons why we were so successful at Medtronic, we always brought our projects in within the timeframe and significantly under budget. This was almost entirely because once my team decided, and I'm not saying we always had the most pleasant conversations, but once we decided on a particular direction, I didn't have to keep convincing people we were going the right way.
Everybody bought into it, and we just moved as quickly as we could on execution without looking back and revisiting those decisions. Having had so much success with it at Medtronic, I made it part of my management style. Now, I rely on it very heavily, especially with a workforce that's a hundred percent virtual.
Advizer Personal Links