It’s not every day you get both a cell biology lesson and a window into the world of Cellular Enterprise all in a single conversation.

On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Asanka Abeysinghe, Chief Technological Evangelist at WSO2, an open-source technology provider.

With over 20 years of experience in designing and implementing highly scalable distributed systems across industries, Asanka has plenty of expertise to share in this conversation. 

We discuss with Asanka:

• Transformations at WSO2 post-pandemic
• The concept of Cellular Enterprise
• The 4Es to a productive team: empower, engage, entrust, equip
• Cell membrane as an analogy to understand the structure and lines of communication in an organization
• Where your ‘why’ in the company should come from
• What does an engagement framework look like
• Tech talent retention in a competitive job market

Transformations at WSO2 post-pandemic

People are the main asset of any organization. You can build products or services, but you need people to take the organization ahead. The pandemic changed the way people work because not every organization had the mechanism to handle remote work. People found it difficult to achieve productivity. A lot of usual processes had to be changed because of the pandemic. 

While people found a way to do their day-to-day work, it affected their psychology as they missed the routines. 

Working from home created many challenges because finding a work pattern was not easy due to various distractions. Asanka says that as a technology person, his team missed whiteboard sessions the most. However, they found alternatives like digital whiteboarding, and they collaborated. Security and meeting the compliance standards in the new environment is another challenge that WSO2 faced during the pandemic, but they found solutions and alternatives to every problem posed by the pandemic to be productive again.

The 4Es to a Productive Team: Empower, Engage, Entrust, Equip

We can achieve a lot by focusing on the four Es – Empower, Engage, Entrust and Equip. This can make the teams productive and creative. The architecture of these cellular teams is responsible for end to end processes. They must plan it, implement it, execute it and get feedback and keep improving. 

The project concept, which is a one-time thing, must be changed to a product mindset, which is a never-ending thing. You keep improving by getting feedback and taking it to the next level. You can apply this concept across the organization. 

Using Cell Membrane as an Analogy to Understand the Structure and Lines of Communication in an Organization

Every biological cell has a membrane which is the central communication point. Similarly, every cell in the organization needs a team lead, and it varies depending on the function and status of the project. For example, a business architect may lead the team initially. When you move to the architecture level, the architect will lead the team. It can vary at every stage, but typically, there should be a responsible leader.

You must also have different communication channels to connect the team leads and have a holistic view of everything. You must also have different levels of dashboards to monitor the progress so that the higher management can also have a holistic approach. This will help them get the same information in a collated way. 

Follow Asanka on LinkedIn

Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Abhash Kumar