Learning from Experience — Situational Awareness: The Journey Begins
2025 has been a year of challenges overcome and lessons learned — a year of stabilization and growth. Of understanding that influencing and contributing what is needed, when it is needed, is a continuous learning process and a constant adaptation to context.
And confirming that value doesn’t come only from writing code, and how important it is to be aware of this when working with people.
This year has allowed me to settle and mature the leadership style I believe in.
I have confirmed that mental peace stands above context and circumstances:
if in your personal balance you see no way out, change the context.
That understanding not only the context, but also the situation and the moment over time, is key to creating a productive and motivating environment.
And that, along the journey toward our goals, it is vital to focus on doing what is right for the team when it is needed, even above what personally motivates us in that moment.
I have also reaffirmed something essential: strategy matters.
Choosing well is what allows us to avoid complexity and dependencies that become stones in the path. An effective strategy, designed for the medium and long term and capable of delivering immediate value, is vital to avoid those dead ends of unproductivity that later force drastic changes of direction, with a high negative impact on people.
Simplicity is not a result.
It is a conscious decision.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
And here lies the real challenge:
to solve problems in the most efficient and effective way possible, without losing simplicity.
I guide and support so that the team can move forward without me.
Because no system should break when a single piece is missing.
That is, for me, the true point of maturity: when the whole works, learns, and improves by itself. When strength stops being in one and becomes the strength of all.
Of course, all this is not only about people…
It is about the product.
And it is about the business.
Because cohesive, motivated, and autonomous teams build better products, reduce friction and bottlenecks, maintain a sustainable pace, and generate a direct impact on the value the business receives.
In a sector with such high turnover as ours, achieving team cohesion and maturity is increasingly difficult… and increasingly differentiating.
After more than 25 years observing teams and contexts, this year I have felt the need to take my leadership to the next level. To integrate everything I have learned into an approach more conscious of the situation, the moment, and the people who move teams forward.
From that comes a new management model I have been building:
a model to detect the situations a team goes through, be aware of them, and act accordingly to create cohesion, motivation, and alignment around shared goals.
A model that puts the focus on people, on their motivation, and on the team as a system.
I have called it:
Situational Awareness Management Model (SAMM).
Throughout 2026, I will be sharing on leadingdepth.com reflections and learnings around this model, integrating psychology and its impact on leadership and teams, and reflecting on the balance between people, technology, and processes — an idea that traces its roots back to Harold Leavitt’s organizational models (his Diamond Model, which over time evolved into what many today call the golden triangle).
Because when these elements are not aligned, no amount of process or code can compensate for it; but when they are, teams grow and truly thrive, build a culture that sustains them, and multiply their impact on the product, the business, and the organization.
Because when you understand the moment,
when you take care of people,
and when you build cohesion around a purpose,
the team moves forward.
The product improves.
And the business feels it.
And that, for me, is leading with depth. The Journey Begins.