Avoiding extinction remains even more important in today’s quick-paced and mobile business world. Survival depends in large part on taking advantage of key trends and technology, according to Yvonne Wassenaar, chief information officer of New Relic, Inc., a software analytics company that provides a SaaS-based solution for web and native mobile applications.

Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, was on the ground in Phoenix, AZ, for the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. During the event, he spoke with Wassenaar about her presentations at the conference and covered topics such as avoiding extinction to new methods of educating people in computer science (CS).

About the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference

According to Wassenaar, the mix of attendees at the conference made the event even more fun.

“What I love about the Girls in Tech Conference is that it brings together all types. I was speaking yesterday to a student at Stanford who has her own nonprofit and is getting her degree to go out and change the world as an entrepreneur to very, very seasoned executives who sit on Boards. And everybody’s here to understand the change going on and how to drive relevancy, and it’s just phenomenal.”

How to avoid extinction

Commenting on her keynote talk she gave during the conference, Wassenaar spoke to today’s business environment.

“What’s interesting about change is the new constant, and it’s actually riskier to not do something than to do something today. But what do you do? Everybody says go out and be bold. Being bold is great, but, fundamentally, it’s hard. Easy to say but hard to do in practice. So my talk was about how to address the unconscious fears and how do you say, ‘Yeah, but if none of those bad things happen, here’s how I could change the world.’ Then just go after that vision, and free yourself from those unconscious constraints and really go after it wholeheartedly.”

How to overcome the fear

Wassenaar explained that her childhood influenced her and made her risk-adverse.

“One of the things they say is that women should lean in more, and I actually believe that the reason that women don’t lean in is that they are trying to aim for a level of perfection and don’t realize it’s a numbers game. Failure is not a reflection on you personally; failure is a step toward your future successes. So really it’s a mindset change.

“I lead a workshop yesterday about increasing your return on investment. I literally told the women, ‘If you are not failing, if everyone on your team is performing perfectly, you’re a failed leader.’ … It’s like skiing; if you don’t fall when you’re skiing, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. You’re not really doing it. So you need to let your team members fall, you have to fall yourself, and that’s how you know you are pushing the boundaries.”

Behavioral changes

When asked what you need to do to change subconscious behavior, Wassenaar revealed her consultant take on things.

“It’s a couple of things: You need role models that can help prove to you and your subconscious that, ‘My gosh, if those five amazingly successful people did this, and they’re telling me specifically the failures they had, and they are still successful, maybe they’re not lying.’

“The other thing is, I try to give really specific tips, and one of my favorites is look at … what’s the business impact, what’s your unique value. Throw all the things you’re working on in there, and you should have one to two in there that are high impact, that you’re uniquely skilled to do. Hit those balls out of the park. You can get 20 guys to third base, but that doesn’t matter. You have to get one person home.”

An industry macro view

Wassenaar provided an industry overview and offered her perspective on how to capitalize on the tech industry’s current momentum.

“You know it’s never been a more a more exciting time. Sometimes I wish I was that Stanford student just starting. Technology is changing how we do everything in absolutely amazing ways, but we need to bring the right level of social consciousness to how we apply it. And we need to figure out a new engagement model. I think that there are engagement models that actually play to the strengths of a lot of the women we have in the room. You have to figure out how to fuse across different industries. Like the Apple Watch, it’s designer, it’s technology; how do you bring those competencies together. You get better stuff done with partners than when done internally … I think the change is really exciting, but you have to be open to new operating models and new engagement styles to take advantage of it.”

Expanding CS education

Frick asked Wassenaar about Harvey Mudd College’s approach to learning, and she talked about the fresh approaches she has seen.

“I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on the Intro to CS class, and there’s a couple really key things they’ve done. First off, they’ve expanded and energized the CS team with new amazing talent. Many women, but not just women — other diverse people to round out perspective. So keeping it fresh.

“The second thing they’ve done is the realized that CS theory is interesting to some but not all, and a lot of women tend to be more purpose driven. So they created courses like CS Biology — same concepts but now solving the problems in a field where they have questions. So they learn the same thing but in a way that’s more interesting.

“And the final thing is they have restructured how they run the class. So they don’t say, ‘Hey here’s a question,’ and everybody goes, ‘Oh, I’ll get that.’ They now say, ‘Here’s something I want you to think about and talk to your partners, scribble some notes and in a minute lets discuss what you’ve come up with,’ and that allows people of all types to be more thoughtful and to get better well-rounded answers coming out.

“They’ve changed it on all dimensions, and it’s an amazing place to go and see the energy and really see the transformation in work in our educational system, because that’s where it all starts.”

Watch the interview below to learn more about Wassenaar’s viewpoints, as well as additional insights about the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.

Photo by SiliconANGLE