Herding Engineers: What I learned from Horse Trainers In Northern Texas
summary
Five concrete rules drawn from horse training map to engineering leadership: treat engineers like 1300‑pound animals you influence not control; train reactions by modeling calm during incidents; make the desired workflow the easy path (make the easy path easy) and the risky shortcut costly; build new habits by starting with yearlings—small, repeatable exposures; end interactions on a win, take extreme ownership, and rebuild culture by leading by example and over‑indexing on trust.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Horse training metaphor
- 3:01Horse and people management history
- 5:06Focus on destination
- 7:11Influence over control
- 9:17Reactions shape behavior
- 12:49Motion prevents fear
- 14:13Extreme ownership
- 15:14End on positive note
- 16:59Overcoming team PTSD
- 19:23Team cohesion like herd
- 21:28Social proof for behavior
- 22:33Handling team conflicts
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