Leading from Any Position: Richard Bown on Humane Engineering Organizations

About this episode

Richard Bown discusses leading from any position and creating humane engineering organizations.

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods spoke to Richard Bown about transitioning from management back to individual contributor roles, leading from any position, and creating humane engineering organizations. Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/48BF9v9 Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies: https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter Upcoming Events: QCon AI New York 2025 (December 16-17, 2025) - SOLD OUT! https://ai.qconferences.com/ QCon London 2026 (March 16-19, 2026) QCon London equips senior engineers, architects, and technical leaders with trusted, practical insights to lead the change in software development. Get real-world solutions and leadership strategies from senior software practitioners defining current trends and solving today's toughest software challenges. https://qconlondon.com/ QCon AI Boston 2026 (June 1-2, 2026) Learn how real teams are accelerating the entire software lifecycle with…

People in this episode

Host: Shane Hastie

Guest: Richard Bown

Topics covered

• humane engineering
• leadership
• individual contributor roles

Keywords

• engineering culture
• management transition
• software development

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: the Engineering Culture Podcast

Places: London

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