Welcome back to this week’s P | A | C | T news, your newsletter by Tech Talent North.
This year at Tech Talent North, Western Edition, the conversations centered on how teams and leaders can stay steady and effective in a rapidly changing environment. Fahd Alhattab, Founder of Unicorn Labs, opened the day by naming the realities many HR leaders are navigating right now.
Fahd offered a clear message: uncertainty is not a disruption. It is the environment organizations are built in. The leaders and teams who excel are the ones who learn to move with change instead of resisting it, and who build the capability to stay focused, aligned and resilient when the pressure rises.
His frameworks and Canadian startup case studies provided a practical lens into what makes some teams multiply their impact while others struggle to keep up.
Key takeaways:
- See the tide, not the threat. Change is constant and teams win by learning to move with it.
- Speed wins. Small teams outperform giants by responding faster and focusing smarter.
- Leaders set the ceiling. Teams only rise to the capability and clarity of their leaders.
Seeing Change For What It Really Is
Fahd began by reframing how leaders interpret unpredictability. Rapid shifts are not always signals of crisis; often they are simply evidence of a system in motion.
“Chaos is a tide,” he said. “Some of us fight the tide and some of us learn to ride the tide.”
The teams that outperform are those that recognize movement as opportunity, rather than instability. They adapt quickly, scan for patterns, communicate clearly and avoid the instinct to lock down or overcorrect.
For People and Culture leaders, this means creating environments where teams can stay steady, curious and aligned even when conditions shift.
Why Some Teams Multiply Their Impact
Fahd shared the three dynamics that define team performance:
- One plus one equals zero teams
Teams where misalignment, hidden conflict, or unclear expectations make the group less effective than the individuals. - One plus one equals two teams
Functional groups where people complete tasks but do not elevate each other’s performance. - One plus one equals three teams
High-performing teams where collaboration, trust, and leadership raise the standard for everyone involved.
The goal is not harmony.
It is the ability to challenge well, align quickly and create an environment where individuals produce more together than they could alone.
The David vs Goliath Advantage
To demonstrate how smaller organizations can outperform larger competitors, Fahd explored three Canadian success stories: SkipTheDishes, Wealthsimple, and Shopify.
Each one faced competitors with more resources and brand power. Yet, each one made deliberate decisions that gave them an edge.
“The number one strategic advantage of David versus Goliath is speed,” Fahd said.
SkipTheDishes embraced this advantage by growing where UberEats was not looking, focusing on underserved Canadian cities and local relationships. Wealthsimple and Shopify leveraged similar strategies: deep focus, intentional momentum and clarity about what they could do better than anyone else.
Their decisions weren’t reactive.
They were rooted in discipline, speed and understanding their own strengths, which is a model HR leaders can apply when building teams and designing organizational strategies.
The Explore vs Exploit Paradox
As organizations scale, they eventually face the tension between exploration and execution.
Early teams thrive on exploration: ideas, experimentation, risk-taking, creativity. As they grow, they adopt execution: systems, consistency, predictability, efficiency.
Both are necessary.
But when execution becomes overbuilt, teams lose the agility that once made them competitive.
“Most Davids fail because the systems that were meant to protect them end up weighing them down,” Fahd explained.
For HR leaders, this means building systems that create clarity without slowing teams down and protecting space for creativity even as processes mature.
Leadership As The Ceiling
One of Fahd’s most compelling insights was that leaders influence up to 70 percent of employee engagement.
“Teams only grow to the capacity of their leaders,” he said.
Organizations often try to solve inconsistency through structure but too much structure suppresses top performers and does nothing to develop underperforming leaders.
“You can’t out policy a bad culture. You can’t policy a bad employee. You can’t out policy bad leadership.”
The real leverage point is leadership capability. Strong leaders create clarity, psychological safety and momentum. Weak leadership creates bottlenecks, churn and noise.
This is why leadership development is a strategic necessity.
Dancing With Fires Instead Of Extinguishing Them
Fahd encouraged leaders to treat fires as signals, instead of failures.
“When you see a fire, don’t put it out right away. Fire is a signal for innovation.”
Some problems reveal where innovation is needed most. Rather than immediately stabilizing every spark, leaders can pause, observe and put the right people near the challenge (especially those who thrive in uncertainty).
This approach builds creative confidence and helps teams become more resilient over time.
What This Means For People & Culture Leaders
- Learn to identify explorers and executors. Put people where they thrive.
- Add structure that supports growth, not structure that slows it.
- Develop leaders early. Leadership capacity sets the limit on team capacity.
- Treat fires as learning moments. They often reveal what needs to evolve.
- Move with clarity and intention. Speed without direction burns people out.
Fahd’s session offered a powerful reminder that the pace of change will always feel fast but high-performing teams are not defined by the absence of uncertainty. They are defined by the skills and leadership that help them move through it with focus, trust, and purpose.