5 ms·

I've been in situations as a dev where I've figuratively screamed from the rafters "X is happening - we need to do ABC". It's almost universally ignored becaus

I've been in situations as a dev where I've figuratively screamed from the rafters "X is happening - we need to do ABC". It's almost universally ignored because "well, devs just like to do ABC! not happening this year... etc". No... I hate doing ABC. What's in my immediate interest is to quietly paper over problems, and pass them along to someone else. What's also in my interest longer term is the organization to fix operational issues to help ensure there is a 'longer term' for the organization to continue in to. To think I'm not thinking of that, and just wanting to do bullshit busy work because "he's a dev! that's what they do!" is patronizing to say the least. Many people are capable of looking at things from a few perspectives.

xyzelement 4y ago
This is a really common dynamic and I think it's an opportunity. Let's assume you are right, you are seeing some real threat and have a solution in mind. If others were "ready" to see it, they'd already see it on their own and you'd have nothing additional to offer. The reason your perspective is valuable is because you are seeing something others aren't, but it also by definition implies that they aren't ready to see it. This is a universal thing - the gap between your insight and the org's awareness is directly related both to the value of your insight and how much of an uphill battle the sell is. If you can become the person who can both see issues and drive others to see them through persuasive education, you become immensely impactful. Otherwise you are limited to only making impact on things where others are already sold on the issue while being frustrated by this limitation.
- n0w 4y ago
  This is something I really struggle with. I think this difference of perspective is one of my greatest strengths, but in the last few places I've been I ended up burning out trying to get others to see the same things. Have you got any tips or advice for getting better at "persuasive education" or inspiring others to see the same things?
  - xyzelement 4y ago
    It's not just you who struggles with this - it's a very hard thing to do even for those who do it a lot. The number one barrier is just recognizing that it's a thing and you can work on it and do consciously (and sounds like you did that, so that's already huge!) In fact, what distinguishes executives is their experience, ability and willingness to get others to see and rally around a problem or goal - which is why I positioned this to the person I was responding to as an opportunity. If you can figure this out, your career (and life) unlocks to the next level. Now to answer your question, some practical advice: 1. Most often, people conflate problems and solutions and just say "we should do X" without making the person first understand and agree that there's a problem to which X is a solution. So when you get pushback on X, is it because the other person doesn't think it's a good solution, or did you not even help them understand that there's a problem to begin with? 2. People often fail to evaluate whether problems are relevant, and to communicate that relevance. EG, have a solid answer to "who gives a fuck?" Like "this system is not well designed and I want to refactor it" - "who cares?". "This system is hard to work on, and we work on it all the time, so our feature delivery velocity is only half of what it could be" - now I am listening. 3. If you lost people, troubleshoot where you lost them. "You don't agree with my proposal to refactor the system, so I just wanted to double check if I had explained the problem well. To remind, do you agree that our feature velocity is slow? (yes/no) If yes, do you agree with me that the root cause of the slowness is the complexity/messiness of the underlying system? (yes/no) Do you agree that my proposal to refactor it will address it (yes/no) Do you just think now is not the time we can afford that investment (yes/no)." etc. Walk them slowly through the conversation, and if you ever get a "no" you didn't expect - dig into that. Is it because you didn't explain something, or because the person knows something you don't? It's not THAT different that debugging code, by trying to find the place where it disconnected from what you expect. But it takes time and confidence to stick with this process. 4. Write it down and have someone read it and tell you if you actually got the point across clearly. Writing things down helps me establish the logic to my intuition which is what enables me to do #3 better. 5. Realize this will never feel easy because it's hard, as long as you're trying and learning from the experience you're doing all you can be doing. 6. Take a class or read a book on negotiations (negotiations is just a process of understanding the other side's position as well as your own and talking through it in a way that finds a solution that works for both). Good luck. Happy to answer anything else.
esparrohack 4y ago
That’s cus they don’t trust you. Win their trust! I don’t like the persuasive education angle. You’re going to come off as smarmy. So not everything is an opportunity. You gotta remember that things are the way they are cus they got that way. 1) solution may seem stupid bad now, but at the time, it was the lesser of two evils 2) the people most responsible are now your coworkers. It’s not always a good idea to see everything or comment on everything. Pick your battles.

xyzelement 4y ago

This is a really common dynamic and I think it's an opportunity. Let's assume you are right, you are seeing some real threat and have a solution in mind. If others were "ready" to see it, they'd already see it on their own and you'd have nothing additional to offer. The reason your perspective is valuable is because you are seeing something others aren't, but it also by definition implies that they aren't ready to see it. This is a universal thing - the gap between your insight and the org's awareness is directly related both to the value of your insight and how much of an uphill battle the sell is. If you can become the person who can both see issues and drive others to see them through persuasive education, you become immensely impactful. Otherwise you are limited to only making impact on things where others are already sold on the issue while being frustrated by this limitation.

n0w 4y ago
This is something I really struggle with. I think this difference of perspective is one of my greatest strengths, but in the last few places I've been I ended up burning out trying to get others to see the same things. Have you got any tips or advice for getting better at "persuasive education" or inspiring others to see the same things?
- xyzelement 4y ago
  It's not just you who struggles with this - it's a very hard thing to do even for those who do it a lot. The number one barrier is just recognizing that it's a thing and you can work on it and do consciously (and sounds like you did that, so that's already huge!) In fact, what distinguishes executives is their experience, ability and willingness to get others to see and rally around a problem or goal - which is why I positioned this to the person I was responding to as an opportunity. If you can figure this out, your career (and life) unlocks to the next level. Now to answer your question, some practical advice: 1. Most often, people conflate problems and solutions and just say "we should do X" without making the person first understand and agree that there's a problem to which X is a solution. So when you get pushback on X, is it because the other person doesn't think it's a good solution, or did you not even help them understand that there's a problem to begin with? 2. People often fail to evaluate whether problems are relevant, and to communicate that relevance. EG, have a solid answer to "who gives a fuck?" Like "this system is not well designed and I want to refactor it" - "who cares?". "This system is hard to work on, and we work on it all the time, so our feature delivery velocity is only half of what it could be" - now I am listening. 3. If you lost people, troubleshoot where you lost them. "You don't agree with my proposal to refactor the system, so I just wanted to double check if I had explained the problem well. To remind, do you agree that our feature velocity is slow? (yes/no) If yes, do you agree with me that the root cause of the slowness is the complexity/messiness of the underlying system? (yes/no) Do you agree that my proposal to refactor it will address it (yes/no) Do you just think now is not the time we can afford that investment (yes/no)." etc. Walk them slowly through the conversation, and if you ever get a "no" you didn't expect - dig into that. Is it because you didn't explain something, or because the person knows something you don't? It's not THAT different that debugging code, by trying to find the place where it disconnected from what you expect. But it takes time and confidence to stick with this process. 4. Write it down and have someone read it and tell you if you actually got the point across clearly. Writing things down helps me establish the logic to my intuition which is what enables me to do #3 better. 5. Realize this will never feel easy because it's hard, as long as you're trying and learning from the experience you're doing all you can be doing. 6. Take a class or read a book on negotiations (negotiations is just a process of understanding the other side's position as well as your own and talking through it in a way that finds a solution that works for both). Good luck. Happy to answer anything else.

esparrohack 4y ago

That’s cus they don’t trust you. Win their trust! I don’t like the persuasive education angle. You’re going to come off as smarmy. So not everything is an opportunity. You gotta remember that things are the way they are cus they got that way. 1) solution may seem stupid bad now, but at the time, it was the lesser of two evils 2) the people most responsible are now your coworkers. It’s not always a good idea to see everything or comment on everything. Pick your battles.