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Should Aye participants collaborate to produce something to alleviate the personal skills vacuum out there?

From the LackingPersonalSkills page.

And you thought IT people didn't have interpersonal skills? Today I read in the ISA (Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society) News & Views an interview. Jack Moore (of ISA I assume) interviewed one Robert Seigenfuse. The title of the interview ... "Human Integration". In the interview, I read that Yes, it sounds like there are personal skills missing here. Along with a handful of generalizations, incorrect statements and flawed logic.

<snip>

But the article did remind me that the "lacking personal skills" is starting to become a recurring theme. I've recently heard it from both the local IEEE and AIChE people.

There was some discussion just after last year's conference about the AYE Community ( AyersWorkingTogether ) doing a project. It seems that helping techies with personal skills might be one area in which we could contribute as a group.

But if we did, what would it look like, and how would we do it? DonGray 2003.04.22

• Could AYE develop an article or series of articles for magazines popular with the communication-challenged software practitioner?
• How would the "working together" product reach beyond "preaching to the choir" -- only reaching only those already convinced?
• Alternatively, could AYE develop a persuasion package of some sort to be used by savvy people frustrated by their surrounding culture environment?

Let's see what other ideas develop. --BobLee 2003.04.22

This would be a lot of work, but...

DwaynePhillips 23 April 2003

Maybe writing would help. If articles were written and edited by people with different perspectives ...

SherryHeinze 2003.04.23

I'm not clear what we need to be doing here:

• Get more of the junk current on AYE published?
• Publish more junk?
• Provide more junk as fodder on the AYE Wiki?

I am sure I can contribute to any or all of these, but need a little guidance on where to start. (Or perhaps all are priority 1?) Reaching the implied performance standard - junk that is "like" the quote up top - will be hard work, but with the support and help available here, I believe I can persevere. -- JimBullock, 2003.04.23

Some of us aren't perfect yet in our people skills. <g> This should make it easier to avoid the stance of "fixing people". But as Johanna and Dale point out, we do have some experience in working on the problem, I'm guessing progress has been made. And as Sherry says, the awkwardness means we're aware of our skill level.

Bob mentioned that it "appears" that AYE attendees are "savvy" about personal skills:

1. Historically over half of each year's attendence is by people who have never been to an AYE conference.
   
2. The appearance could be part of the InformationMagnet process. People who are already aware of the problem, and interested in working on it, are naturally attracted to AYE. After all, the conference IS about amplifying your effectiveness.
   

It seems that "writing" might be a place to start. Several of us have written and some of us are writing. Jerry suggested starting with wiki threads and going from there. Dwayne points out that we could "take over" an issue of one of several magazines, but who would coordinate the work?

All of which are great ideas. But then the questions start again.

- How do we find people who are interested in this?
- How can we get people who aren't, interested in this?
- Is writing about interpersonal skills like driving up on an accident and handing the patients a book on first aid? (could be a bad metaphor. The point I'm trying for is one of intellectual acknowledgement vs actual work on producing change.)
- How would we measure success? And speak of success, have you had any AyeResults? DonGray 2003.04.24

Alternate suggestions:

• public Wiki chartered around interpersonal effectiveness with a software twist?
• a Blog on same?

BobLee 2003.04.24

And are you volunteering to do the technology, or are we busy inventing more work for our kind wiki host?

JimBullock, 2003.04.25

Arrrgh! I don't own a server or firewalled machine, and my employment situation / debt situation hasn't improved of late. Besides, I have worked with some of the best professional sysadmins, who all agree with me: "Never try to run what needs a good, organized sysadmin to run well!" We have mutual respect for each other's strengths & weaknesses. My weaknesses run to "creative shortcuts" in PC admin -- I can't get myself to stick to a script, I get creative.

That's a personal skill I'm usually willing to trade favors for!

--BobLee 2003.04.25

If you want to set up another Wiki hosted on ayeconference.com, you would need to get approval from the conference committee (Esther or Johanna, I think).

--DaveSmith 2003.04.25

Regarding "censoring" bad content:

• We could self-police.
• We could require login.
• We could open it wide and purge graffiti.
• See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TypicalHousekeepingTasks

Regarding "hosting": how about it hosts?

My suggestion would be to be as open to foreign contribution as possible on the public Wiki. An open forum engages more than a read-only forum.Since the AYE Wiki is login protected, it remains a reference-only resource to non-AYE participants. References to the AYE Wiki and other sources to draw the interested participant into denser content.

For some background on how (ONE) Wiki works: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyWikiWorks

--BobLee 2003.04.26

Bob, I was around while most of that page was written. It reflects a few people's observations and opinions about how one particular Wiki works. Requiring that people login in order to write changes the dynamic entirely (and for the better, in my opinion). Requiring that people log in in order have visibility changes the dynamic yet again. --DaveSmith 2003.04.26

Nice refactor, BTW. It was on my list, but I got hung up elsewhere. - JimBullock, 2003.04.26

Discussion wanted here:

I believe the difference between the AYE Wiki and the SYE (Start Your Engines) Wiki is to frame the discussion in terms of people starting out in software. What assumptions need to be aired?

It seems to me that we have discussed the tunnel vision kids are exposed to throughout the education system:

• Don't share the work!
• Don't copy someone else's work, be original.
• All by yourself!
• The implicit assumption that, "All people are equal" must mean all should look like assembly line clones coming out of the education factory.

All of the above battle diversity, but diversity is useful and precious in creative efforts. The knowledge revolution doesn't value assembly line mindset.

What would we recommend to a person entering the software profession in order to Start Your Engine?

Then, where do we recommend they go to learn more?

--BobLee 2003.04.27

• Nope. Just a short name to discuss.

It seems like the young programmers most in need of interpersonal skills training are participating on <http://slashdot.org/> -- and not reading the magazines that AYE'ers are publishing in.

If we want to help them, we have to go to them...

SlashDot editorial FAQ: <http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed230>

KeithRay 2003.04.27

• New people to the profession?
• Managers?
• The unconvinced?

BobLee 2003.04.27

• Maximum PC
• Wired
• PC Magazine
• PC World
• PC Gamer
• Dr. Dobbs Journal
• MacWorld
• Electronic Gaming Monthly
• MacAddict

Dr. Dobbs has the most programming content, but the others do have some as well, except for Wired.

KeithRay 2003.04.27

SherryHeinze 2003.04.28

I think there is good representation of AYE views in Software Development, STQE, Cross-Talk, some IEEE Software and some ComputerWorld, but lots of that is "preaching to the choir." How does the personal effectiveness in software reach those most ignorant of it?

BobLee 2003.04.28

How does the personal effectiveness in software reach those most ignorant of it?

Their projects, businesses, and bubble economy fail. That's how it reaches them. I didn't say they learned anything from it.<g> Seriously, the question is about information reaching people who might benefit from that info, in a way that they can use, at a time that they can take it in. It's about "teachable moments." Or as someone said, riffing on a famous aphorism about students and teachers: "When the student is ready, the student appears." Oh, wait. That was me.

-- JimBullock, 2003.04.28

. . . lots of that is "preaching to the choir." How does the personal effectiveness in software reach those most ignorant of it?

In part through an observation offered by Michael Bolton at AYE2002. To paraphrase:

• There is doing the work,
• And looking at the process of doing the work, which is abstract to doing the work,
• And looking at yourself in the process of doing the work, which is abstract to the process.

Michael used the idiom of dereferencing pointers in "C" to communicate his insight to me, thus demonstrating another requirement of "preaching to other than the choir": You have to meet them where they are.

The thing is, moving from doing the work, to process, to self involves reflection - stand outside the process and watch. That's where you pick up an interest in things like BooksOnPersonalSkills, a fine list instigated by DianeGibson. The thing is to become interested in effectiveness through work at these meta-levels (not the only way of pursuing effectiveness) you have to achieve the observer position on yourself, and / or the process you are engaged in.

Unfortunately, the culture of computer science schools, and go-go IT and development wraps people in AntiReflectiveCoating. Makes it hard reflect, to climb up (or down. Is "the process" more abstract than doing the work?) the old abstraction ladder. DavidSocha is emphasizing reflective practice in his Software Engineering course which we discussed last fall as TeachingInexperiencedPeople. But this an exception as can be seen, for example, in the contents and tone of MIT's Software Engineering Lab course: At MIT "Software Engineering" is about concieving a system to solve a problem, not about reflection, process, or one's place in it.

I have hooked many people around me, by making process comments in the event. That's 1:1 and opportunistic. I'm not sure how we entice an industry and a population to create a larger "teachable moment." I offer a conjecture that if this personal development-y stuff really works, practitioners of it should be able to out perform non-practitioners at doing the work. Thus one of the motives for my poking at working on producing something in the course of AYE, several months ago. I speculate that something like the "Mondo-Sys" Open Source project where everybody on it has a happy life-changing experience & hugs while kicking all kinds of technological butt might get some attention from the /. crowd. It's an interesting thought experiment, at any rate.

Thus one of the motives for my poking at working on producing something in the course of AYE, several months ago. The other big motive being simple perversity - "Let's poke at this and see what happens."

-- JimBullock (Committing heresies, in terms of the dogma of your choice - bulk discounts available) 2003.04.28

--BobLee 2003.04.28

While I understand what you are trying to do, I wonder if that is the right way to go about a technology project. I go about looking for a problem that needs solving and try to find where the energy is with the people who will use it. I do not know how to find new projects or create projects that have not been done. I do not even understand how it is I keep my eyes open for projects which appeal to me.

It sounds like you want to concoct a project to prove a philosophical point. Is this a case of 'solution probleming'? Didn't all the good "unsolved problems" get implemented by all the internet startup companies?

I wonder if the point that you want to demonstrate has more to do with pleasing existing (and diverse) steakholders and working within a set of real life constraints then about creating an open ended project which pleases only its members.

In short I think that BobLee's comment is both funny and very profound. Really the best project that I can think of is the AYE conference its self.

So what is your definition of a successful AYE conference? Can you think of an ambitious but measurable goal that the conference organizers could adopt? Clearly they are not interested in increasing attendance so the typical metrics are not applicable.

KenEstes 2003.04.28

How does the personal effectiveness in software reach those most ignorant of it?

Mostly it reaches them one person and one thought at a time, much as I too would prefer a faster way. When you or I influence one person, how does that work? It seems to me that it works because someone saw how we behaved or heard what we said. (This is a scary thought, as I am often not impressed by how I behave or what I said.)

Once I have reached someone, I may point them to AYE or the website or STQE or a book or SHAPE or wherever seems right. I take my books and STQEs with me on every contract and encourage other people to read them. I email articles to anyone who might be interested. I laugh out loud in the bullpen when I catch up on the WIKI at lunch.

I am not very technical and do not read any of the magazines that Keith listed. Based on how I read magazines, and what I have seen other people do, I wonder how many of the people who read these magazines would read an article on personal effectiveness if one was there. I do not read the articles on coding techniques.

I am wildly in favour of working with other Ayers. After the first AYE, I wanted to move to Phoenix. (It eventually occurred to me that no one I met actually lived in Phoenix.)

SherryHeinze 2003.04.29

After AYE 2002 JimBullock (I believe) first suggested doing a community project. The strength of our community is it's diverseness. But when it comes to "producing a product" (or project) the diversity makes it difficult to decide what to do. Adding to the "what" issue are the who, and how problems.

However, there seems to be recurring themes (or maybe I'm dreaming, but that's OK).

1. Let's do something.
   - right now we're discussing sharing ideas with "younger programmers". I think it's an activity that we can undertake. It doesn't require a lot of money, and time can be contributed by members as available.
   
   
2. We need some way of radiating the information. JerryWeinberg has suggested mining the wiki for article topics. There have been some very interesting conversations over the last 4 years. Why not use them? And if an article hits on slashdot.com, alert the community so we can tag along and join in.
   
   
3. Technical issues ... DaveSmith has offered to host a wiki, as long as someone else manages it. (I think that was his offer)
   
   
4. As for managing the wiki, I think the group currently discussing this has a marvelous combination of abilities and personalities.
   
   
5. As a host, I would quibble slightly with KenEstes' comment about the conference committee not being interested in increasing attendance. But the Law of Strawberry Jam says that the more it gets spread, the thinner it gets. To date, we've not had to deal with "too many people". If we ever do, maybe it will be time to do an AYE East and AYE West. Who knows?

As JimBullock points out, enlightenment comes one person at a time.

DonGray 2003.04.29

I am a big supporter of the AYE.

KenEstes 2003.04.29
I'm aware that you're an AYE supporter. A more thorough read of your post shows you're aware that that the hosts use the "jam" criteria for defining success. Never Mind. I'll trundle off. ;{)> DonGray 2003.4.29

I go about looking for a problem that needs solving and try to find where the energy is with the people who will use it.

By at least one definition of effectiveness "the amplified" ought to be able to go about the process you describe more effectively than a random selection of the population. I am proposing to test that operational question (not philosophical point) through an experiment, a thought experiment at least. The results thus far are interesting.

I do notice that I actually made a compound proposal back in the day (since I'm exploring here, vs. having it all wired that's OK with me.) I can now tease apart the two elements of the proposal:

• I wonder if building something together wouldn't make an interesting experiment, testing the effectiveness that AYE amplifies.
  • If so, what might we find out?
  • If not, why not?
  • If not what other experiments might be more relevant?
• I wonder if the opportunity to practice doing stuff during the AYE conference itself might providing a place to practice the content of the workshops.
  • I propose as a straw man example, perhaps building something collectively over the conference period.
  • I speculate that some kind of reflection / retrospective practice associated with the task might add value, in terms of recognizing the use and effectiveness of AYE learnings.
  • I'm not invested in the form of either the work, or the reflection, but the idea of feedback from practice in near real time during the conference.
    
    
    

Can you think of an ambitious but measurable goal that the conference organizers could adopt?

I'm not offering anything. What are the measures the folks offering the conference are using? Do any of these include attempts to measure the impact of AYE on the effectiveness of attendees in their jobs?

-- JimBullock, 2003.04.29

I wanted more feedback from AYE too, I know that I was one of several people who suggested that AYE have an all day simulation. I know that one is tentatively scheduled

It looks like there will be an all day simulation for 
one of the sessions.  "Seeing Yourself in the System" 
with Johanna and Esther facilitating/moderating.

KenEstes 2003.04.29

>Do any of these include attempts to measure the impact of AYE on the effectiveness of attendees in their jobs?

I started an AyeResults page to see who had experienced some effectiveness increase from their AYE experience. So far ... it's you and Jerry. Maybe others will chime in as time goes by.

> * I propose as a straw man example, perhaps building something collectively over the conference period.

How about building a group that agrees to build something, and then update the conference the following year? Maybe use BOFs to find a coalescing idea, and the proceed to work.

> * I'm not invested in the form of either the work, or the reflection, but the idea of feedback from practice in near real time during the conference.

One of the standard systemic problems is dealing with delays in feedback. So I agree with your suggestion about feedback from practice in near real time.

How do you envision this happening? DonGray 2003.04.29

Ok. So picture this straw man and see what happens. Disclaimer: I am speculating by example. Sometimes it's easier for me to find the holes in a Big Idea(tm) by trying a specific example. So if you see a hole, fill it in. That's the point.

• Something like a LAN party
  • Room
  • Connectivity
  • File / web services
  • Cards, paper, easels & etc.
• Hold the room "all conference long" or "Evenings" or something.
  • No particular sign-up for people wandering by?
  • Once the infrastructure is setup, it stays up.
• Pick some thing to build that several folks have an itch about.
  • Any open source project would do.
  • One thing or hierarchy of parallel things? -bl
    • I think there may be several discrete somethings
    • interesting to some but not all at a time
    • multiple things could benefit from clustering focus.
    • (single) Wiki can be frustrating - appears as Big Ball of Mud to newcomers.
  • Maybe we pitch in a bit with Scribble, the wiki engine here.
  • Maybe . . .
• People show up, and pitch in.
  • How? I don't know, exactly.
  • How do they decide what to go do? I don't know, exactly.
  • How do they know when they are done? I don't know, exactly.
  • It may be sufficient that an individual offer something of value, which they can likely deliver, without disrupting other progress.
  • Candidate offers:
    • Building functions / resolving defects.
    • Creating test suites (I know the wiki implementation Laurent uses on Bookshelved does not have an automated regression test suite.)
    • Doco, of any flavor.
    • Porting.
    • Tutorial session. Could range from on the gizmo, to on the tools used to make the gizmo.
    • Coaching / real-time training in:

      XP Practices
      What is goodness in code, design, etc.
      Journaling as a reflective practice.
      

• Reflection and feedback is part of the work, so . . .
  • When you're done with a "build it session", you end by journaling.
  • Journals (can) go on-line, associated with the "project"
  • Themes for the Journals are extended a bit to include:
    • AYE stuff I saw happening while was doing this . . .
    • AYE stuff I applied, while doing this . . .
    • Stuff I'm puzzled about that I'd hope to learn to be more "effective" with.
    • Other.
• End with some kind of group grope, talking about what happened.

But that's just me. I am most likely wrong. -- JimBullock, 2003.05.01

The theme for the short paper is how to sit in a meeting at work. I have seen many young engineers and programmers hurt themselves by they way they participated in meetings. I did this to myself twenty years ago. I was fortunate that it was a less enlightened age and there were several men who pulled me aside afterwards and helped my overcome some of my bad habits.

Anyway, personal habits like how I sit in a chair, what I do with my hands, what I say and don't say, timing, etc. make a difference in how people consider me.

DwaynePhillips 3 May 2003

It's working!

DwaynePhillips 29 May 2003

Has anyone tried submitting anything to that list of popular magazines? Any success with that?

KeithRay 2003.05.29

DwaynePhillips 10 June 2003 10AM