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Office Dynamics The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool. --Richard Feynman See each other as human IMHO, self-awareness and other-awareness, or rather a lack thereof, is the single largest handicap carried by myself and most of the people with whom I've worked over the years -- these notes describe an in-house seminar I offer which introduces these concepts and sets the stage for weekly practice sessions where we perform exercises aimed at increasing our self-awareness and our awareness of others. Additionally, I describe key elements of effective IT culture. Professional Maturity These authors shape my view of how to behave in the office. Neal Whitten Here are the nuggets I extracted from the last Whitten seminar I attended: Focus on your top three, not your bottom dozen Work with passion, boldness, and focus Be able to write your job description at a moment's notice Single-task (don't multitask) Employ mentors Escalate issues within two working days Finish 70% of the work by the point at which you've spent 50% of the time And my favorite Whitten book, for studying professional maturity: No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects Jeffrey Miller I see anxiety as part of being human: after all, we were prey for most of our history, and evolution hasn't had time to catch up with the current state of affairs. However, anxiety interferes with many cognitive and interpersonal skills. Miller starts from a broad base, including primatology, endocrinology, and family-of-origin therapy, and builds from there a prescription for reducing anxiety in organizational settings. The Anxious Organization Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson I remain unconvinced that the model of cognitive dissonance maps to anything measurable in the functioning of the brain. And I am wary of what I see as overstatements which seem popular when I read about this subject. However, I am convinced that humans have trouble recognizing, admitting, and correcting our mistakes and that we invite suffering upon ourselves and others as a result -- these authors offer strategies for mitigating this effect. Mistakes Were Made (by not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts Nature Aside from being my favorite place to keep up with how the world works, Nature also publishes mentoring guides. Understand Primate Dynamics These authors shape how I perceive humans interacting with each other. Frans de Waal In pulling apart and analyzing furry primate behavior, de Waal side-steps my defense mechanisms and helps me to understand my own behavior. From his primate studies, de Waal develops a theory for the origin of human morality, competitiveness, and reconciliation. Our Inner Ape Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape Peacemaking Among Primates David Berreby Berreby pulls together his understanding of neurology, psychology, and sociology, mixes them with his own insights, and delivers his view for how humans go about clumping each other into 'good people' and 'bad people' and why these clumpings are so plastic. Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind Marshall Rosenberg If de Waal and Berreby are figuring out why we behave as we do, Rosenberg is figuring out what to do about it and developing ways to foster reconciliation and collaboration. Based in Switzerland, he works as a conflict mediator in hot spots around the world, sitting down with people who are at each other's throats, facilitating shifts in their dynamics. Nonviolent Communication Deborah Tannen Tannen tackles the communication challenge from a linguist's point of view, deconstructing conversations into frames and looking for the assumptions embedded in a speaker's point of view. A concept with which I'm wrestling these days is how, for some people, questioning their statements signals engagement and interest, while for others, questions signal opposition and discord. That's Not What I Meant! Robert Trivers and Huey Newton Originally published in Science Digest, Trivers and Newton pull apart the cockpit conversation from Flight 90, which crashed into the Potomac river shortly after take-off in 1982, providing a tightly developed explanation for how and why we deceive ourselves when we are wanting to manipulate others. "Self-deception in Service of Deceit" from Natural Selection and Social Theory David Keirsey I'm not thrilled with the type-casting world -- the science behind it seems marginal to me. However, I find the language useful, when analyzing communication confusion, and until I find something better, I continue to use the Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, Rationalist model for understanding what makes people tick. Please Understand Me II Resist Biologically and Culturally Ingrained Biases Brains do not have enough processing power to absorb all the information our senses give them, so they prune and pick and choose what to consume and how to portray what they ultimately perceive. That life survives at all is testament to how effectively this process allows organisms to navigate the real world. However, as conscious beings, our standards of accuracy have risen past "Does this representation allow the species to survive?" to something closer to "How accurate is this?" And the answer, in general, is "Pretty darn inaccurate". Genes don't care, of course; they aren't interested in accuracy, they are interested in how effectively they replicate. But I care: I maintain that I can improve the success of my projects by aligning my understanding of technology more tightly with reality.Eight Strategies to Help Overcome Our Biases Taken from Richards Heurer's Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. Become proficient in developing alternative points of view. Do not assume that another person will think or act like you do. Think backward. Instead of thinking about what might happen in the future because of your actions, put yourself in the future and try to explain how a potential situation could have occurred. Imagine that the belief you are currently holding is wrong; then develop a scenario to explain how that could be true. Try out another person’s beliefs by actually acting out their role. This helps you to see the limitations of your own beliefs. Play "devil’s advocate" by taking the minority point of view. Brainstorm. Interact with people of different background and beliefs.