Comments on: Driving for Self, Driving for Other http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2010/07/18/driving-for-self-driving-for-other/ Thoughts on Agile software development, facilitation, communication, and relationships in the personal and professional worlds, from Steven "Doc" List Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:20:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tarek Abdelmaguid http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2010/07/18/driving-for-self-driving-for-other/comment-page-1/#comment-3263 Tarek Abdelmaguid Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:52:27 +0000 http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2010/07/18/driving-for-self-driving-for-other/#comment-3263 Interesting analogy. Since I've been in similar situations, here are some ideas to seed the discussion: - Announce the change. If people know something is coming, they'll be less surprised by it. I say less surprised, because some will still be surprised anyway: they will not understand what this changes means, or how it will affect them. - Apply the change slowly. People will detect the change, and can start preparing for the full swing. They will also see what the change is, and will have a better understand of how it'll affect them. - Listen for and encourage feedback. If the change is happening too fast, or causing discomfort, we can use this feedback to improve our approach. Interesting analogy.
Since I’ve been in similar situations, here are some ideas to seed the discussion:
- Announce the change. If people know something is coming, they’ll be less surprised by it. I say less surprised, because some will still be surprised anyway: they will not understand what this changes means, or how it will affect them.
- Apply the change slowly. People will detect the change, and can start preparing for the full swing. They will also see what the change is, and will have a better understand of how it’ll affect them.
- Listen for and encourage feedback. If the change is happening too fast, or causing discomfort, we can use this feedback to improve our approach.

]]> By: Adrian http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2010/07/18/driving-for-self-driving-for-other/comment-page-1/#comment-3259 Adrian Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:04:10 +0000 http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2010/07/18/driving-for-self-driving-for-other/#comment-3259 I think it's OK for folks to be surprised when we "jink left" in our unconscious agile "driving". In fact, it may even be more educational to folks to feel the jolt first and then learn the "why" after the fact. The trick, I think, to mitigating the confusion and eliminating the frustration is to talk through the "why" as soon after the surprise as possible. To your point, I think, it requires a heightened sensitivity on our parts to predict the confusion and explain the differences without presuming that the passenger understands as instinctively as we do when "going left" is the correct maneuver. Might be an interesting experiment to explain to my wife, the next time I'm driving, why I do what I do... "Honey, I just changed to the right lane because I saw a car in the distance that seems to be driving very fast behind me; I'm just getting out of his way". Then again - it could drive her nuts. Yes. Then, it's settled. I'll try it. I think it’s OK for folks to be surprised when we “jink left” in our unconscious agile “driving”. In fact, it may even be more educational to folks to feel the jolt first and then learn the “why” after the fact. The trick, I think, to mitigating the confusion and eliminating the frustration is to talk through the “why” as soon after the surprise as possible. To your point, I think, it requires a heightened sensitivity on our parts to predict the confusion and explain the differences without presuming that the passenger understands as instinctively as we do when “going left” is the correct maneuver.

Might be an interesting experiment to explain to my wife, the next time I’m driving, why I do what I do… “Honey, I just changed to the right lane because I saw a car in the distance that seems to be driving very fast behind me; I’m just getting out of his way”. Then again – it could drive her nuts. Yes. Then, it’s settled. I’ll try it.

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