Posts Tagged ‘antipattern’

Do something about it, or…

Coping and Communicating, Musings | Posted by Doc
May 23 2010

We all know unhappy people, whiners, the frustrated and disappointed and disenfranchised, those who are dissatisfied and feel that they are stuck.

For this post, I’ll refer to that persona as Vern (since it could be a male or female name).

Vern complains. In fact, Vern seems to be happiest when complaining, which is ironic.

Vern seems to be helpless in frustration, seeing the world as beyond his/her ability to affect and change. The bad things seem to have overwhelming power. The situation always seems to be beyond Vern’s control. And Vern can always find something to complain and be unhappy about.

For a while now, I’ve been saying to people…



Sadly, Vern is too ready to say “I can’t”.

I disagree. I can always do something about it. If I can’t change “it”, then I can change me. I can leave, for instance. Or I can learn to accept things as they are. These are frequently the ends of the spectrum, with various forms of changing me and it in the range in the middle.

However, if Very chooses not to take any of the many available, then my follow-up is…



I mean, if you choose not to do anything to change your situation, Vern, then do me the courtesy of not battering me with your frustration, whining, griping, or other expressions that make it clear that you believe that something or someone else is in charge of your life and circumstances.

Take charge of your life, willya Vern?

Check out the line of shirts and mugs with these images and variations.

FacebookShare

Tags: , , , , , ,
10 Comments »

Facilitation Antipattern: Negator

Coping and Communicating, Facilitation, Musings | Posted by Doc
Sep 30 2009
Motto: That’s wrong.
Belief: It’s my to point out what’s wrong with other people’s ideas. I live in my black hat*.
: Points out the flaws and faults in everyone else’s approach. Does so without offering any balancing positives or alternatives.
Characteristics: , sometimes superior, destructive, achieving satisfaction by negating others’ ideas.

The Negator sees their lot in life as poking holes in everyone else’s ideas and plans. While this is not, in and of itself, a bad thing, when exercised without the balance of alternatives or one’s own ideas it becomes a negative of its own.

The Negator may seem to be contributory and helpful at times, as their suggestions come across as helping you to see risks and dangers*. However, this , when exercised to the exclusion of balance, can become seen as the person’s identity, rather than one of behavior among many.

* See Edward De Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”

FacebookShare

Tags: , , ,
9 Comments »

First full presentation of Facilitation Patterns and Antipatterns today #agile2009

Agile & Lean, Facilitation | Posted by Doc
Aug 25 2009

Yes, this is just a brag post. :)

At 2pm Central time today, I’ll be doing the first full delivery of the Facilitation Patterns & Antipatterns workshop at the Agile2009 conference.

Yes, I’m excited.

I’ve gotten great response from the folks I’ve told about it.  Hopefully some of them will turn up. :)

FacebookShare

Tags: , ,
2 Comments »

Facilitation Antipattern: Helpless

Facilitation | Posted by Doc
Aug 12 2009
Motto: I can’t do it.
Belief: I am not capable of making decisions or taking action on my own.
: Avoids making decisions or commitment. Frequently solicits others to work together and take on leadership/.
Characteristics: Fearful, lacking confidence, seeks approval.
Helpless can be very subtle, and sometimes very overt. Helpless frequently says things like “oh, I couldn’t do that” or “I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility”. Helpless tends to avoid making commitments and taking responsibility, and is therefore quite skilled at recruiting others to participate and take on leadership and responsibility.

Helpless is only detrimental to a group in the sense that this individual doesn’t contribute fully nor live up to their potential.  Other than that, they may be very positively contributory in discussions and in helping the group move forward.

FacebookShare

Tags: , , ,
1 Comment »

Facilitation Antipattern: Chicken Little

Facilitation | Posted by Doc
Aug 12 2009
Motto: Duck! The sky is falling!
Belief: Everything is an indicator of trouble to come.
: Points out the negatives and the danger in most things. Frequently tries to prevent action out of fear.
Characteristics: Fearful, , reactive, active in pointing out the problems, believable, has conviction, convincing, passionate

You’re in the midst of a conversation in which you have high expectations of reaching a conclusion and moving on to action. Chicken Little says “but doesn’t that mean that someone will lose their job?” or “I’ve tried that before, and it always ends in problems.”

Chicken Little is not a bad person, by any means. Chicken Little just sees everything as a portent of bad things to come.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the tale of Chicken Little, let me refresh your memory:

The basic premise is that a chicken eats lunch one day, and believes the sky is falling down because an acorn falls on her head. She decides to tell the King, and on her journey meets other animals who join her in the quest. In most retellings, the animals all have rhyming names such as Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey. Finally, they come across Foxy Loxy, a fox who offers the chicken and her friends his help.

Depending on the version, the moral changes. In the “happy ending” version, the moral is not to be a “Chicken”, but to have courage. In other versions the moral is usually interpreted to mean “do not believe everything you are told”. In the latter case, it could well be a cautionary political tale: The Chicken jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit, sometimes as supper.

The challenge with Chicken Little is that he/she is believable, has great conviction, is convincing, and generally brings passion to their arguments. While you might not agree or believe at the start, through these attributes, Chicken Little will often persuade others to his/her point of view, thereby stalling or derailing the team.

FacebookShare

Tags: , , ,
5 Comments »

More new graphics, and Agile2009

Agile & Lean, Events, Facilitation | Posted by Doc
Aug 07 2009

Yes, I’ve added more new graphics, courtesy of Mike Ferrin.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned that these characters will make their “live” debut when I present my session on Facilitation Patterns and Antipatterns at Agile2009. I’ve developed a around these ideas, and I think it will be a lot of fun.

FacebookShare

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »

New graphics for facilitation patterns

Agile & Lean, Events, Facilitation | Posted by Doc
Aug 02 2009

I’m delighted to share with you that I’ve added some very cool graphics to this blog.

I’m working with a couple of artists to help me develop some training materials for ThoughtWorks Studios. I’ve had one of them develop avatars for a number of the facilitation patterns and antipatterns that I’ve identified.

doc_big_avatarAnd for me.

The avatars will find their way into a that I’m developing for delivery at the Agile2009 conference.

All of the artwork will find its way into the training materials, one way or another.

For the workshop, I’m develop playing cards.  My avatars and all of these characters were developed by Mike Ferrin. Here’s a sample:

Common Back

Take a look at some of the facilitation patterns and antipatterns in this blog, and you’ll meet more of the characters:

And here’s an example of one of the pieces that is part of one of our courses:

DOC sample

This piece was done by Brian Goff.

Note that all of this artwork is the property of my employer, ThoughtWorks, and all rights to use are reserved.

FacebookShare

Tags: , ,
1 Comment »

Facilitation Antipattern: Repetitor

Musings | Posted by Doc
Jun 29 2009
RepetitorMotto: It’s worth repeating. It’s worth repeating. It’s worth repeating.
Belief: You’ll only understand if I say it at least three times.
: Says the same thing repeatedly, frequently in somewhat different words, frequently two, three, or more times.
Characteristics: Articulate, filled with conviction, perhaps lacking confidence

In my last post, this would have sounded like this:

It’s about the subtleties. You know – it’s about the little things. It’s about the stuff that’s not so obvious – the subtleties… the things that others hear in what you say whether you were aware of it or not…

Repetitors are usually articulate. They are able to express themselves. In the positive way, without the unneeded repetitions, a Repetitor would be an Articulate. By repeating themselves, without checking to see whether the listener is understanding, the Repetitor turns a into an .

Dealing with a Repetitor is as simple as a variant on the Facilitation Four-Step: Interrupt, Ask, Redirect, Commit.

Interrupt

“Excuse me, Frank.”

Ask

“Do you mind…”

Redirect

“…if I check in with the others for a moment?”

Commit

“We’ll get right back to what you were saying.”

Action (yes, a 5th step ;) )

“Sue, just so we’re clear, can you tell us what Frank’s point was?”

In this way, I validate that others have heard Frank, check to make sure that they’ve understood Frank, and break the pattern of repetition.

Related Pattern: Articulate

FacebookShare

Tags: , , , ,
5 Comments »

Facilitation Antipattern: Terrible Tweeter

Facilitation, Musings | Posted by Doc
Mar 06 2009
twitterMotto: I have important work to do, and can multitask.
: I am able to do multiple things at once, and give each the sufficient attention to get value from it. I’m not bothering anyone, so why not?
: Is typing on notebook computer, sending and receiving emails and tweets and IM on phone, and/or working on paperwork regardless of what else is going on.
Characteristics: Articulate, connected, overcommitted, busy, self-focused

Someone suggested calling this one “Typist” or “Emailer” or any of a number of other things.  They all apply.

I was giving a presentation the other day at ITARC Atlanta, and a friend of mine was sitting in the back of the room with his computer open. It was a large room, with about 12 rows of tables and chairs, so my friend was way in the back. Still, I was aware of him working on his computer the whole time I was presenting. I knew he had a presentation the next day, and was probably working on his slides. I suspect that some of the attendees were aware of him working on his computer, and maybe it didn’t bother them. Still…

First of all, it doesn’t matter what the Terrible Tweeter believes about themselves, it’s distracting for others. Seeing/hearing someone typing and reading on some device, while I’m trying to focus on the meeting, is just distracting. Period.

Second, having been guilty of this myself, I can tell you that it’s not possible to give more than one thing appropriate attention, nor to derive real value if you’re not paying attention. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “would you repeat that, please?” when doing something other than paying attention.

In fact, the Terrible Tweeter is one of the things I love about Technology. Why? Because folks who attend OS events seem to fully embrace the idea that anyone might not be completely engaged in what’s going on, and also that the spirit of OST allows them to say “what you’re doing is distracting me – would you mind either stopping or doing it elsewhere?” without leading to offense/hurt feelings, most of the time. It’s also entirely acceptable to tweet/blog/whatever within reasonable limits without it being distracting.

Take a look at the tweets that were posted during the recent ALT.NET Seattle Open Space Conference. There was a lot of value there. I have no doubt that some of the attendees were actually updating the event wiki during the sessions.

At most and events, however, this kind of is distracting and detrimental to the goals and purpose of the group.

Be engaged, or be disengaged. Don’t pretend to be one while doing the other.

The Terrible Tweeter is a perfect candidate for the Facilitation Four-Step.

FacebookShare

Tags: , , , , ,
3 Comments »

Taken to extremes

Facilitation, Musings | Posted by Doc
Feb 28 2009

Any is a good thing, until taken to extremes.

Consider Curious George. Curious George, asking questions and exploring possibilities, helps to stimulate conversation and bring out useful information.

Curious George taken to extremes,  however, becomes an obstacle. His persistent and insistent questioning can become a new , the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor doesn’t ask questions for the purpose of moving the group’s goals forward. The Inquisitor nails her victim, drilling down, and tenaciously, even insistenlty, digging and digging until the victim gives up in sheer exhaustion. The Inquisitor takes the “five whys” to the point of absurdity, like a four-year-old who – when told that the sky is blue – asks “why” until you want to run screaming.

Even neutrality can be taken too far. While I’ve made it clear that I believe that one of the key attributes of a is neutrality, nonetheless, there are times when a must take a position and a stand, when it comes to the good of the group and the process. Failure to take a stand and take action at those times becomes a new antipattern, Wishy-Washy.

I’m convinced that most positive patterns, taken to extremes, can become antipatterns.

Is it possible to go the other way? Are the attributes that define antipattern behaviors capable of being beneficial patterns, when applied in more limited doses?

FacebookShare

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »