Improving Communication Practices

Transcript

1. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES NATHAN L. WALLS DEVOPSDAYS CHARLOTTE NOV. 2, 2015
2. PROLOGUE
4. PROLOGUE
5. INTRODUCTION HI, I’M NATHAN
6. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES INTRODUCTION ▸ Software developer since 2000 ▸ Perl early ▸ Ruby, Rails in the second half of that time ▸ Took a three-year tour into management while at WebAssign ▸ Worked on “the DevOps” team at WebAssign for much of my time there ▸ Currently working as an API-focused developer with a growing team at VitalSource Technologies in Raleigh, NC
7. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES INTRODUCTION ▸ Introduced to Transactional Analysis by the gentleman who married my wife and I, Blaine Hartford in 2007 ▸ Blaine worked for several decades as a Unitarian minister, relationship counselor, and business consultant
8. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS A MODEL OF PSYCHOLOGY
9. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS (TA) ▸ Developed by Eric Berne, MD in the late 1950s as a distinct alternative to Freudian psychology and psychoanalysis ▸ Focus on acknowledgment and understanding communication and stimuli difference between individuals and how that impacts how we interact with each other ▸ In studying TA in a counseling situation, students learn how to monitor themselves and not need a counselor
10. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS ▸ Think of it as a framework ▸ There are some things this framework is well suited for, just as an an infrastructure tool or software framework is good for certain tasks ▸ There are other frameworks with different mindsets ▸ Freudian, Jungian psychoanalysis ▸ Cognitive psychology ▸ Social psychology
11. TA IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
12. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES TA IN THE BUSINESS WORLD ▸ From the 1960s through the 1980s, TA was used as the basis for corporate training ▸ American Airlines was evidently a particular proponent
13. WHY WOULD A BUSINESS TRAIN EMPLOYEES WITH A MODEL OF PSYCHOLOGY? You, possibly IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
14. TA PROVIDES SOME VERY INTERESTING TOOLS FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION. Me IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
15. SUCH AS? You IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
16. RECOGNIZING AND RESPONDING TO CUSTOMERS AND COLLEAGUES BETTER. Me IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
17. IF IT’S SO GREAT, WHERE DID IT GO? You IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
18. NO IDEA, REALLY. CHANGING FASHIONS, CHANGES IN PRIORITY SEEM LIKELY. Me IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
19. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS COMPONENTS
20. WORLD VIEW TA COMPONENTS
21. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES WORLD VIEW ▸ People perceive reality through their life experience, shaped by their beliefs ▸ Everyone believes their perception of reality is correct ▸ World views don’t always align, which can lead to conflict ▸ People have world views ▸ Teams form world views, too ▸ Companies form world views
22. NOBODY "TELLS IT LIKE IT IS." FOLKS JUST TELL IT LIKE THEY SEE IT. Glennon Doyle Melton / @momastery IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
23. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES WORLD VIEW ▸ Operations / Development / Business / Customers can all have different world views ▸ They likely overlap some ▸ … But, they probably also have some meaningful and important differences
24. NOBODY "TELLS IT LIKE IT IS." FOLKS JUST TELL IT LIKE THEY SEE IT. Glennon Doyle Melton / @momastery IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
25. EGO STATES TA COMPONENTS
26. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ A state of mind ▸ TA describes three macro styles and some sub-styles of the major three ▸ Ego state is mutable ▸ You may swap between ego states very quickly, multiple times in the course of a conversation ▸ Identification comes through observation
27. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ Parent ▸ Adult ▸ Child
29. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ Parent ▸ Behaviors, thoughts and feelings copied from parents or parent figures ▸ Adult ▸ Child Definitions from: TA Today, p. 12
30. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ Parent ▸ Adult ▸ Behaviors, thoughts and feelings which are direct responses to the here-and-now ▸ Child Definitions from: TA Today, p. 12
31. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ Parent ▸ Adult ▸ Child ▸ Behaviors, thoughts and feelings replayed from childhood Definitions from: TA Today, p. 12
33. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ An state isn’t inherently correct ▸ Ego states have positive and negative qualities ▸ All three ego states and their sub-types have times and places where they are appropriate
34. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES EGO STATES ▸ There are also times and places where those ego states are less desirable ▸ Ego state influences, but does not control, behavior
35. TRANSACTIONS TA COMPONENTS
36. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES PARENT TO PARENT TRANSACTION ▸ Head-butting ▸ Past-timing
37. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES CHILD TO CHILD TRANSACTION ▸ Wondrous exploration ▸ Playtime ▸ Joking ▸ Mischief
38. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES ADULT TO ADULT TRANSACTION ▸ What we generally expect in most day-to-day interactions as professionals ▸ Interested, but dispassionate ▸ Imagine Spock talking to another Vulcan
39. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES PARENT TO CHILD TRANSACTION ▸ Authority figure to (presumed) less-qualified individual ▸ Could be gently corrective ▸ “You need me to help you with this.” ▸ Could be unconstructively critical ▸ “You should have known that was a stupid thing to do.”
40. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES PARENT TO CHILD TRANSACTION ▸ In the workplace, this is a particularly insidious transaction type ▸ Imbalanced relationship ▸ Potential for conflict, resentment ▸ “I’m going to keep this away from you because I don’t trust you with it.”
41. CROSSING TRANSACTIONS TA COMPONENTS
42. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES PARENT TO CHILD TRANSACTION TO START ▸ Discussion begins with a parent tone aiming for a child emotional reaction
43. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES …BUT THE RESPONSE IS DIFFERENT ▸ Instead of replying in kind, the recipient responds in an adult fashion ▸ Goal: (Re)engage the adult in the conversation ▸ May take a few interactions in the transaction to get at the right level ▸ If you aren’t getting it to here, “quit the field” and try again another time
44. REVISITING OUR OPENING EXAMPLE
45. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code
46. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code ▸ (parent) “I need to tell people about this bad code”
47. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code ▸ (parent) “I need to tell people about this bad code” ▸ (child) finds funny gif
48. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code ▸ (parent) “I need to tell people about this bad code” ▸ (child) finds funny gif ▸ (parent) *posts to chat*
49. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code ▸ (parent) “I need to tell people about this bad code” ▸ (child) finds funny gif ▸ (parent) *posts to chat* ▸ (child) coworker responds
50. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES DIAGRAMMING A TRANSACTION ▸ (adult) finds “bad” code ▸ (parent) “I need to tell people about this bad code” ▸ (child) finds funny gif ▸ (parent) *posts to chat* ▸ (child) coworker responds ▸ (adult) “That was harsh, I apologize for saying that”
51. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
52. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS ▸ Build an understanding of someone’s world view ▸ Talk to them, ask questions! ▸ Practice identifying ego states in meetings ▸ Propose solutions from an adult state, with an emphasis on shared areas of world views
53. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS ▸ You don’t need to find perfect alignment to move ahead ▸ You need to find enough common alignment with everyone’s world view, ideally in an adult state ▸ Be mindful that different groups may have different definitions for the same terms, be sure to explore that ▸ Patience, patience, patience
54. RESOURCES & CREDITS
55. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES BOOKS ▸ TA Today ▸ James Stewart & Vann Jones ▸ Games People Play ▸ Eric Berne, MD ▸ I’m OK – You’re OK ▸ Thomas A. Harris, MD
56. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES SITES ▸ EricBerne.com ▸ ITAAWorld.org ▸ International Transactional Analysis Association ▸ Wikipedia entry ▸ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis
57. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES CREDITS ▸ Material drawn from conversations and practice with Blaine Hartford, Durham, NC ▸ Teachings reinforced with TA Today by Ian Stewart and Vann Jones ▸ Further info from Transactional Analysis Wikipedia page ▸ Ron Swanson GIF from Parks and Rec ▸ The Dude, Donny and Walter photo from The Big Lebowski ▸ Other diagrams and photos by Nathan L. Walls ▸ Circle diagram concept by Eric Berne, MD
58. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES SLIDES WILL BE AVAILABLE SHORTLY ▸ Slides ▸ http://wallscorp.us/presentations/ ▸ Contact ▸ nathan.walls@vitalsource.com or nathan@wallscorp.us ▸ @base10 on Twitter
59. THANK YOU