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Landscape Analysis

Landscape Analysis

How one's perceived progress and control affects stress response in group work

Kevin Tezlaf

April 09, 2012
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  1. Kevin Tezlaf Work/Life Stress Domain Landscape Analysis How one's perceived

    progress and control affects stress response in group work
  2. Non-Tech Approaches Group meetings – praise in public Private meetings

    – avoid public ridicule Group and project charters Contracts Obtaining “the floor” (right to speak) Milestones – track progress Established processes – confident decision making Precise, unambiguous communication
  3. Tech Approaches Automatic “out of the office” email replies Mailing

    lists – manage communication channels Email – obviate remembering conversations Product management tools (Pivotal Tracker, Rally) Version control management (Subversion, git) – reduce stress of introducing bugs Software modification requests – reduce potentially daunting tasks to manageable sizes
  4. Interview Insights Diverse groups can have diverse needs: ex. exhausted

    doctors awake at all hours Easier to maintain communication on need-to-know basis rather than broadcast Getting everyone on the same page when establishing a group is a major source of stress Assigning responsibility can be uncomfortable Direct communication preferred Mixing frequent and infrequent meetings beneficial: frequent meetings establish small, steady progress; Infrequent meetings are more productive but potentially more stressful Completing, submitting forms and obtaining signatures effectively reduced stress * Knowing where you are in a project helps calm one's outer-work life *
  5. Further Questions and Exploration Do individual preferences for direct communication

    correlate with subject's background? Do requirements changes affect stress levels? How might this be mitigated? How do good managers know how much control to give their reports? How is trust formed within groups – among founding members and with new members? How to empirically test the “company's DNA” hypothesis