wetware craftsmanship

Wetware Craftsmanship Brian Bozzuto & Devin Hedge

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BigVisible

What Does the Brain Have to do with Agile?

► Align our behavior with the natural way our mind operations

►  Understand and appreciate the strengths & limits of the mind

►  Understand brain behaviors that inhibit our own agility & ability to change

BigVisible

3 Topics for Today

► Limits of the conscious mind

► Threats to ego

► Desire for Certainty

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First, a Disclaimer

► Beware “Brain Porn”

► Superfluous Technical Details Can Distract from Content

► Our Goal is to Build Better Mental Models of how the Mind Works

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The Brain as a Computer

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A Simple Map of the Brain

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The Limits of Our Mind

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Who Wants a Cookie?

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The Elephant & the Rider

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Two Systems in Your Mind

The Rider (System 2) Slow, serial, controlled, effortful, rule governed, flexible

The Elephant (System 1) Fast, parallel, automatic, effortless, associated, slow-learning

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Challenges of the Elephant

► Framing

► Anchoring

► Accessible information

BUT!!! It is fast and efficient

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How to Manage an Elephant

Clear the Path Strengthen the Rider

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Strengthen the Rider

► Prioritize the use of your mind when your energy is highest

► Build Awareness of Your Thoughts

► Leverage as many parts of your mind as possible

Stand up in the morning!

Coaching Can Help Build Your Mental Capacity

BigVisible

An Example

►  Without writing down, please sort these objects by their value

Object A 1 + 3

Object B 2 x 3

Object C 3 / 2

Object D 8 - 3

Object A 1 + 3 = 4

Object B 2 x 3 = 6

Object C 3 / 2 = 1.5

Object D 8 – 3 = 5

BigVisible

Let’s Try a Harder Example with Stickies

Object A 2 + 6

Object B 3 x 4

Object C 5 / 2

Object D 4 - 3

Object E 6 / 3

Object F 3 + 4

Object A 2 + 6 = 8

Object B 3 x 4 = 12

Object C 5 / 2 = 4.5

Object D 4 – 3 = 1

Object E 6 / 3 = 2

Object F 3 + 4 = 7

BigVisible

Chunking Demonstrated

► Try to memorize as many of these numbers as you can…

310412873634 ► Let’s try one more time…

97 14 23

75 30 12

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The Real Power of Information Radiators

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Clear the Path

► Work on One Item at a Time

► Deliberate Practice to build more Subconscious Capability

► Build Concrete Processes to Follow

You CAN’T Multitask

BigVisible

What Does this All Mean for Coaches?

►  Changing behaviors takes energy, and brains get tired

►  Failure to change doesn’t mean people don’t want to

►  Coaches can offer support and clear the path to increase the likelihood people will be able to follow through

You need to make the elephant want to go where you want to go

BigVisible

Let’s Try Something…

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Time for a Coaching Exercise

Instructions ►  Split into pairs

►  One of you will be the coach, the other the coachee

►  Coachee, you’re going to share your problem with the coach and they are going to help you.

►  Coachees, close your eyes, we have specific instructions for coaches…

Instructions for Coaches ►  Listen to the coachee, but your

goal is to offer them solutions.

►  Your job is to be as useful as you can by offering as much advice as you can

►  Remember, you’re the Jedi master!

BigVisible

Debrief

People Being Coaches ►  What was that experience like?

►  How did it feel?

►  Did you get useful information?

Coaches ►  What was that experience like?

►  We they open to your infinite wisdom?

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Need for Social Acceptance

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What Happened?

►  We perceive social threats & physical threats with the same part of our minds

►  Threats to ego may engender the same fight or flight reactions that physical danger would

David Rock, “Managing with the Brain in Mind”, Oxford Leadership Journal. Dec 2009 Vol 1 Issue 1

The brain is lazy. Our default state is to start offering suggestions rather than listen and cooperatively problem

Social Pain

Physical Pain

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So… On to Coaching

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Fight or Flight

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Suggesting May Still Work

►  There are factors that can help you overcome these hindrances

à Authority & expertise

à Prior relationships (trust)

à Ability to match genuine emotions (face to face conversation)

BigVisible

Fight or Flight in the Office

Fight ►  “I don’t have any real problems”

►  “You don’t understand my situation”

►  “Your ideas are wrong”

Flight ►  “I can’t do anything about this”

►  “It’s because of these other people”

►  “I’ll just muddle through”

The response to threats is generally a narrowing of options, the precise opposite of what we are trying to

achieve as coaches

BigVisible

Techniques to Create Safety

►  Identify if safety is lost

►  Apologize if necessary

►  Contract

►  Create mutual purpose (CRIB) à  Commit to seek mutual purpose à  Recognize the purpose behind

the strategy à  Invent mutual purpose à  Brainstorm new strategies

(Patterson, Kerry; Switzler, Al; McMillan, Ron; Grenny, Joseph (2011-08-19). Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition

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A Full Coaching Conversation

Don’t Start Here

COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY

FACILITATING LEARNING

AND RESULTS

CO-CREATING THE

RELATIONSHIP

SETTING THE FOUNDATION

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One Technique – Powerful Questions

►  Characteristics à  Generate curiosity in the listener à  Stimulates reflective

conversation à  Is thought-provoking à  Surfaces underlying

assumptions à  Invites creativity and new

possibilities à  Generates energy and forward

movement à  Channels attention and focuses

inquiry à  Stays with participants à  Touches a deep meaning à  Evokes more questions

►  Frame for Powerful Questions à  Focused on the Outcome (not

the problem) à  Not so broad as to be unable to

take action à  Surface underlying assumptions

►  Type of Questions (most powerful to least) à  Why à  How à  What à  Who à  Which à  Is it…

BigVisible

Let’s Try It Again…

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Another Exercise

► Pair up again

► People being coached, share your problem

► Coaches, listen and only use powerful questions (no recommendations at all)

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Debrief

People Being Coaches ►  What was that experience like?

►  Did you get useful information?

Coaches ►  What was that experience like?

►  Do you feel like you helped them?

BigVisible

►  It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order à  Niccolo Machiavelli “The Prince”

BigVisible

Remember the Brain is Lazy…

►  Uncertainty requires more conscious thought

►  The mind seeks to match patterns and make things predictable

►  We delight in certainty

Wetware Craftsmanship

____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______ _____ _____ ____ _____ _____ _____ ____ _____

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We May See Patterns That Don’t Even Exist

____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______ _____ _____ ____ _____ _____ _____ ____ _____

Or Interpret Them Based on Context

Neglect of Ambiguity and Suppression of Doubt Figure 6Kahneman, Daniel (2011-10-25). Thinking, Fast and Slow (p. 79). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

BigVisible

We Will Always Have an Explanation

►  “Markets fell on fears about the upcoming jobs report”

►  “Markets rallied due to a good monthly sales report, which experts attribute to the weather”

►  “The market fell today due to uncertainty about upcoming legislation in Congress”

We observe something, then we tell ourselves a story to explain it. Sometimes it happens so fast we can’t distinguish between the two

____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______ _____ _____ ____ _____ _____ _____ ____ _____

Some Cognitive Biases

Halo Effect “Apple is a great company, I love their products!”

Confirmatory Bias “Look at the confirming evidence!”

Confidence from Narrative Coherence “Of course the butler did it! It all makes sense now.”

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How Can These Biases Impact Projects?

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Give Ranges You’re 90% Confident In

Question Surface Temperature of the Sun

Latitude of Shanghai

Area of the Asian Continent

The Year of Alexander the Great’s Birth

Total Value of US Currency in Circulation (2004) Total Volume of the Great Lakes

Worldwide box office receipts for the movie Titanic Total length of the coastline of the Pacific Ocean Number of book title published in the U.S. since 1776 Heaviest blue whale ever recorded

McConnell, 2006

Answer 10,000° F / 6,000° C

31 degrees North

17,139,000 sq. miles 44,390, sq. kilometers 356 BC

$719.9 billion

5,500 cubic miles / 23,000 cubic kilometers 6x10^15 gallons / 23x10^16 liters $1.835 billion

84,300 miles 135,663 kilometers 22 million

380,000 pounds 170,000 kilograms

BigVisible

Results from Other Estimators

McConnell, 2006

People usually estimate to about 30% confidence

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Imagine the Horse Tracks

►  Book keepers asked to pick winners based on their 10 most important pieces of data

►  Then, they were allowed to check 10 more pieces of data and adjust predictions

►  Both set of predictions were equally accurate

►  Book keepers were much more confident in the second set

Once we form an idea, it becomes very hard to change it

____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______ _____ _____ ____ _____ _____ _____ ____ _____

We’ve All Seen This

Hey do you have a high level estimate for the XYZ project? I promise I won’t hold you to it

BigVisible

Impact of Loss Aversion

► Which would you prefer? à 100% to win $1,000 à 90% to win $1,200

► Would you take the following coin toss? à Heads – You win $100 à Tails – You lose $80

► What if you got 10 coin flips?

BigVisible

Some Techniques

Increase Autonomy People are more comfortable with uncertainty if they have some sense of control

Create Certainty Make those things that can be

predictable very predictable

Reappraise the Situation Exploit the power of framing

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Conclusion

►  Our brain is highly adapted, for a world which we have changed much faster than we can adapt

BigVisible

“That’s Okay, It’s Just My Brain!”

► Awareness of how our mind works leads to better effectiveness

► Attention to our state of mind, makes us aware of some of the shortcuts our mind makes

► With proper context, coaching can greatly help us overcome the constraints of our mind

BigVisible

Thank You!

Brian Bozzuto

bbozzuto@bigvisible.com

Devin Hedge

dhedge@bigvisible.com

BigVisible

Further Reading ►  Aamodt, Sandra, and Sam Wang. Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose

Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008. Print.

►  Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. New York, NY: Harper, 2008. Print.

►  Brown, Sandra. The Switch. New York: Warner, 2000. Print.

►  Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. London: Penguin, 2011. Print.

►  Rock, David, and Linda J. Page. Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. Print.

►  Rock, David. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. [New York]: Harper Business, 2009. Print.

►  Taleb, Nassim. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.

►  Wilson, Timothy D. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2002. Print.

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