Linda Rising

Congratulations to the winners! I'm sure we'll see a lot of new ideas around the ranch :-)!

And thanks to all of you for your interesting discussion!!

Hi Carol,

The posters are an example of In Your Space. Plant the Seeds refers to the practice of bringing articles or books to a Brown Bag or other meeting or just having them around your cubicle -- available for interested people to browse.

There's something about a new book that draws people in :-)!

Wow! These are challenging questions!

The book is about introducing new ideas and the target audience is "powerless leaders." I'm not sure it will help with management of teams.

Having said that, if the "idea" you want to "introduce" is "collaboration" -- to address the problem of the two members who do not seem to want to work together -- you could try some of the patterns. For example, Just Do It, that is, collaborate with these team members and, in working with them, show them the benefits.

It's a related process topic that you might introduce Scrum, an agile method. Scrum includes a daily Scrum meeting. I have seen this simple practice bring reluctant team members to the table to cooperate because they can see the result of the information exchange in the daily meeting. This is how you could Just Do It.

Go to my web site, www.lindarising.org and click on Articles. I have written papers for IEEE Software and STQE on Scrum meetings.

Good luck!

Since patterns and pattern languages are living things, that is, they continue to "grow" and "change" as they are used, I suspect there are several "missing" patterns that we will discover along the way :-)!

What you might be talking about is another, separate topic for patterns that have to do with collaboration. There is a group of pattern writers (I am one of them) who are working on this).

I believe that the book contains enough to get started. The patterns are for "introducing" new ideas. There is a pattern called Involve Everyone, that suggests that anyone can contribute to the introduction process. Since no change agent ever has all the answers, it's good to bring in other points of view, including those of a would-be competitor. You could Piggyback off each other's efforts or give a Brown Bag or Hometown story together. You could arrange pilots or experiments for a Trial Run to Just Do It and learn the benefits and risks of all the approaches.

Even though the book is finished, we know that the patterns are not and we still continue to collect stories or Known Uses and to share what we learn with the rest of the community. This is certainly an area worth investigating. Thanks for the insight!

I like Ilja's proposal :-)!

Thanks!

Wow! What an interesting question!

If we assume:

(1) equal use of the patterns
(2) same target audience
(3) but conflicting solutions

then, the one who uses the patterns "best" will win.

Here's what I mean by that. Let's start with the "first" pattern in the book, Evangelist. This pattern name has a religious flavor and that's intentional because to be a successful change agent, you have to believe in your idea, you have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in the people you are trying to influence.

We can all "try" to use this pattern, but some will be more successful than others. There is data, for example, that shows we are influenced more by attractive, charismatic individuals. If one Evangelist is a dull speaker who doesn't "seem" to care about me and my problems, while the other Evangelist is outgoing and sympathetic, then I am likely to be persuaded more by the second than the first.

The scary thing about the patterns, the experimental data, and the genetic hardwiring underlying these principles is that....our decision-making has little or nothing to do with the quality of the ideas! I can remember how surprised I was when I first uncovered that! The influence of charismatic salesmen, the influence of food, the influence of "big names," the influence of peer pressure, the influence of authority, are all more important to us than the idea itself.

It's interesting to see how the current political situation operates. Look at how people in the U.S. are making a very important decision: who will be the next president of the country. What influences them?

I hope that many readers in this forum will understand this message. It is very important. Being aware of these influence principles can help you in your own decision making. You can't avoid being influenced, but you can be more alert (although it takes energy) in your own life.

This is an excellent question! Too often, we rush in with great ideas and expect that overnight change will happen. Change takes time, even in the most accepting cultures.

The requirements: patience, openness, willingness to listen, readiness to learn, believing in the possibilities. Use the patterns: Step by Step, Time for Reflection, Ask for Help, Involve Others. A wise man once said, "Be the change you wish to see."

Making good things happen is all about taking a journey together.

Sometimes even the best patterns won't help. It's clear that in today's high-pressure environment, even the most enthusiastic Evangelist with the most supportive Corporate Angel, can't make any change because there is no "breathing space." If everyone is so busy that no one has Time for Reflection to consider what works well and what should be done differently, then change efforts are doomed to failure.

I have seen this and other change agents have seen it. This doesn't mean the patterns don't work. It means the context or setting is not right. It's not The Right Time. What should you do in a situation like this? You can wait, hoping The Right Time will come along soon or you can leave. These patterns, like all patterns, are not "silver bullets."

I believe, however, that even in the most resistant cultures, you can make small changes, Step by Step. It just takes time.

In 1994 when I went to OOPSLA, I signed up for a tutorial in Design Patterns. I liked the ideas but I didn't know how I could do much about getting my company to actually use patterns.

This is a problem we all face as we go to conferences, read articles and books, and talk to all the really cool people at JavaRanch :-)! We see lots of good ideas that would help us in our work, but how can we, the "powerless leaders," have any impact?

That is what the book is all about -- it is full of stories about others who have had success as change agents. They share their secrets in the patterns we have documented.

The trap we all have to watch out for is the myth of logical decision-making. When we believe that we make decisions based on logic, then we try to use logic to convince others of our good ideas.

We need to find out where the pain lies. We have a pattern called Personal Touch that says that each person we want to convince has problems to solve. Help that person by showing how your good idea can be used to address those problems.

In the process you will also help convince yourself that the idea really works!

This is such an important issue. I think it's one of the themes of the book. Many times when we're excited about a new idea, we can only see how great the world would be if our new idea were adopted. It's very hard to see the problems that might arise.

There are several patterns that help change agents see things from another point of view. The name of the book is Fearless Change -- from one of the patterns "Fear Less." This pattern talks about learning from others. This pattern says to seek out skeptics because they can help you see what you might not be able to see because of your initial enthusiasm. This pattern suggests that you take advantage of what others can teach you: about the new idea, about your understanding of how it will fit into your organization, about how you are "selling" it. That outsider point of view is valuable. We should not fear it.

This is an important point!! People have a long history of adopting some poor ideas and rejecting some good ones! There's also considerable research to show that influence stratgies work regardless of the quality of the idea.

The point the book makes is this: if you have a good idea, you want to be sure that you are using the best strategies to introduce it because of the two dangers I have just outlined. You can't believe, in other words, that just because your idea is a good one, that this alone will help you and you also can't believe that the idea will "sell" itself.

We like to believe that we are "logical" decision makers, when the reality is, we make decisions, even technical ones, based on emotion. Just bring up the topic of "the best" programming language in a group of "logical" programmers :-)!

The message of history is clear: you must prepare yourself to not only find good ideas but to make sure you know the strategies for successful introduction.

To avoid learning these strategies simply because they are political means that you are handing power to those who know them. There is no way of avoiding politics if you are working with groups of people. Use strategies that have been shown to work. There is plenty of evidence to show that people are hardwired to make decisions based on these strategies.

Again, this is an important topic, and, I believe, the most important point the book makes.

Hi Kishore,

I'm glad to answer your comment. We are all seeing less than ideal environments in our work these days. Your comment represents what a lot of people are thinking.

I like to watch the "Red Green Show." Red always has advice for "middle-aged guys" where he says, "Remember, I'm pullin' for you. We're all in this together." My sentiments exactly.

If you don't know Red Green, he builds wonderful things using duct tape :-)!

http://www.redgreen.com/

The book has several experience reports and one of them was written by John Crupi on the J2EE patterns and how they were "introduced" at Sun. The book is, of course, *much* better than Who Moved My Cheese (slight prejudice on my part :-)! ), and it was written for introducing technical ideas to be applied by guys in the trenches.

For example, we have a pattern called Guru on Your Side that talks about how to use the guy who sits in the corner who has been with the company forever who may be a skeptic initially, but is very important is getting new ideas off the ground.

Some people would say I have a "patterns disease" -- I see patterns (or the lack of patterns) everywhere :-)! Since I have been paying a lot of attention to the upcoming election and the recent debates, I notice several patterns of politics that effective leaders demonstrate (or not) :-)!

It's clear that by reading historical accounts, we can learn many of these patterns. They seem to be consistent over time.