DRAFT – Consolidated WetWare Craftsmanship Deck v0 · © 2012 BigVisible Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved Wetware Craftsmanship Brian Bozzuto

© 2012 BigVisible Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Wetware Craftsmanship

Brian Bozzuto

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BigVisible

© 2012 BigVisible Solutions, Inc.. All Rights Reserved

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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


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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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3 Topics for Today

►Limits of mind

►Threats to ego

►Desire for Certainty


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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


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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


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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 = 2.5

Object D

4 – 3 = 1

Object E

6 / 3 = 2

Object F

3 + 4 = 7


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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

Deliberate Practice to build

more Subconscious

Capability

Build Concrete Processes

to Follow


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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


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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!


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Debrief

People Being Coaches

► What was that experience like?

► How did it feel?

► Did you get useful information?

Coaches



► 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

solve

Social Pain

Physical Pain


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So… On to Coaching


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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


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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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Let’s Try It Again…


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Another Exercise

►Pair up again

►People being coached, share your problem

►Coaches, listen and only ask questions to better

understand the situation

You MAY NOT make suggestions


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Debrief

People Being Coaches



► Did you get useful information?

Coaches



► Do you feel like you helped

them?


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► 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

Niccolo Machiavelli “The Prince”

The Value of Certainty


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Remember the Brain is Lazy…

► Uncertainty requires more

conscious thought

► The mind seeks to match

patterns and make things

predictable

► We delight in certainty



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____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______

_____ _____

____ _____

_____ _____

____ _____

Click to edit Master text styles Second level Third level Fourth level Fifth level

We May See Patterns That Don’t Even Exist



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____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______

_____ _____

____ _____

_____ _____

____ _____


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.


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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



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____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______

_____ _____

____ _____

_____ _____

____ _____


Some Cognitive Biases

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


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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



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____ __ ____ _____ ____ ______

_____ _____

____ _____

_____ _____

____ _____


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


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One Last Exercise

►Pair up again

►People being coached, share your problem

►Coaches, try to help tease observations & facts

from interpretations and stories


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“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


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Thank You!

Brian Bozzuto

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


BigVisible


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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.

► 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.

Documents

DRAFT – Consolidated WetWare Craftsmanship Deck v0 · © 2012 BigVisible Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved Wetware Craftsmanship Brian Bozzuto