It *is* easier to tell someone else what to do than to do it yourself. However, doing the behavior myself it is a more effective way to influence others. Part of modeling is practicing the behavior yourself. Part of it is waiting for the teachable moment, where someone else is ready to learn something. "Their resistance" for me often translates to "my impatience". I want them to do better, but mostly for them to prove that I'm a good coach. That's not a clear reason to do anything. At such moments I find a clear, safe person to discuss the situation with and try to get my head screwed back on straight. Straight for me is wanting to do the right thing because I know it's the right thing and wanting to influence others because I want good things for them too.
Kent Beck Three Rivers Institute > -----Original Message----- > From: Dominic Williams [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:55 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [XP] Why NOT XP? > > > > Kent Beck wrote: > > >I'd try the opposite tack: start a team doing exactly what they are > >doing now (or, for new teams, exactly what they think makes sense). > >When they encounter a problem, model an XPish solution. The > advantages > >of this strategy are that it has low initial resistance and > it doesn't > >require a skilled "process coach" (whatever that is), just a > team that > >is working to improve. > > > I am trying to do something like this now, after having used > a "full XP > revolution" approach previously. > > I am noticing two things: > > 1) It is harder (for me) to model an XPish solution than it > was to coach > the straight practices. This despite the fact that I feel I better > understand XP principles now than I did back then. > 2) There is a higher resistance, not a lower one. This may > just be pot > luck (different people, different company). However, I think > it is also > due to the fact that the XPish solution on its own just doesn't seem > attractive when surrounded by all the remaining non-XPish stuff, and > that people are in a rut and not open to change. Saying "let's try a > completely different process" seems to take people out of > their rut and > into a state of expecting something different and at least > being open to > trying. > > So in parallel, we are now looking at starting a "full XP" > project with > a group of volunteers. > > Regards, > > Dominic Williams > http://dominicwilliams.net > > ---- > > > > > To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
