Inclusive Collaboration – How Our Differences Can Make the Difference - Aaron Hodder - AgileNZ 2017
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Personality quirks, character traits, mental diversity. Technology thrives on innovation and creativity, and therefore, our industry relies upon a wide variety of people who think, react, work, communicate, interact and socialise differently. About Aaron Hodder: Aaron Hodder hails from Wellington where he works for Assurity Consulting to develop and deliver new and innovative testing practices to better suit the demands of modern-day software development. Aaron is a passionate software tester with a particular enthusiasm for visual test modelling and structured exploratory testing techniques. He regularly blogs and tweets about testing and is a co-founder of Wellington Testing Workshops.
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Inclusive Collaboration – How Our Differences Can Make the Difference - Aaron Hodder - AgileNZ 2017
- 1. Inclusive Collaboration Aaron Hodder Test Coach – Assurity Consulting @AWGHodder
- 3. @AWGHodder
- 4. @AWGHodder
- 5. @AWGHodder
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- 7. @AWGHodder
- 8. @AWGHodder
- 9. @AWGHodder
- 10. @AWGHodder
- 11. @AWGHodder
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- 15. Neurodiversity @AWGHodder The beautiful mosaic of behavioural and mental variances between us all
- 16. Superpowers • Superb in a crisis • Super Creative • Hyper Focus Kryptonite • Easily bored • Ideas can run away from them • Focus on ‘wrong’ things ADHD Crusader @AWGHodder
- 17. Superpowers • Negative mindset • Higher (more realistic) expectation of risk • Devil’s Advocate Kryptonite • Can appear a-social • Can appear to be a pessimist • Might have more sick days Dr Depression @AWGHodder
- 18. Superpowers • Intense focus • Attention to detail • Out of the box problem solving Kryptonite • Sensory overload • Communication may be less verbal Agent of Autism @AWGHodder
- 19. Superpowers • Deep analysis • Harness emotion • Imposter Syndrome Kryptonite • Collaboration can be difficult • Need time to prepare • Low Confidence Anxiety Avenger @AWGHodder
- 20. Social model of disability @AWGHodder Impairment + Environment = Disability
- 27. Our differences make the difference @AWGHodder
- 29. Thanks for listening • @AWGHodder • Aaron.Hodder@assurity.co.nz
Editor's Notes
- I want you all to imagine, right now, that you are standing up on stage, in the dark, in front of all 300 delegates, about to give a presentation. How are you feeling as the spotlight turns on, illuminating its target, and you stand there dazzled, in front of all those eyes?
- Do you get that sickly feeling deep in the pit of your stomach? Sweaty palms, perhaps? An overwhelming desire to just run away? But you can't. And everyone is looking at you.
- But...you're hideous. Your clothes are all wrong, your hair is a mess, You suddenly realise you've made a huge mistake! You don't belong here, and all the eyes are judging you, and whispering about you. And some are laughing and jeering at you. In Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It, it's been said that "All the world's a stage", and for people with Social Anxiety Disorder, like me, their world is the stage I just described.
- The abridged definition of Social Anxiety Disorder from the DSM V, which is the manual doctors and psychologists use to diagnose mental illness is: "A persistent fear of social situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way that will be embarrassing and humiliating. Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety. The feared situations are avoided or else endured with intense anxiety and distress" All sounds very clinical and circular: Social Anxiety Disorder is a disorder where anxiety is experienced in social situations. Here's MY definition of Social Anxiety Disorder:
- Social Anxiety is: Scripting phone calls
- Social Anxiety is: * Exact change. Every Time.
- Social Anxiety is: * Walking home in the rain when you don't have the Exact change.
- A trip to Mcdonalds
- Social Anxiety is: A giant wall around yourself, separating you from the world. Social anxiety is watching everyone else live their lives while you just live in fear
- So why am I telling you all this? What has this got to do with anything? It’s because I want to DESTIGMATISE mental health and diversity. It's because I want to start a conversation about mental diversity in IT. Actually, that's not quite true. I wanted someone else... anybody else... to give this talk. After all, I'm doing OK now. I'm on medication that I respond really well to. I have support, and my career is thriving. And besides....what would people think? And that's when it struck me. If /I'm/ not willing to start the conversation, to tackle the stigma head on, with all my luck, and resources and privilege, then how can I expect others to? Why so I want this conversation to happen at all? Two reasons: As agilists, we have an obligation to. The very First Value of the agile manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” We spend a lot of time and energy investigating tools, and which tool is the right one for our processes. Well, I want to talk about individuals, and how we tailor our interactions with all individuals The Fifth principle of the Agile Manifesto, says we "Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need” If we aren't aware of the kinds of special support some of our peers need, and how different people perform in different environments, then how can we possibly truly live up to the values of the agile manifesto? 2) It makes business sense: If your employees and colleagues aren't getting the support they need to thrive, then you are missing out on a significant amount of potential. Modern businesses talk about challenging the status quo, and thrive on innovation and creativity. And diversity brings creativity And mark my words, you have neurodiversity in your teams: 1 in 6 New Zealand adults have been diagnosed with a mental illness some time in their lives. So let's touch on the massive potential you can realise with mentally diverse people,
- I’m going to make a bunch of sweeping generalisations everyone is different I am not an expert I will say “Studies show…”
- ADHD is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity restlessness in adults, disruptive behavior, and impulsivity 1. SUPER IN A CRISIS ER, emergency response workers, stock traders, entertainers 2. SUPER CREATIVE In a study by Abraham et al. (2006), adolescents with ADHD were found to have a higher rate of being able to overcome constraining examples ("thinking outside the box") In a study by White and Shah (2006), people with ADHD were found to score higher than those without ADHD in a measure of divergent thinking A later study by White and Shah (2011) found that people with ADHD scored higher in original creativity and creative achievement than those without ADHD
- Depression is characterized by at least two weeks of low mood and is often accompanied by low self-esteem, loss of interest in normally enjoyable activities, and low energy, Depression ---------- Illusory superiority 93% of US drivers in one study rated themselves as "above average“ 9 out of 10 startups fail – CEOs don’t handle boring stuff… believe they are better than they are – market fit etc. ANTITODE: Dr Depression can prescribe you a healthy dose of reality
- Autism describes is characterised with social deficits and communication difficulties, stereotyped or repetitive behaviors and interests, sensory issues, LIKELY TO HAVE AUTISTIC COLLEAGUES Link between Autism and IT: * Autism occurs more often in families of physicists, engineers and mathemtaticans Baron-Cohen et all (1998) * Mothers of autistic children are more likely to work in highly technical occupations - Windham et al (2009) * Significantly more autism in children in IT rich regions - Roelfsema et al (2011) * ASD students more likely to choose STEM subjects - Wei et al (2003) Temple Grandin says "Without autism, you better like your computer, cos you're not getting a new one" Out of the box problem solving: Visual thinkers – Temple grandin describes thinking in pictures…. Design of abboitoirs… runs 3d simnulations… can model the journey as a cow Specialist areas.
- Take a neurotypical disability: Inability to focus for long periods of time without getting distracted by thirst and hunger. So we molded the work environment so it doesn’t become a disability by providing lunch and breaks
- We recognise that our environment is a massive contributing factor And what’s the first thing us coaches we do when we begin an agile transformation? Implement daily standups! Fortnightly retrospectives! Co-locate everyone! Extra points for hotdesking! Perhaps have a kickoff meeting with the new team where we play some games. <Story about “what’s a personal worry of yours?”> And then we judge people who don’t fully embrace people who don’t tailor themselves to our processes. We say the that the quiet woman who didn’t speak up “wasn’t engaged with the process”. We say of the man who refused to stand up and write an emotion on a balloon that “agile isn’t for him” Remember: We should be tailoring agile for our people, not tailoring our people for agile
- Create a culture of psychological safety – Project Aristotle Don't treat mental illness any differently to other illnesses and disabilities. Talking about it removes the stigma. A great way to talk about it (without talking about it) is to have everyone write a user manual for themselves. One pager…. My style What I value What I don’t have patience for How to best communicate with me How to help me What people misunderstand about me I like to set ‘rules of engagement with people. <headphones story> * Be open. It's important for employees to be able to say "I'm having a bad day" * Being OK with people not always being social. But do give people the option so they feel included, but not obliged. * Find out people's preferred communication style. Reconsider group activities: Time to prepare in advance… perhaps give their points written in advance. Mix ‘introverted’ activities with ‘extroverted’ activities. • for example: Writing and non-verbal expression. Many introverts prefer to communicate in ways other than talking and may be skilled at writing or drawing. • Deep listening. Introverts can be very attentive listeners. They may notice things and make connections that extroverts miss. They also ask great questions. Be ok with contemplators, as well as Create a Visible agenda *Honest and detailed feedback
- Create diverse environments. Quiet spaces. Breakout areas. Different types of chairs and seating Range of environments where people can mingle informally, sit in small groups, or participate in active games or workshops. *Preparation *Incubation *Illumination *Verification Give people the benefit of the doubt. Ask "Are you ok?“ * For people with autism: Let people focus on their specialisms. (Maintain the coding spec) Maybe Soft skills are missing. Help by: Simple instructions. Explicit communication. Kanban is great! Consider that work output can be non-linear. For example, 2 hours burst followed by 6 hours downtime might be more productive than 8 hours from someone else Give people the benefit of the doubt. Ask "Are you ok?“
- Inclusive Collaboration experiments
- Modern workplaces are looking to innovation and challenging the status quo for their competitive edge. Innovation and thinking outside the box requires diversity of thinking, and diversity of thinking requires diversity of minds..