Your co-workers' resistance to new technologies can be baffling. Logical arguments can fail. If you don't do politics, you will fail. With Driving Technical Change, by Terrence Ryan, you'll learn to read users' "patterns of resistance"-and then dismantle their objections. Every developer must master the art of evangelizing. With these techniques and strategies, you'll help your organization adopt your solutions-without selling your soul to organizational politics.
Finding cool languages, tools, or development techniques is easy-new ones are popping up every day. Convincing co-workers to adopt them is the hard part. The problem is political, and in political fights, logic doesn't win for logic's sake. Hard evidence of a superior solution is not enough. But that reality can be tough for programmers to overcome.
In Driving Technical Change: Why People On Your Team Don't Act on Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should, Adobe software evangelist Terrence Ryan breaks down the patterns and types of resistance technologists face in many organizations.
You'll get a rich understanding of what blocks users from accepting your solutions. From that, you'll get techniques for dismantling their objections-without becoming some kind of technocratic Machiavelli.
In Part I, Ryan clearly defines the problem. Then in Part II, he presents "resistance patterns"-there's a pattern for each type of person resisting your technology, from The Uninformed to The Herd, The Cynic, The Burned, The Time Crunched, The Boss, and The Irrational. In Part III, Ryan shares his battle-tested techniques for overcoming users' objections. These build on expertise, communication, compromise, trust, publicity, and similar factors. In Part IV, Ryan reveals strategies that put it all together-the patterns of resistance and the techniques for winning buy-in. This is the art of organizational politics.
In the end, change is a two-way street: In order to get your co-workers to stretch their technical skills, you'll have to stretch your soft skills. This book will help you make that stretch without compromising your resistance to playing politics. You can overcome resistance-however illogical-in a logical way.
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Product Description
About the Author
Terrence Ryan currently works as an Evangelist for Adobe Systems. He focuses on the promotion of ColdFusion, Flash, Flex and AIR. As an evangelist his job is to encourage people to try new tools and techniques. Before that, he spent ten years in higher education overseeing the work of a team of developers, running code reviews, pushing standards, and trying to convince co-workers to come around to new tools and techniques.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Reading through this book, Terrance classifies people into different groups.
For me this was a vivid portrayal, that I could instantly relate to having working with the full spectrum of such people.
He gives advice on how to handle these groups of people, and basically create allies, converting the masses to your cause, but in such a way as to not come across as blowing your own trumpet.
In essence this boils down to converting the low hanging fruit (colleagues) to your cause and gradually tackling the more challenging ones. Garnering such support you don't appear to be a lone crusader when presenting your case to management and if you heed the advice given on handling situations correctly, you can avoid appearing confrontational.
It also clarifies how to allocate and your time productively building relationships with colleagues and not expending effort on the irrational.
Some of the IT terminology would be alien to people outside this arena, but the psychology lessons could equally be applied to other industries.
A good book, I could have done with reading years ago. As a result I'd probably have a few less battle scars right now! Going forward I'm sure it's something that will help me in my career.
Oh. On a final note, I learnt about Google Alerts. Had never used them before. Cool tip.
For me this was a vivid portrayal, that I could instantly relate to having working with the full spectrum of such people.
He gives advice on how to handle these groups of people, and basically create allies, converting the masses to your cause, but in such a way as to not come across as blowing your own trumpet.
In essence this boils down to converting the low hanging fruit (colleagues) to your cause and gradually tackling the more challenging ones. Garnering such support you don't appear to be a lone crusader when presenting your case to management and if you heed the advice given on handling situations correctly, you can avoid appearing confrontational.
It also clarifies how to allocate and your time productively building relationships with colleagues and not expending effort on the irrational.
Some of the IT terminology would be alien to people outside this arena, but the psychology lessons could equally be applied to other industries.
A good book, I could have done with reading years ago. As a result I'd probably have a few less battle scars right now! Going forward I'm sure it's something that will help me in my career.
Oh. On a final note, I learnt about Google Alerts. Had never used them before. Cool tip.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By K. McCABE
Format:Paperback
We have all been in a situation where we have found the best thing since slice bread. How do you get this over to other members of your team? Do you force it, by just convincing your boss and having it as a mandate past down, or do you get colleague buy in?
Of course the correct way is selling it to your colleagues, but of course there are different types of people to conquer and Terry groups these into the seven groups of skeptics:
* The Uninformed
* The Herd
* The Cynic
* The Burned
* The Time Crunched
* The Boss
* The Irrational
Terry covers each of this with their own chapter and gives you tips on how to spot them. Once they have been introduced, you will, as I did, start to think of people you currently work with or people you have worked with in the past and put them into these groupings.
Terry talks through nine techniques, on how to counter these groups of skeptics. Each technique counters a few of the groups, so you need to decide which technique you will need to use to over come them:
* Gain Expertise
* Deliver Your Message
* Demonstrate Your Technique
* Create Trust
* Propose Compromise
* Get Publicity
* Focus on Synergy
* Build a Bridge
* Create Something Compelling
Each of the techniques has a nice little introduction with tips on how to perform them, and why they work. He also indicates which of the groups of sceptics that the technique counters and any pitfalls you might encounter.
Terry's last section of the book covers some strategies on putting these techniques to use and getting to your end game plan.... Read more ›
Of course the correct way is selling it to your colleagues, but of course there are different types of people to conquer and Terry groups these into the seven groups of skeptics:
* The Uninformed
* The Herd
* The Cynic
* The Burned
* The Time Crunched
* The Boss
* The Irrational
Terry covers each of this with their own chapter and gives you tips on how to spot them. Once they have been introduced, you will, as I did, start to think of people you currently work with or people you have worked with in the past and put them into these groupings.
Terry talks through nine techniques, on how to counter these groups of skeptics. Each technique counters a few of the groups, so you need to decide which technique you will need to use to over come them:
* Gain Expertise
* Deliver Your Message
* Demonstrate Your Technique
* Create Trust
* Propose Compromise
* Get Publicity
* Focus on Synergy
* Build a Bridge
* Create Something Compelling
Each of the techniques has a nice little introduction with tips on how to perform them, and why they work. He also indicates which of the groups of sceptics that the technique counters and any pitfalls you might encounter.
Terry's last section of the book covers some strategies on putting these techniques to use and getting to your end game plan.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Have you ever tried to convince your co-workers to adopt a new development technique, your boss to buy a new product? Maybe you succeeded/failed or were too afraid of even trying ? Did you understand what you did wrong or right?
Terry Ryan wrote this book to help you to identify the kind of people you have in front of you by putting them in group of skeptics (The Uninformed,The Irrational, The Boss, etc...) and giving some hints and techniques on how to counter their arguments and put them on your side. I was smiling while reading the first chapters as I was thinking about my own experience and how it could really fit in the patterns that Terry defined in his book. I was really interested to read about the techniques to counter them (Gain Expertise, Create Trust, Propose Compromise, Build a Bridge, etc...) and could clearly understand now that when I failed it's because I was not enough prepared - yep, convincing people can be a long journey! :-) What I like also in this book is that it makes you think about your own motivations also: Why do I want that change? Is it solving a real problem? At the end you will get an overall strategy that could sound simple, but "simple does not mean easy".
So it's definitively a book I recommend to anyone who wants to make "things move forward at his workplace" (by using better tools or techniques) but is not sure how to succeed. Maybe success won't be there at the end, but this book will guide you in the right direction!
Terry Ryan wrote this book to help you to identify the kind of people you have in front of you by putting them in group of skeptics (The Uninformed,The Irrational, The Boss, etc...) and giving some hints and techniques on how to counter their arguments and put them on your side. I was smiling while reading the first chapters as I was thinking about my own experience and how it could really fit in the patterns that Terry defined in his book. I was really interested to read about the techniques to counter them (Gain Expertise, Create Trust, Propose Compromise, Build a Bridge, etc...) and could clearly understand now that when I failed it's because I was not enough prepared - yep, convincing people can be a long journey! :-) What I like also in this book is that it makes you think about your own motivations also: Why do I want that change? Is it solving a real problem? At the end you will get an overall strategy that could sound simple, but "simple does not mean easy".
So it's definitively a book I recommend to anyone who wants to make "things move forward at his workplace" (by using better tools or techniques) but is not sure how to succeed. Maybe success won't be there at the end, but this book will guide you in the right direction!
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