Negotiation Theory for Geeks
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This presentation was given at DevConf.cz 2013 and borrows heavily from a negotiation seminar led by David Eaves that I participated in prior to OSCON 2011, with slides adapted from a presentation (unpublished) on this same topic by Dave Neary. Abstract: The best Open Source hackers are great at the "soft skills" related to hacking - resolving conflict, gathering support around a direction for the project, and understanding what the user *really* wants in a bug report. Every feature request and implementation discussion, bug report and mailing list thread is a negotiation. There is a well established, common sense, very effective way to think of negotiations which will help you improve as a developer, and make your project better at the same time, from the Harvard Negotiation Project. Using this theory, you will be able to get better outcomes when dealing with frustrated users, colleagues and bosses. You can even apply the principles to domestic debates, wage negotiations and dealing with used car salesmen.
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Negotiation Theory for Geeks
- 1. Negotiation Theory for Geeks Leslie Hawthorn Red Hat @lhawthorn devconf.cz 2013
- 2. “The projects that have been the most successful... are good at all sorts of ‘soft skills’” David Eaves http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/5348068433/
- 3. Negotiations in FOSS Projects a.k.a. “Why we’re all here today” ● Mailing list discussions ● Bugs marked as “won’t fix” then reopened ● Patch reviews ● Bug triage ● Roadmap creation / feature prioritization ● Personal grievances
- 4. Harvard Negotiation Project Several books in this ‘series’ including ● Getting to Maybe ● Getting Past No ● Getting Together: Building Relationships as We Negotiate Image Source: amazon.com
- 5. Having conversations with your friends is easy See http://hawthornlandings.org/2011/08/02/negotiation-avoiding-the-vale-of-suck-starts-with-you/
- 6. We needlessly assume other conversations must be painful See http://hawthornlandings.org/2011/08/02/negotiation-avoiding-the-vale-of-suck-starts-with-you/
- 7. Be Willing to Ask for What You Need
- 8. ● Ask the other party what they need to be successful ● Find common ground ● Reach agreement ● If you cannot reach agreement, find the most optimal solution for both parties ● It is OK to not reach agreement
- 9. Practice Radical Honesty Radical honesty != being a tactless jerk
- 10. Behaving Diplomatically …is not the fine art of being disingenuous.
- 12. http://www.flickr.com/photos/63158617@N07/7388188784/ Focusing on outcomes instead of goals precludes finding more optimal results
- 13. Do you want to be right? ~ or ~ Do you want to win?
- 14. Ways to Win Using Objective Criteria to Reach Agreement ● “Health and safety standard requirements require that we build in at least two drains ....” ● “The Kelly Blue Book listed value for this car is 10000 USD less than the price quoted ....” ● “We may be too close to this topic to effectively understand each other’s point of view. A mediator would be helpful ....”
- 15. Your Project: Creating Ways to Win Objective Criteria for Software ● Conforms to style guide ● Passes unit tests ● Provides full test coverage ● Modding up feature requests / bugs in the issue queue
- 16. Effective Communication Builds Relationships http://www.flickr.com/photos/83665349@N00/5260961635/
- 17. Having conversations with your friends is easy See http://hawthornlandings.org/2011/08/02/negotiation-avoiding-the-vale-of-suck-starts-with-you/
- 18. When You Cannot Reach Agreement a.k.a. The Power of a Positive No BATNA: Best Alternative to No Agreement ● What compromise can be effective for both parties? ● How can the relationship be preserved? http://www.flickr.com/photos/maureendidde/4898190424/
- 19. Solicit Commitment ● State explicitly planned next steps ● Ensure both parties understand what is expected of them ● Call people on it – gently – when they don’t follow through. http://www.flickr.com/photos/toolstop/4546008967/
- 21. How To: Communicating Successfully ● Listen to Other’s Viewpoints ● Mirror / Paraphrase Their View ● Acknowledge Their Interests ● Affirm Their Goals ● Create Agreement or BATNA
- 22. The Only Secret You Need
- 23. The secret to being an effective community leader is genuinely caring about the health and well being of your project, your community members, and your fellow human beings.
- 24. …even especially when they annoy the crap out of you.
- 25. Thank you! Questions? Leslie Hawthorn — @lhawthorn hawthornlandings.org
- 26. Resources ● Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/ ● David Eaves’ Blog: http://eaves.ca/ ● The Center for Non-Violent Communication: http://www.cnvc.org/ ● The Harvard Negotation Project: http://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/resear ch_projects/harvard-negotiation-project/
- 27. The Legal Bits All images in this presentation are copyright their individual owners and are used under a Creative Commons license or considered fair use. This presentation is licensed CC-BY SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Please use, remix and share widely!