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In my experience at a software company located in the Midwest, I find most engineers engage in a hard listening culture. They have things that may want to say b
by sovietmudkipz 5y ago
In my experience at a software company located in the Midwest, I find most engineers engage in a hard listening culture. They have things that may want to say but do not want to say their thoughts for a myriad of reasons.
My (soft) heuristic towards engagement in meetings is to call on others and ask their thoughts. Sometimes I get a squeamish non-answer but sometimes I get a answer worth it’s weight in gold.
There are some who engage in a hard speaking culture, too. My heuristic operates to hear from everyone, when practical and possible.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- draw_down 5y agoI find that in tech or general corporate America, your opinion is requested but only when it falls within certain bounds. Your view is desired when it is appropriately positive and sunny; when you see clouds on the horizon that’s to be kept to yourself. The extent to which this dynamic is present differs of course. What you’re construing as a squeamish non-answer may be more politically shrewd than you care to admit, or it may be that the person has previously spoken their mind and gotten their hand slapped. Once bitten twice shy. Especially in the context of this piece which attempts to get people to see each other a bit more fully, instead of jumping to conclusions, I think it’s worth bearing in mind that there can be more than meets the eye.
- porknubbins 5y agoWhat is meant by hard listening? I’ve never heard that. If engineers are reluctant to speak up its probably because years of experience that management/regular people just wants yes/no/we can do that type answers. Giving technical answers to things is sometimes perceived as aggressive or intimidating because the people who are supposed to be in charge often can’t follow all details. It takes a rare boss to truly trust the engineers.