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Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

tomcritchlow.com

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Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#91

Post by Casperin »

mmanfrin wrote: post #61

Sincere plea to everyone who does frontend: please knock it off with the on-select rich media shit. I am a compulsive selecter (and I know there are others like me). I like to select text as I read and it's jarring to have annotations pop up on the side as I do it.

As someone who's been doing frontend for 15+ years: I hear you. I wish the designers and PO's would hear you too. I am doing what I can to push back on these things, and so are every other frontender in my team. Keep giving this kind of feedback to websites if they ask for it. It's the best ammunition we have.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#92

Post by adenverd »

topcat31 wrote: post #85

Author here - thanks for all the comments and feedback. Lovely surprise to wake up to this on the HN homepage. Some light additional context - this is part of my ongoing series "The Strategic Independent" which will eventually become a book sometime next year. All the posts in that series are catalogued here: https://www.are.na/tom-critchlow/the-strategic-independent This post (and the whole series) is designed for i…

> Hopefully there's something useful in that context but many of these ideas could be applicable beyond that also.

They’re very applicable outside the context of consulting - they’re fundamental for any leader joining a new organization to integrate well and get things done. Consultants transition more often than most; the principles you’ve shared are a great reference for the rest of us on how to be effective in a new environment.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#93

Post by mmanfrin »

synthmeat wrote: post #90
mmanfrin wrote: post #61

Sincere plea to everyone who does frontend: please knock it off with the on-select rich media shit. I am a compulsive selecter (and I know there are others like me). I like to select text as I read and it's jarring to have annotations pop up on the side as I do it.

Are you a double-clicker or just selector? I'm a double-clicker and I know of many others. I don't know many "selectors". In that spirit, they should just ignore double-clicking in whatever they wanna present for selections.

Both. I do this up-and-down selection where I select from above and then from below big chunks of text, and then occasionally (I think when I'm concentrating on a specific sentence) I'll doubleclick a word a bunch to select the word and then the paragraph back and forth.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#94

Post by gherkinnn »

doublerebel wrote: post #66

The "Yes, And" technique is best when presenting as a team, e.g. for sales meeting or investment pitch. It supports what your colleague is saying even while you may need to make a correction. I've been automatically using this technique for years, since I have a performance and improv background. The rest of improv may not be as applicable, but performance sure does! The show must go on (despite unexpected setbacks o…

I see its value when mostly in agreement. Keeps the flow going.

But how does one do "yes, and ...", when the previous statement is clearly wrong? You either sound sarcastic or like a patronising twat.

"It is snowing." "Yes, and I'll leave my sweater at home since it's rather warm outside."

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#96

Post by mntmoss »

gherkinnn wrote: post #94
doublerebel wrote: post #66

The "Yes, And" technique is best when presenting as a team, e.g. for sales meeting or investment pitch. It supports what your colleague is saying even while you may need to make a correction. I've been automatically using this technique for years, since I have a performance and improv background. The rest of improv may not be as applicable, but performance sure does! The show must go on (despite unexpected setbacks o…

I see its value when mostly in agreement. Keeps the flow going. But how does one do "yes, and ...", when the previous statement is clearly wrong? You either sound sarcastic or like a patronising twat. "It is snowing." "Yes, and I'll leave my sweater at home since it's rather warm outside."

In an actual scene, you also have an underlying set of game rules guiding it which the actors are negotiating through.

It is possible for the characters to disagree with each other if it's not blocking - it allows the scene to continue to develop instead of shutting it down. In this case, disagreement over the weather would become the focus of the action.

"It is snowing."

"Oh, what a kidder you are, Smith! Just look at the shorts I'm wearing, it's fun in the sun time."

"Jones, my breath is visible. You are clearly on a different planet from me."

"Well, as it so happens, I AM an alien!" pause for laughter

--

And yes, there's a limit to the method when in a business setting. Business machinery is set up to grind out ugly, practical compromises and can't inject fantasy into the equation like that very often in the lower branches of the org, but it often benefits from this creativity when we're talking about executive leadership figuring out what the org needs to look like to succeed in the future.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#97

Post by nimblegorilla »

mntmoss wrote: post #96
gherkinnn wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see its value when mostly in agreement. Keeps the flow going. But how does one do "yes, and ...", when the previous statement is clearly wrong? You either sound sarcastic or like a patronising twat. "It is snowing." "Yes, and I'll leave my sweater at home since it's rather warm outside."

In an actual scene, you also have an underlying set of game rules guiding it which the actors are negotiating through. It is possible for the characters to disagree with each other if it's not blocking - it allows the scene to continue to develop instead of shutting it down. In this case, disagreement over the weather would become the focus of the action. "It is snowing." "Oh, what a kidder you are, Smith! Just look…

> "It is snowing." > "Oh, what a kidder you are, Smith! Just look at the shorts I'm wearing, it's fun in the sun time."

That’s almost a textbook example of the opposite of Yes And philosophy. Contradicting the reality established by another performer is called Negation.

Disagreement within the YesAnd framework can be tricky to describe. A better example:

“This sucks. It’s snowing” “Yes, and now we can finally go skiing. I’m so excited!”

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#98

Post by brennanpeterson »

gatherhunterer wrote: post #13
DoctorNick wrote: post #6

This article is about as insufferable as most improv groups.

Yes! And about as annoying as a manager whose job is to talk about work without actually doing any.

The job of a manger is to differentiate work from talk about work. That is why there are managers at different levels, and that is their core function.

If someone can talk their way into a promotion, that is either a sales organization, or a great sign of a failing company. Or a strategy group.

A version of this is available every day: commercial journalism is the act of promoting good writing over good thinking. Usually for the same reasons as most bad plans: ideas structured by analogy, visualization, and context free approximation.

Anyway, this is a good article, and because it is often true, one worth pushing back against.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#99

Post by dominotw »

> they’re asking for people to take positions and have opinions.

Yes only positions and opinions that make them look good.

For example, in a tech all hands. "Ask" questions like these

1. How did the upper management react to cost savings from initiative X.

2. How did vendor feel about us canceling their contract by building a cheaper home grown system that is saving us X million $ every year.

3. What is the strategy for filling out open positions faster. ( we are doing so good that we have way too many open positions)

4. "joke questions" , did CEO actually finish 50 pies in pie eating contest at the management retreat ,like he claims he did.

also, consultants rarely get invited to these all hands in the first place.

Re: Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

#100

Post by izacus »

dominotw wrote: post #99

> they’re asking for people to take positions and have opinions. Yes only positions and opinions that make them look good. For example, in a tech all hands. "Ask" questions like these 1. How did the upper management react to cost savings from initiative X. 2. How did vendor feel about us canceling their contract by building a cheaper home grown system that is saving us X million $ every year. 3. What is the strategy…

And what exactly did you / would you think to accomplish with these questions? Besides attempting to publicly humiliate people who're paying you and stroking your own ego?

"Questions" like these put other people on defensive (which means they won't listen to you anymore) and mark you out as an a*hole (which means they won't listen to you at all). It's counterproductive.

I'm always baffled how engineers don't get that: they can understand that you need to write "printf()" and not "abort()" to achieve printout, but can't understand simple rules on how to achieve results when interacting with other people?

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