[HN Gopher] Carl Braun on communicating like a grown-up (2016)
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Carl Braun on communicating like a grown-up (2016)
Author : yamrzou
Score : 52 points
Date : 2023-03-29 11:00 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fs.blog)
(TXT) w3m dump (fs.blog)
| fwlr wrote:
| " If then we speak up for some better job that's open, let's not
| till our talk with such words as hoping, thanking, eagerly,
| favor. If we are really worthy of the job, the Company will
| benefit by giving it to us every bit as much as we will profit by
| getting it."
|
| Good advice for job applications. "I'm grateful for this
| opportunity" is common-place but so much less appealing than "I'm
| confident we're going to get great results".
| samgtx wrote:
| Oh HN is going to love this.
|
| > A somewhat more subtle form of negation, is refinement of
| measurement. One man says that a tank weights ninety tons. And
| for that particular discussion, accuracy is of no consequence.
| Yet someone's ego speaks up and says, Ninety-two tons. Maybe he's
| right at that. But he's wrong just the same. [...] This is a
| favorite husband-and-wife game. Let's be on guard against it.
|
| > The worst trick our ego can play on us, is to demand that we
| know everything. Let's discipline ourselves until it's easy to
| say, I don't know. And let's keep out of discussions when they're
| on subjects outside of our recognized sphere. Our lack of real
| knowledge and experience is bound to display itself, and bring
| resentment from those who are really qualified to speak. Let's
| slap our ego down whenever it starts laying claim to knowledge
| that's too various.
|
| > If we want our opinions or beliefs to be accepted, the worst
| thing that we can do is to press too hard for them, or to make a
| personal issue of them. Better not crowd for acceptance, but
| rather invite it. Better tender our advice with a softening It
| seems to me. Or an It appears. Or a Perhaps. Or with some similar
| concession to the ideas of our listener. True, there are times
| when we must speak as authorities in no uncertain terms. Even
| then, reasonable humility is seldom amiss.
|
| > With our eye on our brother's ego, we'll see that concession is
| the very cornerstone of good human relations. We cannot reach
| human agreements without mutual concession. The self-respect that
| every man feels impelled to maintain, demands that he appear at
| least partly right. Therefore, let's not ever try to prove anyone
| wholly wrong. Let's find something herein we can feel that he's
| right. Then let's say so. We simply must not build up our own ego
| at any unnecessary expense of our brother's ego. Let's keep an
| eye on concession.
| [deleted]
| Animats wrote:
| See the military five-paragraph order format.[1] It's boring, but
| useful.
|
| The military requires that orders show "commander's intent". This
| matters when circumstances change and some subordinate has to
| adapt the plan. "The enemy gets a vote." Officers and noncoms are
| then expected to change plans to achieve the commander's intent
| by other means. It's not about blind obedience.
|
| USMC doctrine:
|
| _Mission tactics are just as the name implies: the tactic of
| assigning a subordinate mission without specifying how the
| mission must be accomplished. We leave the manner of
| accomplishing the mission to the subordinate, thereby allowing
| him the freedom and establishing the duty to take whatever steps
| he deems necessary based on the situation._
|
| _The senior prescribes the method of execution only to the
| degree that is essential for coordination. It is this freedom for
| initiative that permits the high tempo of operations that we
| desire. Uninhibited by restrictions from above, the subordinate
| can adapt his actions to the changing situation. He informs his
| commander what he has done, but he does not wait for permission._
|
| _It is obvious that we cannot allow decentralized initiative
| with- out some means of providing unity, or focus, to the various
| efforts. To do so would be to dissipate our strength. We seek
| unity, not through imposed control, but through harmonious
| initiative and lateral coordination._
|
| _We achieve this harmonious initiative in large part through the
| use of the commander's intent. There are two parts to a mission:
| the task to be accomplished and the reason, or intent. The task
| describes the action to be taken while the intent describes the
| desired result of the action. Of the two, the intent is
| predominant. While a situation may change, making the task
| obsolete, the intent is more permanent and continues to guide our
| actions. Under- standing our commander's intent allows us to
| exercise initiative in harmony with the commander's desires._ [2]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_paragraph_order
|
| [2] https://theusmarines.com/wp-
| content/uploads/docs/FMFM_1-1.pd...
| p1necone wrote:
| "The enemy gets a vote." is an amazingly succinct way of
| putting this.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| _Assume good motives_ (often called _assume good faith_ on HN) is
| an excellent standard to follow with one proviso: It can be taken
| too far.
|
| If you don't know their motives, assume good motives or good
| faith. But if they explicitly tell you they have hostile motives
| or the preponderance of the evidence suggests such, continuing to
| assume good faith amounts to cutting your own throat.
| TehShrike wrote:
| Anyone have a lead on a digital version of "Presentation For
| Engineers And Industrialists"? I haven't had any luck so far.
| haunter wrote:
| Libgen
| yamrzou wrote:
| It's surprising that the Libgen book has "Digitized by
| Google". I wonder how users got it. Can Google Books be
| scraped in some way?
| precompute wrote:
| It must have been on Archive.org at some point.
| lstamour wrote:
| Or https://www.hathitrust.org/digital_library though it
| usually has limited access, which is unfortunate... One
| free method of access is a Library of Congress reader
| card, fyi.
| yamrzou wrote:
| It is the same, indeed. Thanks!
| funnym0nk3y wrote:
| I would like the work environment to be like that.
|
| But honestly I think all those things are just one half of the
| story. He favours a quieter approach, which I could image lead to
| being overseen.
| precompute wrote:
| They are rules for a more civilized age. I'm sure they weren't
| allowed to play music on the radio or be interrupted by a phone
| while working, either (phones did not exist, I know). The
| managers probably didn't doomscroll on their phones. You
| couldn't backstab someone in secret. Everyone knew who the
| other guys in the office talked to. You had jobs that, if you
| stayed long enough, paid you a pension. You left your family
| alone, trusted the neighbourhood much more and it's likely many
| of your colleagues lived near you. Your corporation probably
| had to deliver results, couldn't bs its way out.
|
| With a new axis for communication (phones with constant
| internet access) all these rules have been discarded forever.
| p1necone wrote:
| I think you're looking through rose tinted glasses about the
| backstabbing and knowing who people talked to stuff. I
| suspect office politics in a form somewhat similar to today
| have existed since offices were invented.
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