What colour should we paint the Bike shed?

Hugh Brock hbrock at redhat.com
Fri Nov 16 21:00:30 UTC 2012


On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 03:13:51PM -0500, Jason Guiditta wrote:
> On 16/11/12 14:28 -0500, Matt Wagner wrote:
> >On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 11:46:09AM +0000, Martyn Taylor wrote:
> >>A guy in our office here sent this to me today, after I was
> >>complaining that technical discussions generate no interest in our
> >>office mailing list,  but deciding "What type of biscuits we should
> >>buy" generates a flood of mails.
> >>
> >>From time to time our list produces similar responses:
> >>http://puce.bikeshed.org/
> >
> >That page burns my retinas, but the bike-shed analogy is worth suffering
> >through it. Bikeshedding is indeed a persistent problem (not just here).
> >Recognizing it and having a name to put to it is quite worthwhile, even
> >if you have to stare at a lime-green screen for a while. (The fact that
> >they chose such a god-awful color is quite ironic, given the context.)
> >
> >I'm a big fan of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence
> >People." The book is quite old, and bits and pieces of the advice are
> >kind of manipulative. But there's a lot of excellent advice about how to
> >optimally interact with people.
> >
> >One of the bits that's really stuck with me, and that seems rather
> >relevant to everyone wanting to pick the color of the bikeshed, is in
> >the chapter entitled "Let the other person feel that the idea is his or
> >hers." The actual title is an example of things that sound a bit
> >manipulative, but the insight into psychology is interesting either way.
> >
> >The idea is that if you dump an idea on a group of people, it's human
> >nature for some of them to oppose it, and not necessarily on its merits.
> >But if you lead people to think that the idea is *theirs*, in whole or
> >part, they're far more likely to go along with it.
> >
> >I think bike-shedding gets at the same effect. People try to make ideas
> >"theirs" by arguing over the bikeshed color, even if it doesn't actually
> >make any difference. The challenge is how to get people to feel
> >ownership of ideas without having them feel like they have to make
> >changes, and without trying to dupe anyone. I think it's a question of
> >involving people enough that they feel like they're part-owner of the
> >idea, without letting the discussion devolve into bikeshedding.
> >
> >-- Matt
> 
> Clearly, if this is for downstream, the choice is red, upstream I vote
> lime green  ;)
> 
> -j

Matt Wagner's promotion to Manager is effective immediately. Matt, you
have our condolences. 

--Hugh

-- 
== Hugh Brock, hbrock at redhat.com                                   ==
== Engineering Manager, Cloud BU                                   ==
== Aeolus Project: Manage virtual infrastructure across clouds.    ==
== http://aeolusproject.org                                        ==

"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m
not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
--Robert McCloskey



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