A presentation at RubyConf 2022 in in Houston, TX, USA by Ben Greenberg
3 Change the Climate Before Changing the Weather Ben Greenberg @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Workplaces are difficult. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 2 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
They are difficult sometimes to… @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 3 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Get onboarded into. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 4 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Find your place. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 5 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Get your job done. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 6 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
And they are notoriously difficult at Adapting to Change @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 7 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Why is that? In our time together we are going to: © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 01 Diagnose the issue 02 Present a framework to help solve it 03 Conclude with a practical example 8
First of all, Who’s Talking To You? @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Hello! 👋 ● Senior Developer Relations Engineer at Parity Technologies ● Second Career Dev, previously: rabbi and community organizer for a decade ● Building hirethePIVOT.com in my spare time ● Write the occasional Hummus on Rails newsletter ● From California, lived in NYC for many years, and now live near Tel Aviv in Israel © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 10
Understanding The Problem @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
What is an Organization? An organization is the result of many subsystems coming together to form a greater whole. These subsystems don’t necessarily relate regularly in an obvious way. © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 12
It’s sort of like a Rails app. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 13 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Models Views Controllers @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 14 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Ideally, in your codebase – Models should not need to know about the Views or the Controllers. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 15 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
But, at the end of the day, they are all part of a larger whole. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 16 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Same with your company or organization. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 17 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Does this look familiar? © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 18
What was that experience like? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 19 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
© 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. @rabbigreenberg 20 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Why does that happen so often? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 21 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”
“Single facts almost never slay worldviews, at least not right away.”
People, generally speaking, dislike: @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 24 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Being wrong. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 25 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
If that’s the case, then – How can we ever bring about change? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 26 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Presenting a Framework for Change @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
*you are here @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 28 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
© 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. Excuse me… I have a question. @rabbigreenberg 29 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
“One isn’t born with courage. One develops it. And you develop it by doing small, courageous things, in the same way that one wouldn’t set out to pick up 100 pound bag of rice. If that was one’s aim, the person would be advised to pick up a five pound bag, and then a ten pound, and then a 20 pound, and so forth, until one builds up enough muscle to actually pick up 100 pounds…” - Maya Angelou © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 30
First I tried to change the world… I refocused yet again and decided to just try to change myself. When startedto out thought I’d change the world… Then,I Ifirst refocused trymy to career, changeI just my city in Poland. I failed again. But, I failed. I finally succeeded. © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 31
First principle: Be the change yourself. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 32 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
“To question the force of self-interest that pervades all areas of political life is to refuse to see man [people] as he [they] is [are], to see him [them] only as we would like him [them] to be.”
@rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org 34
How do you tap into the self-interest of other people? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 35 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Active Listening. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 36 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
How do you actively listen to another person? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 37 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
5 Elements of Active Listening Pay Attention Withhold Judgment Reflect Clarify Summarize Are you thinking Are you What kind of “I’m not sure I “If I understood of what you’ll say countering their reaction are you understood what you correctly, you next or are you arguments in your having as you’re you just said, did said…” listening? head as you’re listening? you mean…?” listening? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org 38
Second principle: Seek to understand the self-interest of others. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 39 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Routine +1 *
2.5% Ideal percentage of an organization to start with. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 41 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
20-40% The change shifts to being significant @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 42 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
60% The change has become standardized @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 43 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
80% The change is fully integrated. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 44 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
It all starts with 2.5% of your company. What is 2.5% @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 45 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
A company of 500 employees – 2.5% is 12 people. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 46 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Third principle: Big change starts small. @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 47 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Applying the Framework in Practice @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Remember this? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 49 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
© 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 50
And the reaction? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 51 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
@rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org 52
How could we do it differently? @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 53 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
Applying Our Framework Start With Yourself Step 1 Active Listening Step 2 Identify Self-Interest Step 3 Routine +1 Step 4 How can I begin to model the Find 10 people and discuss it What are the varying What small actions can we take change I want to see? with them, using active self-interests I’ve identified and to incrementally change the listening. how can I tap into them? routine one step at a time? 2.5% —> 20-40% —> 60% —> 80% @rabbigreenberg © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 54 @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org
“Little drops of water make the mighty ocean.”
Let’s stay in touch! RabbiGreenberg THANK YOU @bencgreenberg @hummusonrails © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Unless you’re self-employed you work for a system. That system is comprised of its own culture in decision making, inclusivity, and a lot more. As one person in a system how can you make an impact on it? Sometimes you can’t change the weather, but you can change the climate in your own room. You may even find that if you change the temperature in enough rooms, surprisingly, you end up changing the weather. In this talk, we’ll discuss a process of systems change that is ground up, going from the micro to the macro. You’ll leave more empowered to start changing the climate in your own workplace.
for free. You
can too.