Change the Climate Before Changing the Weather

3 Change the Climate Before Changing the Weather Ben Greenberg @rabbigreenberg @hummusonrails@fosstodon.org

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

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”

Albert Einstein © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 22

“Single facts almost never slay worldviews, at least not right away.”

Stephen Jay Gould © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 23

Presenting a Framework for Change @rabbigreenberg @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

“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.”

Saul Alinsky © 2022 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. 33

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

Routine +1 *

Applying the Framework in Practice @rabbigreenberg @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.”