2. About me (Edin Kapić)
• I’m a Developer
• A techie, just like you
• We don’t live in isolation
• Family
• Friends
• Coworkers
• Managers
• Trial and Error
• Costly way of learning
• Take this course with a grain of salt
@ekapic
ekapic@gmail.com
3. Your skills
• You have several traits and skills as a technical person
• I will build on them to explain human behaviour
High
Intelligence
Abstraction
Problem-
Solving
Observation Reasoning Deduction
4. Crash course in human behaviour
• Our Mind
• Conscious vs Unconscious mind
• Personality
• Communication
10. Schools of Thought in Psychology
Psychoanalysis
(Freud)
• Inner thoughts are what counts
• Unconscious, ego, defense mechanisms
Behavioralism
(Skinner)
• Only the observed behaviour is what counts
• Conditioning, rewards
Cognitivism
(France)
• There are both inner thoughts and observed
behaviour
• Perception, language, memory
11. The Conscious Mind
• Consciousness
• Being aware of ourselves and our environment
• Defining characteristic of human mind
• Conscious mind
• Our psychic RAM memory
• Preconscious mind
13. The Ego
• Common sense
• Mediates between
• Instinctive (Id)
• Moral values (Superego)
• Defense mechanisms
• Our mind “hates” cognitive dissonance
14. Defense Mechanisms
• Driven by the unconscious mind but their response can be avoided
Denial Regression Projection Acting Out
Reaction
Formation
Repression Displacement Rationalization
16. States of Mind
• Awake, conscious
• Dreaming
• Unconscious mind talking
• Concentrated
• Varies from person to person
• “Flow”
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Meditation, prayer
• Using drugs or drinking
17. Mental fallacies
• Our thinking process is prone to fallacies or irrational outcomes
Evaluating
probability
Sunk cost
fallacy
Availability
heuristic
21. Personality
• Description of the unique characteristics of a single individual
• Not a single trait but a combination
• Evolves over time
• Influences our behaviour
26. Classifications of Personality
• Hippocrates
• Four humors
• Karl Jung
• Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI)
• Type A / Type B
• Enneagram
27. Personality in the Workplace
• We bring our personality with us to the
workplace
• The workplace has different effects on
different personality types/traits
• We can adjust ...
• But choosing when it’s worth it
28. Personality in the Workplace
• Sometimes the traits don’t match
• Understand the difference and find
common language
• Don’t confuse one trait for another
33. Demo: Beliefs in Communication
Hi Jane! Have you seen the specs for the
Feature X? How long it would take to
implement it?
Well, I have done an estimate
and I am sure that it would take
eight days.
BELIEF
Precision = Accuracy
BELIEF
Good estimation = Precision
34. Demo: Beliefs in Communication
Hi Jane! Have you seen the specs for the
Feature X? How long it would take to
implement it?
Well, I have done an estimate
and I think that it would take
between six and twelve days.
Between six and twelve days? Why?
The specs for the user permissions are somewhat
vague and I think that there are some hidden
assumptions there. We should confirm them to
get a firmer estimate.
38. Caveats
• Communication is not symmetric
• Sender:
• “what I express” + “what I mean”
• Receiver:
• “what I receive” + “what I understand”
• Consequences
• What we say is not what they hear
• We hear what we want to hear
• Remedies
• Active listening
• Rephrasing and repeating
39. Demo: Misunderstanding
How should we install this database
system to our server?
I’ll send you the installation
instructions right now.
No, I don’t want the installation
instructions! I know how to find them!
40. Demo: Active Listening
How should we install this database
system to our server?
What exactly is your concern? Do you
want to know the installation steps
for the database system?
No, I am concerned about the impact it
might have on our existing environment.
41. Defensive Triggers
• Criticism perceived as a threat
• Unconscious threat handling
• Inhibits further communication
• Decouple the person from the fact
• When delivering criticism
• When receiving criticism
• You are not your code!
42. Communication in the Workplace
• Ensure that your message is correctly understood
• Be aware of your non-verbal language
43. Summary
• We are almost never rational in our behaviour
• But we can apply our conscious mind to detect unconscious behaviour
paterns
• Our personality influences our behaviour
• But it doesn’t define it
• Communication is much more than saying whay you want to say
• Be sure to understand and be understood