Stereotype Threat

In the latest post over at Sutter’s Mill, Sutter’s colleague, Robert Hanz, wonders regarding Agile terminology:

…is it possible that something as simple as the shift in language is also a significant part of the effectiveness? That by priming individuals with messages of success and value, rather than messages of failure, that morale and productivity can be boosted?

In sharp contrast, this reminded me of a part of the Jamie Zawinski interview in Coders at Work:

It was really a great environment. I really enjoyed it. Because everyone was so sure they were right, we fought constantly but it allowed us to communicate fast. Someone would lean over your cubicle and say, “What the fuck did you check in; that’s complete bullshit — you can’t do it that way. You’re an idiot.” And you’d say, “Fuck off!” and go look at it and fix it and check it in. We were very abrasive but we communicated fast because you didn’t have to go blow sunshine up someone’s ass and explain to them what you thought was wrong — you could say, “Hey, that’s a load of shit! I can’t use that.” And you’d hash it out very quickly. It was stressful but we got it done pretty quickly.

Zawinski’s description of his cursing coworkers cracks me up. It got me thinking that his group must have had a lot of trust, assuming the yelling wasn’t all handed down one way. I can see how this could be a good thing. This style also reminds me of what I’ve read about David Cutler. On the other hand, maybe it’s not as ideal as he made it out. Later in the interview he described eventually working with a guy who he got along with extremely well, and they just went about dividing up work without any drama.

The other thing the Sutter’s Mill post reminds me of is the phenomenon of stereotype threat, where people who are reminded of a negative stereotype regarding their group are affected in subsequent performance. The idea of negativity in the workplace affecting performance is familiar to experts on diversity. Here is a good article: “Stereotype Threat at Work”.