Oct 17 2019: Responding to beginners.

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Getting better at learning is the best thing you can do.

Part 2

Updated on 27-04-2018

I've been a software engineering coach at Makers Academy for 10 months. That in itself is a feat.

I had a conversation that I wanted to fully transcribe.

I asked three questions, as a regular pulse check of what my interactions are like with the other coaches. What would you recommend i:

1. Stop doing
2. Start doing
3. Continue doing.

With the context that it's about how i can be a better colleague and team member. Here was the feedback I got:

1. You're very perceptive when interacting with developers. A good example of this was when, on the most recent Day 1, someone asked a question about (I think) whether we'll be checking in on them and you accurately identified the underlying reason why they asked this question. Something to continue doing! :slightlysmilingface: . It's also something I'd like to improve at and I wonder how you could help there... perhaps by observing a workshop with that specific challenge in mind.

Here's an extended version of my reply:

When a dev comes ask a question:

Primary condition, regardless of what entails: Ensure the dev feels heard.

This means having empathetic phrases i say by rote like: I hear you, that sounds great, that sounds difficult, Interesting. / You know I've been working with a cohort closely when they start repeating phrases I use - It seems there are two phrases that the devs say they have picked up from me: 'Interesting', and 'What do you think?' when responding to their questions.

These are phrases that give me time to think of these teo wuestions:

Whjy are they saying wehat they are syaing and how have they got to where they are mentally to ask such a qyestion, if i can answer those two questions with a fairly high degree of accuracy then i can proiceed to the next thing which is to see i fi ican shift their thinbking to a pthatway with a better ouconme.

The point of this all is to be able to sift through the chaff of their words to the actual blockers that are facing them in order to help them figure out what a better avenue of learning/investigation is.

I hardly give answers, however, if the above doesn't work I will in order to see if we can start to construct valud pathways of problem to solution with me their as a scaffold that they can tghen reflect on to be able to apply to different contexts without me there.

I had an intersting scenario a couple weeks ago:

I had created a two week engineering project with some outcomes focused arounf

It's

It may feel disingenuous that i have those phrases ready to go