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Re: objection to proposed change to "consensus"

2006-01-09 10:00:21
"Sandy" == Sandy Wills <sandy(_at_)WEIJax(_dot_)com> writes:

    Sandy> Gray, Eric wrote:
    >> Sandy, In fact, contrary to what we observe in nature, change
    >> is not the "default outcome" in most human organizations.  That
    >> is because - as a careful analysis of this discussion over the
    >> years will disclose - there are as many ways to go with a
    >> change as there are people prepared to make changes.

    Sandy>     I think that there is also a very strong element of
    Sandy> emotional attachment to any system or solution, from those
    Sandy> people who had a hand in creating it (Certainly, I'm just
    Sandy> as guilty of this as the next guy!). Any job is harder if
    Sandy> you have to change your tools every time you get used to
    Sandy> them.  

I think that's a valuable thing to consider in consensus building.
"This makes me retool how I do things; it works well today," is
actually a valid input to a discussion.


    Sandy> It's also true that some people will object to
    Sandy> anything in front of them, simply because it was done by
    Sandy> someone else.  

I'm having a hard time arguing that this is a good thing.

    Sandy> We also have the "religious" responses, both
    Sandy> pro and con, where someone either approves (or disapproves)
    Sandy> of it simply because of the source.  We've all seen "It's
    Sandy> gotta be good, Jon Postel wrote it", as well as "I'll cut
    Sandy> my wrists before I use MS software"

I think these are valuable inputs as well.  There are people involved;
whether these people are happy, whether they will continue to work,
are important factors.  Of course there are religious arguments on the
other side: "I want my architectural diagrams; they work well in the
ITU and I want them here," is on the same level as "I won't use MS
software."

Note that related to religious arguments may be more practical issues
as well.

    Sandy>     It appears that, if we want to judge solution-quality
    Sandy> by mob volume, we need to find some way to separate the
    Sandy> emotional responses from the reasoned responses.


I disagree that discarding the emotional responses is appropriate.

--Sam


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