Summary of the Sole Writers SIG Meeting

Held October 6, 1997 on Assertiveness Training

In the season's first meeting, we considered three behaviors: assertive, aggressive, and passive. Eleven people showed up for the 1.5 hour meeting, which ran along the following lines:

A multi-choice quiz "The Assertiveness Scale" from the internet.
An introduction that emphasized professional competence and the leadership role of sole writers and senior-level writers. If we don't offer solutions to our companies, who will?
A discussion of synonyms and dictionary definitions for passive, aggressive, and assertive. The list was revealing in several ways including the violence associated with aggression, the "fundamental rights" issue of assertiveness, and the understanding that there are both positive and negative sides to passiveness and aggression.
Another quiz "How Self-Assertive Are You?" from the internet. This quiz presented scenarios and the group provided descriptions of possible responses. Our discussion quickly led to two excellent case studies (described below).
A reading of passages from Elaine MacDonald's humorous email. Elaine is a regular attendee at the SIG meetings, but was absent from the first evening. (See the excerpt in Case Studies below.)
A commentary: Assertiveness is a state of mind, a predisposition to act appropriately within the spectrum from PASSIVE to AGGRESSIVE. Repression is stressful. Inappropriate Passive behavior can explode into inappropriate Aggressive behavior.
A quick review of information found on the web. Each attendee received a packet to be read in their spare time.
We missed one important point (and surprisingly, none of the web information touched on this either):
- Assertive behavior looks for a Win-Win solution.
- Passive behavior accepts a Lose-Lose or Lose-Win solution.
- Aggressive behavior claws towards a Win-Lose solution.

Case Studies

Two members of the group raised challenging (real-life) scenarios for discussion. To frame a context for these scenarios, here is a paragraph from Elaine MacDonald's email:

"I feel that since the majority of people in our profession are women, that a discussion about direct confrontation would be very useful. As a women in her mid-thirties, I can testify that I was told while growing up that "good girls didn't" (Didn't start fights, didn't talk back, didn't ask questions, didn't make waves.) Even I, who obviously didn't internalize that message totally, have problems with direct confrontation. It is just at a certain point of misery, I can't stand it. Then I screw my courage to the sticking place, and take care of the situation directly as possible. The immediate fallout can be bad but is always less stressful in the long run than the ostrich approach. Most bad things only get worse in time."

Scenario 1: A company hires a new manager who supervises an experienced writer. The writer has worked for the company for 9 months. The manager has a controlling personality with a focus on details (perhaps at the expense of the bigger pictures), and after three months he is unable to understand the technology being documented. Meanwhile, the writer (a woman) is two months late for a performance review and believes that the manager is not competent to conduct the review.

What actions should the writer take? Below are some of the suggestions that arose. If you agree or disagree, or if you have additional suggestions, email them to me and I will forward them to the real-life writer who is dealing with this situation.

Write your own review. Many organization use this technique: the individual writes a review, the supervisor writes a separate evaluation, the two are compared and discussion centers on the differences.
Solicit comments from co-workers. To evaluate an individual, many supervisors solicit comments from that individual's co-workers (other communicators, editors, subject-matter experts, etc). Often, a review includes direct quotations from these people. Perhaps the writer can make this suggestion to the manager. Or perhaps the writer can solict comments herself.
Be careful where you tread. If the manager feels uncertain of himself, he might be defensive. Pushing too hard can backfire.
Feel out the boss' position early. Our discussion revealed that the writer had no concrete reason for expecting a negative evaluation. There seems to be a personality mismatch and this, combined with the manager's technical failings, has given rise to fear. One rule of negotiation is to ask questions and learn the adversary's positions. Avoid the stress of invalid assumptions.
Collect evidence. Have writing samples on hand.

Scenario 2: The subject-matter experts for a 24 year old woman writer are all older, male, and geeky. The writer needs to kick and fight for information.

The group did not explore this situation fully; we should have inquired for more detail. Are the men condescending or compassionate? uncooperative or just busy?

And the group did not offer advice (we got sidetracked and never revisited the issue). Here are a couple afterthoughts that occurred to me this morning:

All writers pull. In most cases, writers pull more information than gets pushed upon them. The needed skills are:
- Identifying missing information and the possessors of the information
- Establishing professional working relationships
- Convincing people that it is in their best interest to provide info
- Organizing other peoples' time (e.g. tracking their committments to you)
Recognize working styles. Learn how people like to work. Email? Hardcopy? Impromptu meetings? Meetings by appointment? One-on-one? Groups?
Visit junior people before senior. Don't waste time asking simple questions to the most expert people. Do your homework in advance.
Every gaggle of geeks has one humanist. Find a knowledgeable person who has a touch of understanding for your role. Exploit that person's time.
Play hardball. A deliberately uncooperative person is not doing their job. Don't let them prevent you from doing yours. Confront them. Tell them what you need. If they are evasive, ask direct questions. "Do you have this information? Are you the person who wrote the code? Is there anything written down? Who else knows about this? When can we meet? What do you suggest that I do?"
Offer alternatives. If a person is busy, offer an alternative to spending time with you. Get a spec, a design document, a file pointer. Offer to read their code. There is often a snowball effect: when you return with questions, they will spend time explaining, a relationship forms and the person becomes more responsive.
Escalate problems without complaint. If someone has what you need, tell them. If they don't cooperate, take action. Talk to your boss and form a strategy. Talk to the person's boss and ask how they want to you get the information. But don't complain (i.e. don't whine); it can be counter-productive.
This is a game, rise to the challenge. You spend more waking hours at work than anywhere else so you better enjoy it. Treat it like a game, a puzzle, a challenge. Some days you're up, some days you're down.