Procrastination riddle (the case of computer programmers)
Dear readers!
As a psychologist, I feel the need and consider it my duty to instill faith in IT-specialists and share my vision of the urgent problems. At the beginning of the XXI century without your abilities and your ideas will be difficult to do. Obviously, the virtual information network is growing and improving with great speed around the world, expanding the possibilities for the development and existence of society as a whole, but also imposes more and more new behavioral patterns. The development of computer technology is a good business, both abroad and in Ukraine. One thing only confuses: where is the person in the whole process? Yes, yes, an ordinary programmer, but are there “ordinary” ones among them? And then the main thing and short.
“Destroyers are those who set traps for many and call them state:
they hung their sword and imposed hundreds of desires upon them "Friedrich Nietzsche
To date, the amount of information available to us does not correspond to the human capabilities of cognition (the quality of this information is not discussed now). In the day there are still 24 hours, which we try to distribute between sleep, work, study, family, hobby. Of course, the distribution can change depending on whether you work for someone or for yourself, have received a VO or not, personal life and leisure are / are not. If we regularly during the day quietly spend our time on all sorts of pleasant "little things" (searching and saving useful sites for future use, browsing interesting sites, visiting social networks, computer games, etc.), then we form (not intentionally, of course!) Dependence on such “Activities” and encourage passivity of consciousness. Thus, we are trying to dissolve the tension within us, although it will inevitably increase if the current activity is really necessary and important for us. So, on the one hand, procrastination is not a problem of lazy programmers, but rather it is now a social problem . The state is interested in us thinking less, but nurturing destructive emotions, doing more routine work and reproducing material, strengthening stereotypes, and generally becoming lazy creatures. By and large, it is not as beneficial for the state to give us benefits as to form dependence on it. If there was someone who did not know about it, then he certainly felt. On the other hand, there is personal procrastination , which is caused by different reasons, and each of them is characteristic of a particular type of personality. Next, I will talk about the type of personal procrastination that occurs in a person after a series of frustrating situations, that is, those that do not allow to achieve the desired goal.
Procrastination - is there a way out? Man’s way out is individual creativity and cooperation. Please note - creativity does not depend on the direction in which you work (IT, economics, psychology, history, pedagogy, etc.). Both thinking and creativity should interact in our life, otherwise we remain at the level of reproduction of someone else’s experience and routine work. For programmers, creativity is especially important, useful and necessary.
The character of Leonard Hofstadter in “The Big Bang Theory”
You, probably, noticed that people with different individual and personal properties manifest themselves differently in society - decisive / indecisive, open / closed, dependent / independent, etc. It so happens that people are interested in a certain psychological warehouse, and then they choose for themselves the same or related professions. As a result of training, which undoubtedly leaves a mark on the psyche, representatives of different professions have different perceptions and structuring of the world. For example, professional programmers expressed have abstract thinking and orientation to the future, as well as a tendency to structuring and organizing objects, designing, verbal games, mental sticking, etc.
So what kind of personality is more likely to be found in system programmers? - in order not to use psychological vocabulary, and then not to argue about the terminological nuances, I will answer - this is the type of Leonard from the series “The Big Bang Theory” with its different life and not very variations . That is, they are intellectuals with low energy, generators of ideas, scholars, skeptics, sometimes vulnerable, poorly communicative people with little-known manifestations of creativity and appearance. Awareness of the problems of the carriers of such a psycho-type occurs through intellectual tension, and thought in life often prevails over action. To avoid confusion, I will say right away - the level of intelligence does not depend on the type of person, and the psycho type itself is not inherited genetically. So, for programmers with such a dominant type, the problem of procrastination is aggravated due to their personal characteristics, based on the weak type of higher nervous activity and inertia as a property of the nervous system. Imagine a situation where the activity of such a person is severely limited and personal creativity is not welcomed. So gradually, the internal tension of this type of people increases, compensating for an interesting pastime (but the interests under “leonardism” can undoubtedly be very diverse). And the sadness here is not at all that a person is lazy working or poorly motivated, that he lacks planning skills, or he does not understand the subject ...
Now, if we look holistically[taking into account the individual personalities and the world of the profession of programmers] , then a sort of picture emerges - a group of extraordinary personalities who more often appear to be strangers in society among their own. I consider it important to briefly note the following:
')
1) the process of interviewing in the IT field is necessarily different from the generally accepted one;
2) with such a dominant personality type, employees do not accept any newcomer to the team;
3) standard methods of motivation for people of this type do not always work;
4) this type of people solves standard problems / tasks by non-standard methods;
5) the specifics of professional activity and personality requires special attention to the organization of the work of employees of this type;
6) the weak point of this type of personality interferes in everyday life and directly affects the productivity of work.
On the other hand, it is also true that programmers can learn people who do not correspond to such a characterological type. Then, these people rarely go beyond the boundaries of what is accepted or needed by someone, and therefore you should not expect original turns from them. As for application programmers, they are less immersed in the professional environment and therefore differ from their "older" brothers of system engineers.
The power of the bottomless, like a blue ocean, creativity
Today it is especially important for managers to understand the value of a non-standard approach to solving the tasks set. Developed countries have guessed this - talented domestic programmers are lured to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, where they can provide such people with creative freedom. It should be noted that although mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, artists and writers also have this type of personality, it is from system programmers that professional thinking, along with typological creative(divergent) thinking, gives rise to a qualitatively new and demanded mental product today. This product is moderately prohibited and without measure is sweet. The meaning of creativity, which many fear so much for its unpredictability, lies in its power. But with such force one should be careful and use it wisely and as intended, taking into account our mentality in our country.
Main clues in organizational psychological support
All those software development models that initially do not take into account the importance of forming a working group of specialists cannot afford to expect a finished product of the right quality and in the right time frame. The staff rotation, exactly like the “mess” during working hours, do not give the company charm. Therefore, the formation of a project team taking into account the personality of each employee is particularly important. I consider Agile variations to be the most successful models of development, only they are not suitable for our society so far. It is this nuance that everyone is trying to lower without taking into account the possibility of human adaptation. However, this copying situation is typical for many areas of knowledge in post-Soviet countries. The history of developed countries predetermined the specific features of the development of citizens' consciousness, their values ​​and behavior. In our country, a pragmatic approach and Western values ​​are quickly imposed, but the basic conditions for changing the mentality of the nation are not created. If for various specialists today it is not a priority to work for the benefit of the company, then what can we say about self-sufficient programmers. I will explain my thought about the need to take into account the psychology of a nation in various methodologies on the example of adaptation of foreign psychological tools. Techniques developed in other countries are not enough to simply acquire and translate into their native language - they need to be adapted for the nation. Otherwise, they simply will not perform their main function - measuring, and therefore will not be valuable. That is why various methodologies in their initial form cannot work with a bang in our country without adaptation to the mentality and to the team of specialists. These questions would be good to solve together with a psychologist. Also, paying enough attention to the issue of personal typology, it is possible to bring the disputes about the effectiveness of a self-organizing team to a victorious end. The decision on the need for a project manager position should be taken after analyzing the individual characteristics of future team members.
We now turn to the points mentioned earlier, which indicated the main difficulties with the indicated characterological type of professional programmers in the company.
HR in IT, which does not take into account the specifics of the personality of the workers in the sphere, cannot make an adequate choice and dwell on the applicant who is necessary for the company. And that's also the time to understand: if HR in IT is not familiar with the work of programmers, then HOW does it select people? Here there are contradictions regarding the duties of ITU in IT, which can not be ignored. To resolve this contradiction, there are several options (not always working):
- You can contact the recruitment agency, making your demands, but I think many have already passed it. Satisfied / not satisfied with the company such a selection - it is up to her.
- cooperation of a person who understands the technical side of the tasks for the position (team leader, leader, etc.), HR and psychologist.
- HR, who understands the overall official nuances in IT and can independently select and interview the right employee (unlikely).
“And why do we need this psychologist?” The psychologist creates an atmosphere of support for a potential employee at the interview, can check the general conformity of the profession at the sensory level, determine the dominant characterological type, direction of a person, etc. That is, already at the interview there should be a generalized understanding not only of what a person knows and knows how, but also of who is in front of you. This is valuable and justified not only for the creation of a group of developers, but also for the formation of the team itself. It is necessary to identify general trends (which can later be clarified) of the working capacity and behavior of a specialist, but not torture him with technical and psychological tests, thus justifying the importance of his work. It is very important for HR to realize that the creation of natural conditions for a candidate (read: a person) is the key to a successful interview.
What happens next when people have already been hired? I think it is not difficult to guess that the team’s performance is influenced by both the group and individual palette of dominant and secondary personality traits (pure characterological types are rare, while there are mixtures of psycho-types). To find out the full picture of typical combinations, it is necessary to conduct a separate diagnosis by a psychologist. Simply put, this is done in order to track the interaction features both within the team and the relationship of the latter with the authorities. These features will have an impact on newcomers, therefore, in case of the need to attract a new specialist, it should be understood which type can work with. Leonard's type works as a team, preferably with his own kind, but in order to develop workers, two or three personality types must be accepted into the team initially.
Thus, it is important not only to be attentive to people, but also to hear them, to understand their personal psychology. Also, people need not only to pay for work, but also to create a comfortable atmosphere for work, maintaining interest. The psychologist can find options and consult with the working team regarding comfortable working conditions, and after approval they can participate in their creation, but he / she does not interfere in the project activities of the programmers. Moving on.
The fashion for trainings (again, Western tradition) is an attempt to quickly and effectively solve organizational difficulties in companies. I don’t want and will not criticize the trainings and their effectiveness, I’ll just say that they are relevant as “first aid” by no means in all cases of life (also not cheap) and not for all types of people (this is an important factor). And in general, in practice, rarely anyone now takes into account personal typology when recruiting training groups, because there are a lot of expenses, and money is needed right now (the “we take everyone who comes” approach) —that is why the effectiveness of trainings is very, very controversial. As for the theory, it conveniently justifies the practice: the formulation and implementation of external goals in the course of training should encourage the formulation and realization of the internal goals of a person. The paradox about “Leonardism” is that often trainings to increase the motivation of programmers do not bring the desired result, and if they do, they are only based on the effect of novelty, i.e. not for long. I believe that motivational trainings are not appropriate in isolation from the working days of the team, and the concept itself seems to me vague.
Instead of imitating successful behavior at trainings, from which personal procrastination is only aggravated, one should move on to real daily work, solving the problems of a particular personality type. After all, self-motivation is the most natural and effective motivation. In addition, such an external way of motivation as training often directs us to the achievement of other people's goals, that is, those that are not in tune with our personality, and therefore will not bring satisfaction or happiness over time. Of course, a person will not become motivated for a long time either. By offering a standard reference behavior to a group of people, even without knowing their real needs (and therefore personal standards), the training can only exacerbate the psychological difficulties of some individuals. Usually, after going through training under the influence of euphoria, they talk about impressions from the training, but who mentions the consequences or the result of the training? This is the case personally for each participant. Therefore, it would be more correct for the company not to regularly send someone famous and great to trainings, but to consult with a staff psychologist who is already familiar with the specific personality of a particular team and could find a more correct approach to solving the problems that have arisen.
Programmers by vocation can not constantly perform routine work, it is especially important for them to find various options for solving the problem. That is why their initiative should be encouraged, not suppressed. Actually an authoritarian atmosphere will help reduce the efficiency of people of this type. Everyone understands that programming (to be honest!) Is monotonous work, when accuracy, attentiveness, and perseverance are required throughout the entire working day. Thus, a properly organized daily routine, support for creativity at work, and a healthy working atmosphere contribute to the productivity of work. But this is not enough to deal with the problem of procrastination. You want, you do not want, and you have to find time to work on the weakness of this type, since it is painful. It is impossible to force such people to “engage” once and for all with their passive behavior, you need to explain to them their weak side , in which they regularly invest invaluable energy. Day does not move apart, and the problems do not evaporate. The psychologist can clarify the essence of the problem by analyzing the personal characteristics of all workers and help with the choice of basic solutions, but this characterological type can fundamentally solve the problem of procrastination only if there is interest and personal desire.
Note…
I do not offer you a simple and painless option, since in this case it simply does not exist.
Work, work, work ...
This short review is an attempt to attract the attention of employers to the personality characteristics of programmers in order not to be forever “in search of” personnel and to organize their work productively. — - , . , .
- ? – , , , - . . , . , , .
, implements interface Leanardizm , , . : – .
Ab imo pectore
Sources:
.. . – .: ; .–1999.–350 .
.. . – .: , 2005. – 608 .
.. . – .: , 2000. – 528 .
.. : . – .: ,; .: , 2002. – 80.
.. . . – .: , 2005. –624.
.. . – .: -, 2009. – 367 .
As a psychologist, I feel the need and consider it my duty to instill faith in IT-specialists and share my vision of the urgent problems. At the beginning of the XXI century without your abilities and your ideas will be difficult to do. Obviously, the virtual information network is growing and improving with great speed around the world, expanding the possibilities for the development and existence of society as a whole, but also imposes more and more new behavioral patterns. The development of computer technology is a good business, both abroad and in Ukraine. One thing only confuses: where is the person in the whole process? Yes, yes, an ordinary programmer, but are there “ordinary” ones among them? And then the main thing and short.
“Destroyers are those who set traps for many and call them state:
they hung their sword and imposed hundreds of desires upon them "Friedrich Nietzsche
To date, the amount of information available to us does not correspond to the human capabilities of cognition (the quality of this information is not discussed now). In the day there are still 24 hours, which we try to distribute between sleep, work, study, family, hobby. Of course, the distribution can change depending on whether you work for someone or for yourself, have received a VO or not, personal life and leisure are / are not. If we regularly during the day quietly spend our time on all sorts of pleasant "little things" (searching and saving useful sites for future use, browsing interesting sites, visiting social networks, computer games, etc.), then we form (not intentionally, of course!) Dependence on such “Activities” and encourage passivity of consciousness. Thus, we are trying to dissolve the tension within us, although it will inevitably increase if the current activity is really necessary and important for us. So, on the one hand, procrastination is not a problem of lazy programmers, but rather it is now a social problem . The state is interested in us thinking less, but nurturing destructive emotions, doing more routine work and reproducing material, strengthening stereotypes, and generally becoming lazy creatures. By and large, it is not as beneficial for the state to give us benefits as to form dependence on it. If there was someone who did not know about it, then he certainly felt. On the other hand, there is personal procrastination , which is caused by different reasons, and each of them is characteristic of a particular type of personality. Next, I will talk about the type of personal procrastination that occurs in a person after a series of frustrating situations, that is, those that do not allow to achieve the desired goal.
Procrastination - is there a way out? Man’s way out is individual creativity and cooperation. Please note - creativity does not depend on the direction in which you work (IT, economics, psychology, history, pedagogy, etc.). Both thinking and creativity should interact in our life, otherwise we remain at the level of reproduction of someone else’s experience and routine work. For programmers, creativity is especially important, useful and necessary.
The character of Leonard Hofstadter in “The Big Bang Theory”
You, probably, noticed that people with different individual and personal properties manifest themselves differently in society - decisive / indecisive, open / closed, dependent / independent, etc. It so happens that people are interested in a certain psychological warehouse, and then they choose for themselves the same or related professions. As a result of training, which undoubtedly leaves a mark on the psyche, representatives of different professions have different perceptions and structuring of the world. For example, professional programmers expressed have abstract thinking and orientation to the future, as well as a tendency to structuring and organizing objects, designing, verbal games, mental sticking, etc.
So what kind of personality is more likely to be found in system programmers? - in order not to use psychological vocabulary, and then not to argue about the terminological nuances, I will answer - this is the type of Leonard from the series “The Big Bang Theory” with its different life and not very variations . That is, they are intellectuals with low energy, generators of ideas, scholars, skeptics, sometimes vulnerable, poorly communicative people with little-known manifestations of creativity and appearance. Awareness of the problems of the carriers of such a psycho-type occurs through intellectual tension, and thought in life often prevails over action. To avoid confusion, I will say right away - the level of intelligence does not depend on the type of person, and the psycho type itself is not inherited genetically. So, for programmers with such a dominant type, the problem of procrastination is aggravated due to their personal characteristics, based on the weak type of higher nervous activity and inertia as a property of the nervous system. Imagine a situation where the activity of such a person is severely limited and personal creativity is not welcomed. So gradually, the internal tension of this type of people increases, compensating for an interesting pastime (but the interests under “leonardism” can undoubtedly be very diverse). And the sadness here is not at all that a person is lazy working or poorly motivated, that he lacks planning skills, or he does not understand the subject ...
Now, if we look holistically
')
1) the process of interviewing in the IT field is necessarily different from the generally accepted one;
2) with such a dominant personality type, employees do not accept any newcomer to the team;
3) standard methods of motivation for people of this type do not always work;
4) this type of people solves standard problems / tasks by non-standard methods;
5) the specifics of professional activity and personality requires special attention to the organization of the work of employees of this type;
6) the weak point of this type of personality interferes in everyday life and directly affects the productivity of work.
On the other hand, it is also true that programmers can learn people who do not correspond to such a characterological type. Then, these people rarely go beyond the boundaries of what is accepted or needed by someone, and therefore you should not expect original turns from them. As for application programmers, they are less immersed in the professional environment and therefore differ from their "older" brothers of system engineers.
The power of the bottomless, like a blue ocean, creativity
Today it is especially important for managers to understand the value of a non-standard approach to solving the tasks set. Developed countries have guessed this - talented domestic programmers are lured to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, where they can provide such people with creative freedom. It should be noted that although mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, artists and writers also have this type of personality, it is from system programmers that professional thinking, along with typological creative
Main clues in organizational psychological support
All those software development models that initially do not take into account the importance of forming a working group of specialists cannot afford to expect a finished product of the right quality and in the right time frame. The staff rotation, exactly like the “mess” during working hours, do not give the company charm. Therefore, the formation of a project team taking into account the personality of each employee is particularly important. I consider Agile variations to be the most successful models of development, only they are not suitable for our society so far. It is this nuance that everyone is trying to lower without taking into account the possibility of human adaptation. However, this copying situation is typical for many areas of knowledge in post-Soviet countries. The history of developed countries predetermined the specific features of the development of citizens' consciousness, their values ​​and behavior. In our country, a pragmatic approach and Western values ​​are quickly imposed, but the basic conditions for changing the mentality of the nation are not created. If for various specialists today it is not a priority to work for the benefit of the company, then what can we say about self-sufficient programmers. I will explain my thought about the need to take into account the psychology of a nation in various methodologies on the example of adaptation of foreign psychological tools. Techniques developed in other countries are not enough to simply acquire and translate into their native language - they need to be adapted for the nation. Otherwise, they simply will not perform their main function - measuring, and therefore will not be valuable. That is why various methodologies in their initial form cannot work with a bang in our country without adaptation to the mentality and to the team of specialists. These questions would be good to solve together with a psychologist. Also, paying enough attention to the issue of personal typology, it is possible to bring the disputes about the effectiveness of a self-organizing team to a victorious end. The decision on the need for a project manager position should be taken after analyzing the individual characteristics of future team members.
We now turn to the points mentioned earlier, which indicated the main difficulties with the indicated characterological type of professional programmers in the company.
HR in IT, which does not take into account the specifics of the personality of the workers in the sphere, cannot make an adequate choice and dwell on the applicant who is necessary for the company. And that's also the time to understand: if HR in IT is not familiar with the work of programmers, then HOW does it select people? Here there are contradictions regarding the duties of ITU in IT, which can not be ignored. To resolve this contradiction, there are several options (not always working):
- You can contact the recruitment agency, making your demands, but I think many have already passed it. Satisfied / not satisfied with the company such a selection - it is up to her.
- cooperation of a person who understands the technical side of the tasks for the position (team leader, leader, etc.), HR and psychologist.
- HR, who understands the overall official nuances in IT and can independently select and interview the right employee (unlikely).
“And why do we need this psychologist?” The psychologist creates an atmosphere of support for a potential employee at the interview, can check the general conformity of the profession at the sensory level, determine the dominant characterological type, direction of a person, etc. That is, already at the interview there should be a generalized understanding not only of what a person knows and knows how, but also of who is in front of you. This is valuable and justified not only for the creation of a group of developers, but also for the formation of the team itself. It is necessary to identify general trends (which can later be clarified) of the working capacity and behavior of a specialist, but not torture him with technical and psychological tests, thus justifying the importance of his work. It is very important for HR to realize that the creation of natural conditions for a candidate (read: a person) is the key to a successful interview.
What happens next when people have already been hired? I think it is not difficult to guess that the team’s performance is influenced by both the group and individual palette of dominant and secondary personality traits (pure characterological types are rare, while there are mixtures of psycho-types). To find out the full picture of typical combinations, it is necessary to conduct a separate diagnosis by a psychologist. Simply put, this is done in order to track the interaction features both within the team and the relationship of the latter with the authorities. These features will have an impact on newcomers, therefore, in case of the need to attract a new specialist, it should be understood which type can work with. Leonard's type works as a team, preferably with his own kind, but in order to develop workers, two or three personality types must be accepted into the team initially.
Thus, it is important not only to be attentive to people, but also to hear them, to understand their personal psychology. Also, people need not only to pay for work, but also to create a comfortable atmosphere for work, maintaining interest. The psychologist can find options and consult with the working team regarding comfortable working conditions, and after approval they can participate in their creation, but he / she does not interfere in the project activities of the programmers. Moving on.
The fashion for trainings (again, Western tradition) is an attempt to quickly and effectively solve organizational difficulties in companies. I don’t want and will not criticize the trainings and their effectiveness, I’ll just say that they are relevant as “first aid” by no means in all cases of life (also not cheap) and not for all types of people (this is an important factor). And in general, in practice, rarely anyone now takes into account personal typology when recruiting training groups, because there are a lot of expenses, and money is needed right now (the “we take everyone who comes” approach) —that is why the effectiveness of trainings is very, very controversial. As for the theory, it conveniently justifies the practice: the formulation and implementation of external goals in the course of training should encourage the formulation and realization of the internal goals of a person. The paradox about “Leonardism” is that often trainings to increase the motivation of programmers do not bring the desired result, and if they do, they are only based on the effect of novelty, i.e. not for long. I believe that motivational trainings are not appropriate in isolation from the working days of the team, and the concept itself seems to me vague.
Instead of imitating successful behavior at trainings, from which personal procrastination is only aggravated, one should move on to real daily work, solving the problems of a particular personality type. After all, self-motivation is the most natural and effective motivation. In addition, such an external way of motivation as training often directs us to the achievement of other people's goals, that is, those that are not in tune with our personality, and therefore will not bring satisfaction or happiness over time. Of course, a person will not become motivated for a long time either. By offering a standard reference behavior to a group of people, even without knowing their real needs (and therefore personal standards), the training can only exacerbate the psychological difficulties of some individuals. Usually, after going through training under the influence of euphoria, they talk about impressions from the training, but who mentions the consequences or the result of the training? This is the case personally for each participant. Therefore, it would be more correct for the company not to regularly send someone famous and great to trainings, but to consult with a staff psychologist who is already familiar with the specific personality of a particular team and could find a more correct approach to solving the problems that have arisen.
Programmers by vocation can not constantly perform routine work, it is especially important for them to find various options for solving the problem. That is why their initiative should be encouraged, not suppressed. Actually an authoritarian atmosphere will help reduce the efficiency of people of this type. Everyone understands that programming (to be honest!) Is monotonous work, when accuracy, attentiveness, and perseverance are required throughout the entire working day. Thus, a properly organized daily routine, support for creativity at work, and a healthy working atmosphere contribute to the productivity of work. But this is not enough to deal with the problem of procrastination. You want, you do not want, and you have to find time to work on the weakness of this type, since it is painful. It is impossible to force such people to “engage” once and for all with their passive behavior, you need to explain to them their weak side , in which they regularly invest invaluable energy. Day does not move apart, and the problems do not evaporate. The psychologist can clarify the essence of the problem by analyzing the personal characteristics of all workers and help with the choice of basic solutions, but this characterological type can fundamentally solve the problem of procrastination only if there is interest and personal desire.
Note…
I do not offer you a simple and painless option, since in this case it simply does not exist.
Work, work, work ...
This short review is an attempt to attract the attention of employers to the personality characteristics of programmers in order not to be forever “in search of” personnel and to organize their work productively. — - , . , .
- ? – , , , - . . , . , , .
, implements interface Leanardizm , , . : – .
Ab imo pectore
Sources:
.. . – .: ; .–1999.–350 .
.. . – .: , 2005. – 608 .
.. . – .: , 2000. – 528 .
.. : . – .: ,; .: , 2002. – 80.
.. . . – .: , 2005. –624.
.. . – .: -, 2009. – 367 .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/153035/
All Articles