Re: Council Reports for the year 2015

From: Vy-Shane Sin Fat <shane_at_node.mu>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 10:36:05 +0800

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 11:51 PM, Ish Sookun <ish_at_lsl.digital> wrote:

> Hi Shane,
>
> On 02/24/2016 05:56 PM, Vy-Shane Sin Fat wrote:
>
>> With all due respect Jules, I find your post rude and entitled. I've
>> noticed a culture of complaining in this mailing list. Is that how the
>> group proposes to be an agent of change? It's not going to work if the
>> list operates in a spirit of negativity and confrontation.
>>
>
> Did the soft tone bring any change or do any good in the past several
> years? I do not disagree with the way Mike questions. It's normal for
> somebody who is concerned that the laws are not applied in this country and
> that all he gets are baseless assurances that work is happening.
>

This style of "questioning" works when discussing a piece of work, e.g.
some code, or the wording of a standards document. It's effective when it
is clear that we are objectively discussing "the work", and that the work
is separate from "the person" who created the work. Comments in pull
requests can appear brutal at first brush, but no one takes offence because
of the context of the discussion. When I do code reviews, I take pains to
emphasise that things should not be taken personally. It is human nature to
make things personal!

So, in communication, the context is important. You will get nothing done
if you send strangers passive-aggressive emails demanding that they provide
you with a report ASAP, while writing that you "suspect that the council
isn't functioning as it should", and while copying your email to an entire
mailing list. The medium too is important. Does copying an entire mailing
list help in this case? Or does it make the recipient defensive? Are you
surprised that officials rarely reply to emails that have been copied to an
entire mailing list?

If you actually want to get things done, you engage with Avinash privately,
ask if you could have some of his precious time, maybe invite him for a cup
of coffee and ask him how you can help. I'm sure that he would be delighted
to talk about the activities of the group, the challenges that he's faced,
and his plans and hopes for the coming year.

That's communications 101.

If, on the other hand, you just want to engage in some posturing for the
benefit of a mailing list, then you would send a very public email and make
some demands. Make a YouTube video too while you're at it. Rants are highly
entertaining :-)
Received on Thu Feb 25 2016 - 02:36:45 PST