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by shapefrog 1746 days ago
It is almost impossible to not ask the question in a loaded way.

"Do people want to continue doing this thing that we always do, that I come out of my office and round up everyone every morning and lead as your benevolent leader, or does someone else want to say my way is bad and have an idea on how we can achieve a not necessarily defined objective?"
2 comments
blowski 1746 days ago
How such a discussion will go depends on the context in which it takes place. If you have a culture where people feel comfortable expressing dissenting views, they can do this. But if people are nervous of rocking the boat, they’ll probably stay quiet. I’ve managed teams where people would certainly say “this isn’t working, let’s change it”.
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kiliancs 1746 days ago
I agree. If processes are regularly evaluated, if management regularly looks for ideas and encourages communication and individual initiative, if communication is open in the team and questions are welcome (this starts with example and encouragement from more senior developers and management), it's possible to talk about this sort of thing, and more.
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mszcz 1746 days ago
True. Doing a show of hands by asking "all in favor?" instead of "all opposed?" should in theory yield the same result but I'm sure it doesn't.
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shapefrog 1746 days ago
Ask one of each and see if for + against = total team ...
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TeMPOraL 1746 days ago
I think the only way is to just ask every person privately what they think, and tally up the responses.

There's a reason why voting in democracies tends to be done via a secret ballot.

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kthejoker2 1746 days ago
Reminded me of this scene from Death of Stalin

https://youtu.be/AB0yZBVoSN4

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mszcz 1746 days ago
The original idea of nudging a vote this way was brought to my attention in a book by Viktor Suvorov (it was either Aquarium or The Liberators).

Some communist asshole wanted his nephew or something hired for some government position. He made the mistake of doing a vote by asking "all in favor?" because no-one raised their hands. What Suvorov suggested was the guy should've used "all opposed?". He said no one would've raised their hands neither but the result would've been very different ;)

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