DrupalCon Baltimore Session: Decode & Reload, Personality Gaps in the Workplace

A candid talk from our CTO Shawn McCabe and Senior Developer Josh Miller on how they have identified their own personality traits and what they do to create new habits that help them overcome their communications weaknesses.

Josh Miller, a long time contributor to the Drupal community, will document what the large distributed team he works with does to identify team member’s personalities and smokescreens using various tools. Some of the tools that will be discussed:

• The DISC* spectrum (Dominance, Influence, Support, and Caution) A way of defining dominant personality traits and suggestions on how an I (Josh) and a D (Shawn) can communicate effectively.
• BAT** (Behaviour, Attitude, Technique) method for determining how you view and how your peers view your modus operandi.
• EDP*** (Employee Development Plan) method for annual reviews of progress.

Shawn McCabe, the CTO of the same distributed team, will share how recognizing his own personality flaws have led to huge gains in communication and overall success in his position of leading multiple teams of developers. As someone who struggles with empathy and understanding others, he will discuss how he daily recognizes his weak points and deliberately does certain things even though they feel silly or like a waste of time, but ultimately bridges the gap between his personality and the successful outcomes we all want.

At the end of the session, we hope that sharing this positive case study and the tools we use will spread the idea that we can identify ourselves without judgement and learn a few new tricks to help ourselves and those around us cope.