The Art of Persuasion for Testers
10th October 2023
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Locked
Thomas Shipley
Head of QA @ GlobalLogic
Talk Description
Picture the scene: you are sitting in a testing conference - TestBash UK, perhaps. You have heard a brilliant talk - enthusiastic, engaging, and, more importantly, an idea you can use. But you are concerned. You ask a question: "Thank you, speaker, for an excellent talk. My question: How can I convince my team to do this?"
The answer leaves you wanting more. Isn't the art of persuading your team of this brilliant idea worth more than a couple of minutes?
You are not alone. It is a common and sometimes frustrating experience.
In this talk, I don't want to discuss a new testing technique or a flash new technology. Instead, I want to focus on people. The people who will not be at the conference. The people who you work with every day. How can I help you convince them of all the new ideas you are bursting to try after an exciting conference? How can you bring the magic back with you?
Both as a tester and a consultant, I have spent countless hours introducing and managing change. Helping teams feel safe about taking risks and trying new ideas. Based on my experience with teams and clients, I want to help you:
- Recognise that persuasion is rooted in understanding people and their motivations.
- Understand why resistance to change is so common and how it can become less scary.
- Develop your own style of persuasion based on foundational principles.
- Have the confidence to sometimes bend the rules a little to show the potential of your idea.
Testers have the opportunity to lift their teams through new ideas. But often, we are not let down by our idea, motivation or ability. Persuading others is our downfall. So we don't talk about it. Let us change that. Attend this session and start the conversation about how we, as a community, can influence others. Combine that with your great idea, and I believe you will be unstoppable.
After attending this session, delegates will be ready to present their ideas to individuals and teams in a way that goes beyond highlighting the idea's merits. A form that elevates ideas by addressing teams' challenges and fear of change head-on. Providing a level of comfort that merit-based discussion cannot achieve alone.
What you’ll learn
By the end of this talk, you'll be able to:
- Be more confident discussing ideas they have encountered while attending the conference with their team
- Having a deliberate, structured approach to persuading others of actions they would like to try
- Able to identify more clearly when they might not need to seek permission to try a new idea
- Building consensus within teams to rally around a new concept by identifying potential early supporters
Thomas Shipley
Head of QA @ GlobalLogic
Hi. I am Thomas Shipley and I work in Quality Advocacy.
My career is focused on understanding what others in a team are doing. The impact of planned work, managing the expectations of stakeholders and analysing development changes.
By asking questions of a team I can better understand the impacts of these changes. Understanding more I begin to coach teams. Sharing my expertise in testing with the team so they can start thinking more like testers themselves. I mentor, pair, persuade and promote towards my goal of shared quality ownership. Sometimes this is challenging but often worth it!
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collaboration
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leadership
