Welcome Linda Rising!

[Dirk Schreckmann]

This week we're delighted to have Linda Rising amongst us, helping to answer questions in the Process forum.

We'll be selecting four random posters in this forum to win a free copy of her excellent book, "Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas", provided by the publisher, Addison-Wesley Professional.

Welcome Linda!

For more information on this and future book promotions, visit http://www.javaranch.com/bookpromo.jsp
[ October 05, 2004: Message edited by: Dirk Schreckmann ]

[Lasse Koskela]

Welcome Linda!

[Linda Rising]

Hi Guys,

I live in Arizona, so I feel right at home at a "ranch." :-)! Thanks for inviting me to share some information about patterns!

The new book coming out touches on a topic that is important to all those of you who are excited about new ideas but are not sure how to get things going in your team or organization.

I look forward to your questions and comments!

Thanks, again!

[friso dejonge]

welcome linda,

but puzzling, why the following on the inside flap ;-) ?

You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.
—Wayne Gretzky, Hall of Fame hockey player

maybe someone can explain that.
regards,
friso

[Ilja Preuss]

Welcome Linda!

Great book - I hope my review will get published soon...

[Gian Franco]

Welcome!

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by friso dejonge:
but puzzling, why the following on the inside flap ;-) ?

You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.
—Wayne Gretzky, Hall of Fame hockey player

I guess it's meant to say that trying is better than giving up without trying.
A very refreshing quote for a "computer" book!

[K Lay]

Hi Linda,
Great title to the new book! I'll have to check it out.

Kevin Lay
(from AG/Lucent days)

[Linda Rising]

Thanks for all the great discussion, guys!

Kevin! Good to hear from you!!!

About the quote (we have a lot of quotes in the book!): it's to suggest that if you don't try you surely can't make a difference. My co-author, Mary Lynn Manns, and I agree that we were reluctant to try to change our organizations, but we decided to "Just Do It" -- one of our patterns. The message of this pattern is: if you wait until you know everything about your new idea -- if you wait until you know exactly what your plan is -- well, it won't happen.

Sure, we have a pattern called "The Right Time" that says don't hold your first Brown Bag the week before Christmas holidays :-)! but take a "Step by Step" approach and learn as you go. There's a famous saying about the longest journey beginning with a single step. Take it.

[Sonny Gill]

Ahhh..this solves the mystery...
Linda made a post on Monday, before this post was made, and I wasnt aware of this promotion.
So, I was pondering over what brought Linda here after nearly 3 years....

Welcome Linda.

[Linda Rising]

It's nice to be back at the ranch :-)!

[friso dejonge]

thanks lasse and linda,

It surely is refreshing for a computer book to have quotes that have nothing to do with software engineering in general.
In am looking forward to other quotes as well. Do we have any good presidential quotes ? Is the time right over there for fearless change ?

regards,
friso

[Ilja Preuss]

Originally posted by friso dejonge:
It surely is refreshing for a computer book to have quotes that have nothing to do with software engineering in general.

Well, it's not exactly a computer book, it's a book about change in general. Two of the four experience reports don't have anything to do with computers at all.

It's still highly on topic, as much needs to change in our profession...

[Linda Rising]

Some people would say I have a "patterns disease" -- I see patterns (or the lack of patterns) everywhere :-)! Since I have been paying a lot of attention to the upcoming election and the recent debates, I notice several patterns of politics that effective leaders demonstrate (or not) :-)!

It's clear that by reading historical accounts, we can learn many of these patterns. They seem to be consistent over time.

[Kripal Singh]

Welcome!! The book title sounds interesting. I was wondering how this book fit into the J2EE tech stuff. Is the target audience tech community or the book is about organizational change (kind of like Who moved my cheese)

[Linda Rising]

The book has several experience reports and one of them was written by John Crupi on the J2EE patterns and how they were "introduced" at Sun. The book is, of course, *much* better than Who Moved My Cheese (slight prejudice on my part :-)! ), and it was written for introducing technical ideas to be applied by guys in the trenches.

For example, we have a pattern called Guru on Your Side that talks about how to use the guy who sits in the corner who has been with the company forever who may be a skeptic initially, but is very important is getting new ideas off the ground.