Coyote Teaching: A New (Old?) Take on the Art of

Mentorship

Harrison Lovell - @lovellingit

Michael Larsen - @mkltesthead

Michael Larsen

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer, Socialtext

Michael Larsen is Senior Tester located in San Francisco, California. Over the past seventeen

years, he has been involved in software testing for products ranging from network routers and

switches, virtual machines, capacitance touch devices, video games and distributed database

applications that service the legal and entertainment industries. Michael writes the TESTHEAD blog

and can be found on Twitter at @mkltesthead.

Harrison C. Lovell

Associate Engineer, QA, Virtusa

Harrison C. Lovell is an Associate Engineer at Virtusa’s Albany office. He is a proud alumnus from

Per Scholas’ ‘IT-Ready Training’ and STeP (Software Testing education Program) courses. For the

past year, he has thrown himself into various environments dealing with testing, networking and

business practices with a passion for obtaining information and experience.

Intro

• Skills Transfer/ Simplifying the process

• Fastest way to proficiency

• Their way, their experiences

• Different contexts. Metaphors and Analogies

• Lost in translation

RUAPA

• Read, Understand, Apply, Persist, Achieve• Teach people to teach themselves• Primitive: hunt, fish, knots• Un-evolved people. • We aren’t smarter.

• Tech veneer.• Double Edge sword

• Tribal skills

What is Coyote Teaching?

• Tom Brown, Jr and Jon Young

• No direct answers, ans. w/ questions, dig deeper, embed and connect lessons

• Inspires to independency

• Adapt to teaching style

Coyote Teaching: Extended

• Limited habitat. Man shapes their environment. Adapting is key

• World of extremes, unlike other creatures, can settle anywhere

• Go beyond “learn and you’ll be okay”

Becoming a Coyote

• State the obvious• Trickster myths. Pair hunting. Small size• Observed behavior = Core teaching approach

– Unique skills– Engagement

• Passing on traditions

Environmental Saturation• Allow people to utilize the environment they

are in

• Start where you are, use what you have, build what you need

• Authentic problems

Creating a Need

• Snowboarding

• Balance point

• Analogy that I would understand

• Five gallon water bottle

Art of Questioning

• Focus on giving the answer to a question

• Comprehending what we are presenting

• Answer to make us happy

• Socratic Method – answering questions with more questions

Trickster/ Transformer

• Transforming the situation

• Calvin and Hobbes

• a curve ball

Story-Telling Culture

• Tribal societies

• Analogies are frequently used

• Simple analogies vs full story-telling

Edge Experiences

• What makes a story more exciting?

• Different type of experiences

• Strong emphasis on stretching rather than freaking someone out

• Edge case examples

Edge Case

• Stepping out of comfort zone

• Line between growing and freaking out

• Push effectively without pushing you off the edge

Constraints and Taboos

• Idea of Taboo• Strong word• Learning with constraints• Children, Tech, and Boarders• Interchangeable

Summary

• This stuff is HARD• Principles can be applied on a continuum• Level of relationship and commitment informs

the level of mentoring• Limitless potential, if both are willing to invest• When one is raised by a Coyote, one becomes

a Coyote.