Values/2016 discussion/Transcripts/V

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1	== your three values ==
2	=== 1 ===
3	Open-mindedness: This is necessary for both myself, my team and the community members we work with to consider what might be possible. WMF needs to be open minded when considering ideas that the community wants funding or support. Even if the project itself does not make sense, it is important to be open to understand the needs and interests that are behind the idea and why it is important. We need grantees to be open minded about making changes to their plans to incorporate best practices
4	Forgiveness: We are all prone to making mistakes or having things turn out much differently than we had intended. It has been so important to demonstrate that mistakes bad behavior can be forgiven when there is mutual understanding about why
5	Vulnerability: Requesting funding in public and answering questions from strangers about your ideas and plans can be hard for grantees, especially when writing in a non native language. It can be really challenging to post feedback publicly, too. Supporting people to be open to listen to feedback, and forthright and objective when giving feedback is an important and often overlooked part of my work.
6	=== 2 ===
7	Transparency - I don’t use this one as much in my day to day, as my work often has some confidentiality in it, but I see it as important for the same reasons I mentioned earlier. I think transparency is a way to help keep us honest and equitable.
8	Authenticity - This one isn’t on the list, but I think coming to conversations and problems with authenticity helps us find solutions. Promotes vulnerability and trust by being ourselves.
9	Fun - A little fun, and humor, goes a long way on our team.
10	Learning - I like this one more than Transparency. I want to come to work when I’m learning.
11	=== 3 ===
12	Transparency
13	I know this is a very nuanced word/concept, but I do still believe we shouldn't leave it behind. We need to address the failings we had in the past with a knee jerk reaction to radical transparency (not that I'd be against that in principle ;) ).
14	This value also helps ensure that we can deliver on our other commitments/values. It forces accountability.
15	We covered a bit of the “shadows” of this value earlier, but they include a tendency to react and create safe private places and potentially reduce collaboration points.
16	Also, it’s always in flux/evolving based on the people and the organization’s current needs.
17	(I like #1’s inclusion of “vulnerability” and it’s an obvious need, along with “forgiveness” for transparency to work. As transparency is a partial prerequisite for accountability, vulnerability and forgiveness are prerequisites to transparency)
18	Compassion/Health
19	We’re people. We have people needs. We need compassion and flexibility to be our best selves. And yes, this implies a view of the person as a whole, not just their work lives. Health is a natural offshoot of this.
20	Duty
21	Essentially, remember why we’re here at this non-profit. Much more than a for-profit company we are here for more than just our paychecks (ish?). But, not only individuals themselves, which are varied and complex, the organization is also here for more than just a profit. What is that? (see: the other documents). Let’s keep those in our forefront so we move in the right directions (something something losing steam…)
22	== why are those good things? ==
23	I work on the grants team. Our process is open. Needing to be upfront and forthright with people. And saying no to people you will have to work with again. Because we are in this movement as partners and always trying to check our power. That’s why I chose open-mindedness and forgiveness
24	We are trying to explain things in different languages. People are trying new things. Some ary crazy. Some people have made mistakes. Being open minded about what a group or an individual can do. Things change and the rules we hold true maybe doesn’t hold or work in every part of the world. THings can be different in different places. On the other end, since we are going back and forth, we need open mindedness from the community to accommodate some of the things we are suggesting.
25	Forgiveness - being in a space where we can understand that someone has said something terrible in a public space and forgiving them for it. For when an affiliate makes a mistake. Helping them correct it. How do I get my message across that this is important and can’t be done again, without being too harsh. And forgiveness for us. When we make mistakes. It’s been important to me. Especially when working quickly and transparently. We need a trusting and forgiving space. It’s hard when people are not forgiving.
26	Vulnerability - people are asking for things in public. They are going to be given feedback in public. We need to help them feel comfortable risking themselves. Or telling people that it might not be something that we want to post. But also to people who don’t feel comfortable getting feedback. If they do it guarded. They are difficult conversations to have, to say “I see a problem with this idea”. It falls on our staff to do that too. I try to demonstrate this. Find spaces and ways that people can do it, go out on a limb, and be vulnerable in those discussion.
27	Transparency is a pre-req for accountability, but vulnerability is required for transparency.
28	Acknowledging that people feel hurt by things, making sure that there is broad understanding together. Listening to one another. Willing to be wrong. Willing to have people tell you you are wrong - for years. I have to be straight. I fear that I will be attacked. They are rare, the attacks, but they are lasting.
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31	Fun - cause I think about what makes me want to come to work and what doesn’t make me want to come. The difference is I think having fun is so important and it’s what I want to do all of the time. On my team there is a lot of humor. It helps build trust and connection with my co-workers, which helps with better collaboration and more open and honest conversations.
32	Learning, instead of transparency. It’s more important to me. For a few months I wasn’t learning and growing and I was feeling done. Learning and the growth opportunities is super important to me and comes out in little ways. Learning about other people. There is also a component of connection.
33	What makes me want to come to work. Sometimes I haven’t thought about that. I hadn’t thought of that. It’s probably good to think about those things some more.
34	When you were talking about fun I was thinking about this with my team. The thing is that when and it’s I worked hard to hire people that would work well together and would become a team and have fun. It’s clear that we have finally gelled and have a team, almost family. It’s been a conscious effort on my part. Now I am thinking about in-jokes, or insular aspect of that. Which I need to watch for. I’m scared that we are creating walls. Around my team. Is it hard to be a part of it? Is it a clique?
35	Authenticity, fun, and learning, sounded like they were about connection - to your work, to your colleagues. Yes, and about trust. Trust, honesty component.
36
37	Transparency - there are shadows involved. At the end of the day I feel that it is a good guiding principle, but not a value anymore. These other aspects, forgiveness, vulnerability, seem like the means for transparency. They are the prerequisite that makes you able to put transparency. It might be too superficial.
38	Compassion and health. Basically acknowledging that we are people. We have needs. The flexibility to be our best selves. A person as a whole. The org value of compassion and health when we talk about remote work, how people are managed, health is a natural offshoot of this. Being sure our people are able to lead healthy lives and not just be good employees. Making sure that people are healthy. Checking in on them.
39	Duty - why we’re here. Why the org is here. Not just for profit. We’re here for this great purpose and remembering that as we do our work. I’d like to think of a better word. It could be rephrased into a sense of reverence. I was getting spiritual there. ALways rechecking. Like going to confession, you reorient yourself. You reassess your plans based on the purpose. Sometimes we stop things. It no longer makes sense. It’s more along those lines. A way of reassessing and self assessing to make sure that it is purposeful. Purposeful may be a synonym. Keeping a higher purpose.
40	The piece about confession, but you’re saying reassessing. I wonder how often we do that as teams. As more and more work is coming on, we look at what we can cut. But we don’t stop and say what are we trying to accomplish and this is still in service to that thing? We haven’t done that kind of reorientation in a while. How does what you’re doing relate to our bigger goals. I think that would be interesting for us to do. Reassessment for that we are staying true to why we are here. It’s also related to the health issue. What is the purpose behind some of this stuff. Those conversations that we have with people that develop them are part of our larger mission. I see a lot of legacy work that just feels like it clutters.
41
42	One of the challenges of bringing up these conversation becomes a big conversation it becomes a big conversation and it’s almost not worth it. Transparency and autonomy and professional experience, it seems like there is a disconnect. You don’t get to make decisions for yourself. Like you want to get rid of the pin ball machine. I struggle with lack of control or what we’re doing. Pushing back in a transparent way could invite a lot of blow back and conversation that you don’t have time to say. A tension between being able to reassess and transparency and the ability to make decisions in a way that are effective.
43	Making mistake and looking at it as a way of growing. Using it as a way to grow and move forward. I feel that relates.
44	Why?
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46	Forgiveness - why is it a good. Recognizing people coming into this space who are putting effort into this work, they are also human. This is a different space than they may operate in their culture, different values, expectations. I see WMF and the collaborative environment, means we are all trying to learn how to work together. There are no set rules for that. Wikipedia rules don’t lead this conversation. They’re not always values there for that. People will make mistakes. If we want to continue we have to forgive each other for the things that have happened. But trust them again in the future. Extending trust again and again. Until it doesn’t make sense to do. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense. Sometimes boundaries are the best. Whether financial accountability or safe spaces. After 3 times… you need to set boundaries. I seen groups improve when we exclude some people.
47	Trust. It’s an important part of forgiveness. Integrity. Listening. Being successful means connecting and building trust.
48	Why is trust good? No one can do the things alone. You can’t do it by yourself. It’s no one’s entire job. Building trust. You need things from other people. Time, attention, resources. We need each other. When there is a lack of trust groups splinter and divert energy and resources. We’re stronger together. Trust enables the sharing of resources. Knowledge, information, access, time. Radical trust to give your time to someone when you don’t know what they are going to do it and where they are in the world? This is key and I’m not sure that it is the focus of our work. Keeps our car moving, but it gets undermined by leadership. It’s not the work that gets recognized. But it’s our bread and butter. It’s not a metric. How do you know if the trust is there?
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51	Power. And giving power to the people. The why. It’s people. I don’t think power should be just with one person or I don’t know. I’m thinking about power. Power should be shared. Why? When power gets condensed there is often a lot of corruption and lack of different view points. It’s not inclusive. There is not much equity. People get hurt. It’s hurtful. Diversity and inclusion of views is important. We’re better together. Shared power.
52	How do we think about power in the interactions we’re having and how it is being used and being kept away from other people. Reflecting on that seems to be important. How is this sharing power? Coming back to that as often as I can. I don’t know that I see that in many people where we are. Inclusivity and access. Making sure others have access to power. Why? Shared knowledge. Everyone to have access and getting info to improve your position. Or advance values that you think are important. A clear way to advance something.
53	With transparency, when there is so much information you can’t find what you need.