>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Lamb <la...@debian.org> writes:
Chris> I'd be very interested if you and the other candidates could Chris> elaborate on their thoughts in this approximate area. Chris> As a bit of background, I've actually written this reply Chris> twice before (or, admittedly ones somewhat similar) but it Chris> was difficult for it to come across as not appearing churlish Chris> or otherwise grumbling about my experiences. However, I hope Chris> with this paragraph, readers will read it in its intended Chris> context regardless. :) Chris> So, in general, I fear that the candidates may be Chris> over-estimating how much of the DPL's tasks can be delegated Chris> to teams or other individuals. I consider this one of the big unknowns. I may be more prepared than some of the other candidates in that I think I've had relevant experience from the IETF. Area Directors (and the IETF chair) get consulted in much the same way, so I do think that I have experience understanding what you can and cannot delegate in a large volunteer project. However Debian is unique. I've budgeted a fair bit of time enough that even if I'm not very successful in delegating I can still be successful as a DPL. I will be disappointed if I don't find some way to get more people involved in the work of dispute resolution. Reading between the lines in your bits mails, it sounds like that is something where getting more people involved is important. Honestly though, I cannot actually plan how I could delegate that until I experience it. By working with the anti-harassment team I'm starting to understand what might be possible and starting to understand what role that team can play in the process. Even if I am not successful at delegating that work I think I'll be good at it. However I think longer-lasting changes are possible if we're able to do two things. First, in addition to resolving disputes help people learn new ways of approaching conflict while in the process. Yeah, that means things take even more time at first. Secondly, delegate what we can and over time make that not a one person job. Fortunately the above are incremental: there is value even if I don't fully succeed. Chris> A lot of teams have entirely-legitimate questions before Chris> acting (for example, checking over some document) and often Chris> check-in with the DPL, asking for advice, guidance or whether Chris> the Leader's experience or contacts mean they have been Chris> exposed to a novel angle or approach to what they are trying Chris> to achieve. This is, of course, eminently sensible and Chris> healthy IMHO. It is, but it's also something that a good manager balances. When I go to my boss, he often doesn't directly answer my question. Instead he focuses on empowering me; on answering the part where he does have specific experience but helping me get to a point where I'm able to do more on my own in the future. I'm not as good as he is at that skill, but I do have years of experience mentoring people and empowering them across multiple companies and volunteer projects. I don't have any magic bullets, but where skill, dedication and experience can help with delegations, I think I'm in a good place. Chris> More importantly however the majority of tasks that land on a Chris> DPLs plate may technically and «prima facie» be delegatable Chris> but the total time and energy required to forward it, ensure Chris> it is correctly followed-up on, context switch, ping later, Chris> forward any replies, etc. etc. etc. regretfully exceed said Chris> time/energy of just "getting it done" yourself to begin with. I'd certainly get out of the loop of forwarding replies; redirect better than proxy for time management:-) And yet the rest of what you say--particularly context switching, pinging, following up are all true. Chris> I suppose part of the solution here might be to ensure and Chris> promote an atmosphere where teams feel more empowered to push Chris> ahead without quasi-approval (as well as ensuring some Chris> requests reach the "right" place in the first place) but Chris> these are really far harder, long-term goals that would Chris> require supreme dedication to even start to move the needle Chris> on. I'm afraid I would be somewhat skeptical of any candidate Chris> who thought they possess any sort of magic bullet to any of Chris> this before being truly exposed to it outside of the abstract Chris> concepts I've outlined above. :) Yep, and I think it's the long-term cultural changes we perhaps need. I certainly have been known to have lots of dedication especially when I see small results that might become bigger over time. Succeeding is important to what I want to accomplish in making cultural changes around communication. However,I'm prepared to be a successful DPL even if I don't figure out how to move that needle very far. In other areas I do think delegating specific tasks will work well. As an example Martin talked about working on better corporate engagement and on identifying and describing grants that Debian developers could apply for. I think that sort of delegation is similar enough to existing team delegations and seperable enough that it could work quite well. Similarly, some of Jonathan's ideas seem very seperable and easily delegated. Chris> Indeed, some of these issues are not /really/ solvable in the Chris> sense that I'm not sure I, as a member of the Debian Chris> community, would want to be without the option of being able Chris> to ask the Project Leader for their connections, experience Chris> or plain-old sanity checking before doing something Chris> especially if that action might affect the reputation or Chris> image of the Project. Agreed.