On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Colette Alexander < colettealexan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I laid out some of the questions I think the community could benefit > from alignment on in the etherpad I started already[0], but one of the > things that really struck me when talking to various members of the TC and > the community at large about leadership was how vastly different everyone's > experience, opinions, and approaches were to the questions I asked (which > were variations of: "As an elected leader in OpenStack, what do you wish > you would've had as resources to help you adjust to a leadership position?" > and "What do you think leaders in OpenStack could benefit from, in terms of > skillsets that could be strengthened or added via any kind of training?") > At some points, I had people suggesting to me completely opposite > definitions for the 'problem' of leadership in OpenStack, suggesting that > certain skillsets that others wanted training for didn't matter at all, and > generally realized that maybe we all don't have a great shared definition > of what leadership skills matter here in the community. Having been > interacting with the community for a few years now, I wasn't surprised by > the diversity of opinions, but I think it does mean that some alignment on > defining the problem would be worthwhile. > > Hence, the idea that perhaps a small group of existing leadership should > get together in a room and talk about how to define/agree on the problem > appropriately, first, before even beginning to think about having the > conversation to come up with solutions for it. So in many ways, the goals > or outcomes of this training would be to get more than a few people in > leadership positions within the community to gather around a shared > language and understanding of leadership in order to define problems > collectively and move forward with discussing solutions more broadly. That > could take so many possible forms, and be so many things, it's almost > impossible to sort through. > > If you ask me what the 'big goal' of talking about leadership in this > community is about, I'd say it's about infusing a culture of leadership and > support for leadership skills and practices in the community that serve its > members and ultimately provide a more sustainable and humane experience for > any of the community members who wish to take on leadership positions here. > To just blatantly copy/paste my case from the etherpad: > *"As the OpenStack community matures, so too must its support and > development of its leaders. Many open source movements are not as > thoroughly democratized as OpenStack, and rely on a Benevolent Dictator for > Life (BDFL) who is largely responsible for shaping the vision and strategy > and making ‘product’ decisions for the whole of the project. Without a > BDFL, many have argued OpenStack will be unable to navigate to product > maturity. But when one looks back at the last 5 years of growth, it’s very > apparent that the strength of OpenStack lies in its democracy and community > diversity - that a reliance on many strong and capable leaders in the > community is a crucial part of its character and intrinsic to its success. > Bolstering leadership skills even more through available training and > resources, and infusing OpenStack’s culture with an emphasis on leadership > as a core value will only work towards strengthening its democracy."*[0] > > ETA the elusive etherpad link: [0] https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Leadershiptraining
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