Thank you, Phoebe.
George William Herbert Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 22, 2016, at 10:06 AM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.w...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 5:03 AM, George Herbert > <george.herb...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Lila's vision here clearly calls the change campaign out as having >> explicitly intended to break eggs. >> >> It further suggests strongly that this was the Board of Trustees' intention >> in hiring her, and that they agreed with breaking those eggs. > > Since you bring it up, and ask for the perspective of past trustees -- > as one of the people who helped hired Lila, I did so because I found > much of how she thought about technology, contribution and open > knowledge compelling -- some of which is stated in her mail above -- > and I hoped that she'd have the right combination of openness and > boldness to help lead us. I also thought she had the right foundation > of skills and values to do the work in our weird, complex environment. > > The Board's initial task for her, as it might have been for any new > ED, was to learn the organization, continue with the usual running of > the organization, and to work with us and Wikimedia as a whole to > develop a strategy for the future. We expected and supported her > focusing on technology, given what a big piece of the organization > this is and her own background; and we supported explorations into the > organization's culture and how it could improve. > > I've heard a few conspiracy theories about how the board must have > intended to clean house with Lila's hire. From my perspective, that > was not the case. We hoped of course that Lila would help the > organization improve -- but I am thinking of improvements like > speeding up development and reducing drama around software rollouts, > goals that I don't think would either come as a surprise to anyone or > are particularly controversial. > > That does not mean I was surprised that some staff left, especially in > the first few months after she was hired. People do leave in a > leadership transition, for many reasons. And I also was not surprised > by the possibility that Lila might create a different style of > working environment at the Foundation, which would lead others to > leave later. I am surprised and saddened however by this current > crisis (and the last few months leading up to it). According to many > people, things seem to have gone quite badly in terms of > communication, giving guidance and developing organizational consensus > around strategy. Those problems are general problems of execution and > management, and that is deeply unfortunate. > > best, > Phoebe > > -- > * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers > <at> gmail.com * > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
