How can we better stay in touch with the work we're doing as a cohort?

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#1

As we head into the Leadership Summit, I’ve been reflecting on how many amazing share-backs and activities have come as a result of Mozfest, and Mozlando, but also how there’s also no really good way to understand what everyone is up to so we can support, highlight and contribute. I would say the one success was the Github issue for Blog Posts, but beyond that it’s been tricky!

I would love to know your thoughts on how we can be more present as a cohort in sharing what we do regularly and that includes identifying challenges. For me, this is less about tools (although I prefer Discourse for discussion) and more about designing a mechanism or trigger for raising the activities/concerns/wins of everyone to grow stronger as a team.

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

#2

I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of agile practices as I learn more about them. Not just the concepts, but some of the best practices. Like stand-ups where you answer 3 questions: What did you accomplish, what do you plan on getting done, what’s blocking you?

I find that answering those 3 questions gets a really great picture of what someone is doing and where they are in accomplishing it. Also the “what’s blocking you” question also gets to the heart of how others can support or contribute.

I also like working meetings for kicking off this sort of thing. In the first 5-10 min, of a meeting, while we’re generally waiting for stragglers, people can write and post their stand-up. That populates the discussion and people who couldn’t make the meeting can add in before or after. Also it allows for a more natural conversation while people are reading what others wrote and they can call out ones they find interesting. I’ve done this in the past with an etherpad, and it was actually quite productive.

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#3

We should just keep talking about each individual’s goal. (Kensie’s idea fits perfectly!)

We all have goals. And then something blocks us for a while. Days later we forget about those goals. Then depending on if we’ve documented our goal or not, we might remember those at the end of the year, or at the beginning of the next meetup/gathering/community-call.

I think the mechanism will be intricately connected with the tool. Anyhow, a regular reminder/accountability/progress-reporting call/thread would work for me.

For example, MDN has this “What are you working on?” weekly email thread.

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#4