Meet-up Lead up!

Community Ops
#1

Hi all,

Getting a few moments to breathe after Orlando before turning around and heading to London!

I have an (hopefully fun) assignment for you:

One thing that’s clear is that next year we need to really hit the ground running. It’s a bit scary, but I think we can do it. The first step to achieving this is by being really intentional about how we work. How we work big picture, how we go about a particular task and also how we work with each other.

I want us to each share an article or a blog post that has inspired us personally about working better. It can be about how to overcome procrastination, a particular scrum pointing system, a review on one monitoring system over another, tips on communicating better or even just something that made you feel better about yourself. It’s ok if you’re not sure it’s appropriate for the team, just so long as it really clicked with you.

  • Anyone who contributes to the team, or would like to, is welcome to share something, even if you aren’t meeting us in London
  • If you really want to share a book, cheat and find a good article/review that sums up the principles of the book
  • Please try and share by Friday so we have a chance to check them out, it’ll be great reading for the commute (Tanner leaves on Thursday, so sooner is better)! But don’t worry if you miss that deadline, we’ll review them on Saturday before we dig into planning for the year.
#2

I’m gonna cheat - I have three - but I think they all fit together nicely:

http://blog.codinghorror.com/just-say-no/ (We’re not shipping that)

http://blog.codinghorror.com/defeating-optimism/ (I don’t think we have time to ship that)

http://blog.codinghorror.com/are-you-a-doer-or-a-talker/ (Fuck it, ship it)

2 Likes
#3

I first want to go back to 2011, just before I started volunteering with Mozilla IT. mrz published this.
https://blog.mozilla.org/mrz/2011/10/12/step-1-community-it/

I think that perhaps, we sometimes need to remind ourselves of why we are here. mrz says this in his post.

How can we leverage our resources and expertise to support the entire Mozilla Community and build a better, stronger Mozilla?

The British Airways slogan resonates with me. “To Fly. To Serve”. BA, as with most airlines, prides itself (questionably) on serving their customers. The only thing between them and their service is flying. Between us and our service is ops.

We should always think about what it means to be an Ops team. The second thing is to serve, and we are here to do just that: to facilitate and serve to the community. mrz calls the community our customers in that post, and I think we should focus, To Ops, To Serve.

Think about what it means to be an Ops team.
Think about what it means to serve.

3 Likes
#4

I always care about how people treat each other. Being a mom things about being happy and successful will always grab my attention. I’ve noticed that there is more info out there showing that the same principles that go into making a happy family also go into making a productive workplace. Which of course makes sense, it all comes down to environment and interaction.

So in that theme, here are two articles that stuck with me:

First, Radical candor, the surprising secret to being a good boss which really struck me as putting words to trends I’ve seen at Mozilla.

Second, [is a story of the ACES concept and how a high school applied it to reduce suspensions by 85%] (http://acestoohigh.com/2012/04/23/lincoln-high-school-in-walla-walla-wa-tries-new-approach-to-school-discipline-expulsions-drop-85/). It’s about authority, power, compassion and working with people to bring out the best in them.

#5

Here’s one that I went in search of, so not quite following these rules. I heard the expression “love every idea for 5 minutes” years and I intend to get into this in the “how we want to work” session. It’s the same thinking behind “yes and…” and also a corollary to the concept of “stop energy.”

Please give this post called give it five minutes a read.

#6

I think I’d call out a couple books that have stayed with me since I’ve read them.

Book 1:
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead (http://amzn.com/B007P7HRS4).

I could say much about this book but I’ll only quote one of the passages I highlighted:

What’s worth doing even if I fail?

Book 2:
Tribes: We Need you to Lead Us (http://amzn.com/B001FA0LAI).

Quote 1:

The secret of being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong!
The secret is being willing to be wrong.
The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.

Quote 2:

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.

People will follow.

Book 3:
I don’t often find a book I’m excited for others to read but just got through “Extreme Ownership” and can’t say enough about it.

Basic, seemingly obvious leadership traits told through a military/battle narrative and how that concept applies to the business world. I’ve been quoting it nearly all week.

Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win: http://amzn.com/B00VE4Y0Z2

1 Like
#7

“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”

1 Like