User talk:Snow
Snow Thoughts
About six or seven years ago I got to watch an unusual organization form. A year or so later, I finally took the opportunity to join that organization instead of just working with them. I was with that group for four years until the sale of the company tore apart the team. I left with a layoff package and went home to raise my children for a couple years, which is an opportunity few people will ever have, and the only opportunity I've had better than working in my own personal Shangri-La.
When I talk about organizations, a lot of what I talk about is rooted in my experiences with that organization. I may talk about Callahan's, a series of Science Fiction books written by Spider Robinson, because much of it translates smoothly into that series and more people have read that than gotten to work with me.
All that into aside, here's what I experienced.
- We we all equal and different. Different strengths and weaknesses and responsibilities, but all equal.
- We were responsible for what we took responsibility for. If we didn't have the experience we needed to take that responsibility successfully, we found a mentor to guide us there.
- The right people for a meeting are the ones who came to be there and choose to stay. Anyone who didn't want to stay was free to leave.
- Any decision we made had to be one we actively supported, even if we disagreed with it.
- An adversary is a potential advocate with different knowledge.
A lot of this is hard to get used to. If I, made a decision, former corporate VP's (we had two) followed that decision, because I was the one responsible for making the right decision. Likewise, if they made a decision, I followed it, because they were the ones responsible for making that decision. Not a lot of decisions were made in a vacuum, but on the other hand, the same group of people didn't keep making all the decisions. New groups constantly formed to a challenge and disbanded when the challenge was met.
The only way I can explain this is to say that we completely and utterly trusted everyone. We weren't blind to strengths, weaknesses, and inexperience, but we were in constant communication and no one was ever abandoned on their own to do something.
http://www.fairlygoodpractices.com is a site I put up long ago to show some of the things we did. If you want to see where I'm coming from, that's a good place to visit.
If Snow's been away for a while, there's a good chance he switched mains back to ManEatingCow on Feathermoon and can be found there.
