Search results matching tags 'EMPs (Expensive Management Practices)' and 'Developer Community'

How to Tell You’re a Community

andyleonard — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Introduction

I read a slogan yesterday and laughed out loud. Literally. Had I been drinking coffee at the time, I would have needed to clean my laptop screen. When the laughter subsided I realized the organization that created the slogan believes it to be true. At that point my community mentor instincts kicked in. I now see this as an opportunity to share.

You Are a Community If:

You cooperate. What does cooperation look like? Well, it’s the opposite of competition (see next list). Simply put, you help. Who do you help? Anyone who needs it. Do you help only those who join your effort? You can, but that’s not usually how community works. Bona fide communities help other communities, even. Do you help those who help you back? That’s called “business” and business is different from community.
You are transparent. Does this mean you share everything about everything? No, it doesn’t. It means your kneejerk reaction is to share information and you sometimes reconsider. Communities openly share successes and failures. It’s how they learn and grow.
You want to learn and grow. I don’t mean in numbers (only), I mean the vision and standard operating procedures grow. Growth often involves diversity, especially in leadership. True growth means integrating agents of change into leadership. Messy? Yes. Uncomfortable? Definitely. Disruptive? If it isn’t disruptive, it’s not growth – period.
You serve the tribe. This isn’t merely fungible, tit-for-tat service; it’s looking out for others in the same way you look out for yourself. Maybe caring for others more than for yourself.

You Are Not a Community If:

You compete. Examples include slapping one another on the back while exclaiming “We’ll crush them to bits!” or otherwise scheming to hinder or destroy efforts and activities in the same space as your community because, well, they’re just not you. Businesses compete, communities do not.
You obfuscate operations. If the default kneejerk reaction of your organization is to hide facts and make exceptions to disclose them, that’s not transparent. Operational failures are a fact of life in any organization. Communicating them – openly – is part of the prevention process. It facilitates growth and learning by seeding change.
You resist change. If you’re not open to new ideas and feedback – especially negative feedback – you’re not really a community. Communities thrive on improvement. This infers change. Communities recognize agents of change and welcome them into their ranks and leadership; they do not actively block agents of change from participation or leadership.
You serve yourself (first). If it happens to work out that someone else benefits, that gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. Preservation of personal status and status quo are not the earmarks of a community.

Conclusion

This is by no means an exhaustive list but I hope it offers examples of the differences between genuine communities and those who merely wish to describe themselves as communities.

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Creating is Hard

andyleonard — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

This post is the forty-seventh part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page.

This post is about creation.

Creating is Hard Work

Building something from nothing is difficult, to say the least. But often it’s even more difficult to conceive an idea worth building in the first place. I have to admit, my best ideas have come to me in dreams. I’m blessed to have a business partner – Brian Moran (@briancmoran) – who comes up with great ideas every day. I like implementing ideas, so we make a good team.

The main reason creating and conceiving ideas is difficult is…

Thinking is Work

I don’t know how you think. I know how I think, though. Maybe you think similarly; maybe you don’t. I actually set aside time each week to ponder. It’s a cool time most weeks. How do I think?

One Note!

I heart One Note. I write stream-of-consciousness style. And sketch with the touchpad. And drag documents onto the surface. And then I just close it and it’s saved automatically. One Note rocks.

At the suggestion of a friend, I recently started tinkering with Evernote. So far I like it - a lot. It's like OneNote in the cloud. I can jot down notes from my DroidX or laptop. Neato mosquito. I'm still learning to use Evernote. Perhaps when I get better at it, I'll post more.

"If Thinking is so Difficult, Why Do it?"

I’m so glad you asked! Sometimes I come up with a killer idea (like SQLPeople! Which started as a dream…). Thinking and creating is so worth it when you get to share that idea. It doesn’t matter if you get to share it with someone in a one-on-one mentoring session or in front of a user group or presenting at a SQL Saturday, Code Camp, or the PASS Summit – it is awesome to share!

And this is why I <3 community.

It's more than "giving back". "Giving back" sounds like you're paying off some old debt and that's not how contributing to community feels at all. "Giving back" is a transaction that flows from one person to another or many. That's not community! Sharing is community. Community is engaging. Community is participating. My friend and fellow community mentor Alan Stevens (Blog | @alanstevens) is a champion of Open Spaces (check out this video of Alan sharing about Open Spaces from CodeStock 2009). Open Spaces is one way technology communities organize. It was the first unconference format I ever heard about. You owe it to yourself to read the Origin and Ownership section at Wikipedia. Alan was the first person I heard present the Open Spaces Guiding Principle and One Law and he did it with panache, conviction, and passion.

Earlier this week, I hosted a Google+ Hangout. It embodied many of the same principles found in Open Spaces. You don't vote with your feet, but you do enter and leave at will. Whoever shows up are the right people. Whenever it starts is the right time. Wherever it happens is the right place. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. When it's over, it's over. To me, Open Spaces feels like Agile + Community. Everyone contributes and we all learn. I will be hosting more G+ Hangouts.

Conclusion

One of the reasons I started this series is to encourage people to create, and to discourage those who would block creativity and innovation. Creating is hard work, but it is so worth it.

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Engines of Loss and Gain

andyleonard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

This post is the fortieth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page.

This post is about winning (no really).

NASCAR

I like watching NASCAR races. On the surface, a race looks like a bunch of folks driving fast on a circuitous course. But there’s much more to it than that. There’s engineering and strategy and frankly, a little luck. A NASCAR race is a lot like life when you look beneath the surface.

Forty-three cars start the race, one wins. If you do the math, you’ll realize that 42 cars do not win. The ratio of winners:losers is 1:42. A NASCAR race is an engine of loss. Why? It generates way more losers than winners. Does that make it any less thrilling to watch? Not at all. Take a look at this years’ schedule – there are 34 races slated over a 9-month season. One of the things that offsets the ratio is frequency.

Frequency helps because even though there are more losers than winners each week, there are a lot of weeks. Constraints come into play as well; as NASCAR has strict rules about the cars. Constraints and frequency mitigate the winners:losers ratio.

The inverse also holds: Events with more losers than winners that occur infrequently with indefinite or shifting constraints fare worst of all. They also limit the growth of any community with which they’re associated. I prefer the adjective “organic” for community, but buzzing communities often experience different growth characteristics. Some have more in common with a nuclear reaction than my garden. Loser-laden events in these communities are like dropping the control rods into a reactor, or blocking the rain and light from reaching my garden.

Solution (and Anti-Solution)

"So Andy, what’s the answer?" I hear you asking. I’m glad you asked! Create events with more winners than losers. Optimally, create events in which no one loses and everyone wins.

"How?" Another excellent question! First, we have to redefine winning. Winning has long been associated with not-losing. Some have confused the two. In fact, it's a remarkably subtle shift to measure oneself by counting those behind you. This leads to an incredibly negative spiral in which some believe they are winning - indeed, can only win - if others are losing. Rather than build up, they tear down. If the goal is to win, after all, someone else must lose. Right?

NO!

Community is not a zero-sum game. Neither is business. It's possible to create - period. Create what? Whuffie, reputation, value - you name it. You do not have to achieve whuffie, reputation, or value by taking it from someone else - it can be generated. Here's a simple test to determine the direction of your spiral: Which way are you looking? If you're measuring yourself by all the people behind you, you've fallen into this subtle trap. If you're measuring yourself by being better, helping others, learning more, sucking less every day; you're facing the right direction.

Back to your question of how: one example is...

Games

Online gaming, in its current form, is wildly popular. There are contests with others, to be sure; but success in these contests is driven by – and drives – an internal competition for higher levels. Competing brings higher levels. Achieving higher levels means the player is better equipped to compete. It’s a positive spiral built on self-improvement. Some games even award points towards levels when you help someone else improve their points or level. Contrast this with a 1/43 chance of winning, and you start to get the picture.

Increase the Odds

The incorrect response is the old response: “Sorry. Try again next year!” It’s the community equivalent of a No Vacancy sign outside the Old Boys Club. It’s harder to think up ways for more folks to win, but I believe that’s only because we’re in the habit of creating events and opportunities where a few win. I believe this kind of thinking is so 1998. There are ways to increase the odds of participation and winning, though. One good example is SQL Saturday.

In the SQL Server Community, SQL Saturday has provided opportunities for those interested to present their ideas in front of an audience eager to learn more. SQL Saturday increases the odds of winning by providing more opportunities to present. It’s such an awesome idea that you likely would be shocked to learn who initially opposed it and why. It’s not important who tried to kill the idea, but it is important – and an example – of the effects of 1998-era thinking in the current era.

Conclusion

Creating business opportunities where everyone wins is not only possible, I believe it’s a great idea. My business partner Brian Moran (@briancmoran) and I are working diligently to implement them into our latest venture. We're going to be writing more about applying Community ideas to business soon.

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Techganic

andyleonard — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

This post is the thirty-sixth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page.

This post is about how organizations and people plant ideas.

“Techganic”

I made up another word. I believe this word describes the different ways in which companies grow and mature ideas in financial and capability terms.

I base the categories that follow on a parable recorded in Luke 8:4-15. If that offends you you’re reading the wrong stuff – a lot of what I’ve posted in this series is related to my beliefs. I condemn no one for differing beliefs; I merely recognize them as different (please see the conclusion of Right, Wrong, and Style).

In the parable a sower is sowing seed. The results? In some measure, the seeds are:

Trampled and consumed
Grow fast and wither
Choked
Successful

I choose to apply this parable to ideas for the sake of this post; and this is all my opinion, for better or worse. I compare the seeds to ideas and the soil to execution of these ideas.

Trampled and Consumed

These ideas fell beside the road. They never reached the target – rich soil in which they could thrive. People trampled the ideas and nature consumed them. Dead ideas are a waste.

Some of these ideas were dead or fruitless; this much is true. There is a certain percentage of ideas that fall into the category of Useless. But many of them were great ideas and would’ve produced a rich return if only they’d hit pay dirt. They were ignored to death, or taken by others. Stolen ideas fall into this category, as do ideas never fully developed by the original sower. Others take them and use them for their purposes – perhaps others improve the ideas, perhaps they merely implement them successfully.

I wish to point out that these ideas often succeed eventually. Without being graphically unpleasant, I ask: Have you ever observed a fence line out in the country? You have to read Luke 8:5 to get this…

Fast Growth

These ideas landed on rocky soil with just enough dirt to get them started, but withered as soon as the moisture was drawn from that soil. In other words, they were unsustainable. Were they good ideas? Maybe – probably so. But they weren’t planted in a good spot. They were not executed properly. They sprung up and looked good, but the heat of the day took them out.

Note that heat comes from the sun and sunlight is required to grow seeds into healthy plants. These ideas died of natural causes.

Choked

Other ideas land in a space filled with existing ideas. The older ideas have already been executed and are ahead of the new ideas in maturity. The existing ideas are consuming the vital resources needed for idea execution, and they choke out the new idea; thwarting its growth initially, and eventually killing it.

I’ve heard this story repeatedly: A company starts up a new division by hiring a team and tasking them with breaking into a new market. The individuals on the team have experience in the market so this makes perfect sense – bring in people with experience to get things started relatively quickly. The team identifies and prioritizes a list of things the company needs to do to break into the new market. At the top of the list is a better pricing strategy – read: “we’re charging too much; we need to charge less.” The company rejects this advice and loses an early bid. Because the early bid is lost, the company questions the effectiveness of the team and begins reconsidering breaking into the market.

This is a choked idea.

Successful

Some ideas are executed successfully. In fact, they are wildly successful and yield 100x the original investment of time and resources. I understand this is how venture capitalists think. They invest knowing some percentage of the companies will fail. But the companies that succeed more than make up for the failures.

Successfully executed ideas require two general things: the ideas have to be good and they have to be executed successfully. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the framework for shipping.

Conclusion

Technical ideas grow techganically. There’s a cycle that includes planting, nurturing, and harvest. Every good idea requires good planting (execution) to be successful.

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Elegant Events

andyleonard — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

This post is cross-posted at the new SQLPeople Wordpress blog (in beta as I type this).

Introduction

I debated including this post on elegant events in my series about managing technical teams and the software business. I find a lot of what I've learned in the community maps into both that series and good management practices (the opposite of Expensive Management Practices [EMPs]). Ultimately I decided to let it stand on its own.

Ahead of the Curve

I started my post entitled SQLUniversity Professional Development Week: Learning To Fly with a joke:

Clem and Jim Bob were out hunting the other day in the woods south of Farmville. As they crossed a ridge, they came upon a big ol' Momma Bear and her cub. The larger bear immediately started towards them. Jim Bob took off running as fast as he could. He stopped when he realized Clem wasn't with him. And when he saw Clem reaching into his pack, Jim Bob was incredulous: "Hurry Clem! That bar's comin' fast! You need to out run 'er!" Clem kicked off his boots and pulled running shoes out of his pack. "No Jim Bob, I just have to outrun you!"

In Timing is Everything I wrote:

See those folks ahead of you on the path? They're no different than you. You're no different from them. They started on the path earlier - that's all.

These describe where all of us are, compared to all the rest of us. Are any of us better? I don't think so. We all have gifts. We all started at some point. Everyone knows something most others don't know. Everyone needs to learn something. No one knows it all. That's the main reason we're...

Stronger Together

When we work together as a community, we're stronger than the sum of our parts. We're able to accomplish more as a community than we'd ever be able to accomplish as disconnected individuals. Community does more than merely connect us:

Community makes us stronger.

One of the coolest parts of the SQL Server Community are the events. Most SQL Server Community events are...

Elegant Events

Elegant events share some characteristics. They are democratic, cyclical, and responsive.

Democratic

Democracy implies voting, but I humbly submit to you that this need not be the case. Voting is a great way to employ democracy, but democracy has as much to do with flatness and input to leadership. I'm going to throw out a pretty radical idea here: I don't think you can do community without democracy, and I don't think you can do democracy without community. Democracy without community is disjointed and extremely messy; it's chaotic; it's mob rule. Left to its own devices, community-free democracy evolves (or devolves, depending on your perspective and goals) into either anarchy or community. When people are involved, there are no other options. Community without democracy is a hierarchy. Hierarchies are fine structures... for data, not for people. It follows the Nascar model (I enjoy Nascar... well, most of it. There's no place for race tracks with right turns in my opinion, but we'll save that discussion for later...). The Nascar race model is: 43 cars start a race and 1 car wins.

That's awesome - for the winner. But let's do the math: 43 entrants - 1 winner == 42 losers. Simply put: Communities without democracy don't scale. How do you know if you're a community missing democracy (or enough democracy)? It's easy - you too can do the math. Ask yourself this simple question:

Are you producing more losers than winners?

If the answer is "Yes," I'll give you one guesses about the direction and future of your community. Your community is scaling all right, but in the wrong direction. You're growing dissatisfaction. You're increasing angst. You're inspiring your members to seek out and support other communities. And let's face it: If your community doesn't have people, what does it have?

Cyclical

Elegant events engage positive spirals. Good begets good, trust begets trust, respect begets respect. Get all three working in tandem and you have a great positive cycle going. Here's a little secret about a great positive cycle: People are the engine.

If you're attempting a non-democratic community, you're fueling a negative cycle. If the Theory of Constraints taught us anything, it taught us the universe is biased: Losses accumulate, gains don't. Physics teaches us this too. It's called entropy. If your non-democratic community is producing 42 losers for each winner, you're stacking up losses at a decent clip. Since they accumulate, the negative spiral operates on a different dynamic than positive spirals. Negative spirals are... sedentary and sticky. They require very little to remain - they're anti-momentum for a community.

All communities interact with cycles. The question is: Are your cycles positive or negative? One way to achieve more positive cycles is to be more...

Responsive

Responsive communities not only hear their members, they act on what they hear. Vibrant communities act this way by default. In other words, they don't occasionally do something responsive - one thing for every forty-two times they aren't responsive - and then point to that forty-two times and say "See? We care!"

It's really all about which way the knee jerks.

Conclusion

Elegant Events are the heartbeats of vibrant communities.

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Speaking at SQL Saturday DC 4 Dec 2010!

andyleonard — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:00:00 GMT

I am honored to present two presentations at SQL Saturday #61 in Reston Virginia 4 Dec 2010! You can register here.

I will be presenting Some Thoughts on Managing Teams and Introduction to Incremental Loads.

If you read this blog and will be attending, please introduce yourself!

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Dear Google...

andyleonard — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:11:00 GMT

Dear Google,

I am not a spammer. I'm a guy trying to inform 500 people in the Richmond .Net and SQL Server Developer Communities about upcoming meetings and events of interest to them. To protect their privacy and my sanity, I keep their email addresses in a Google Email Group and BCC that group each time I send them an email.

The new email sending limits seem to be working fine when used against me, but my spam folder still receives more email than my inbox - and that's saying something: I receive a bit of email.

Is there a way to create a "white list" of some sort so I can contact the developer community without losing the privilege of sending email for 24 hours at a time?

Sincerely,
Andy