following open source principles in a not so open world
I Will
Categories: Community, Entrepreneurship, Leadership.
While chatting with a young professional recently I experienced how tough mediocrity is to deal with when it rears its ugly head unexpectedly. The young professional and I had both been involved on a project that had stalled out for a couple months. From the beginning of the project I felt the project leadership was sending the team down a path of mediocrity. To combat this I offered to help brainstorm solutions to make the project memorable to which the project leadership reluctantly agreed to. I subsequently invested significant time brainstorming with the team and we came up with great ideas to take the project to the next level.
After talking about the stalled project’s status and reflecting on the course taken this far we both AGREED the root cause of the stall was due to a lack of vision and clear leadership for the project.
Our conversation then took an unexpected turn. I asked how we could kick-start the project and ensure the larger joint vision we brainstormed earlier could be implemented. The response?
…..well… our vision and ideas would make a huge, profound impact on the project… but… it would hurt the current project leader’s feelings because we would deviate too far from their initial plan… and, at this point, we should just follow the initial plan because it would be EASIER without hurting anyone’s feelings… besides, the project would still be considered successful using the initial plan…
Instantly, I was horrified. Instantly, I was offended. Instantly, my past work and contributions to the project were felt cheapened. Settling for a mediocre success scares the hell out of me.
Your personal compass for true success must be guided by more than perceived success. Achieving a true success is a hard, sometimes uncomfortable journey. One true success creates more personal satisfaction than racking up ten mediocre successes.
The curse of mediocrity, in my opinion, is the self fulfilling loop of mediocrity that happens when mediocre success becomes the standard your peers look to when holding you accountable.
Mediocrity living and thriving in projects we undertake will eventually takeover and determine the outcome. Mediocre expectations must get flushed out and dealt with at the start of a project.
I want my peers, mentors, and friends to speak up when I try to pass a mediocre success as good enough. Don’t you?
Categories: Leadership, Relationships.
In life, there are many factors we continually strive to optimize: happiness, love, money, success, and power are a few. Each of the factors I listed have the ability to be improved drastically by culling, cutting back, or cultivating our relationships. Optimizing relationships is not easy but I believe it is quite necessary given the potential life long benefits.
Applying the 80-20 rule, a.k.a the Pareto Principle, to relationships boils down to choosing which sets of causes and effects we want to limit or maximize. The 80-20 rule restated with respect to relationships goes something like this:
Roughly 80% of the effects, given a cause, come from 20% of your relationships.
My personal corollary to that statement is:
Constantly contribute 80% of your energy to the 20% of your relationships generating the effects you want to optimize for.
The concept is simple but very hard to apply. The personal thought process behind my constant relationship introspection would be:
Selfish? Ambitious? Crazy? Right on? … I’ll let you make that call in the comments 
Also, what factors do you optimize for in YOUR life?
Categories: Community, Leadership, Relationships.
If you were to examine a few of your peers to generate a list of people each of them respects personally or professionally, could you? Would you be able to put them into tiers or differing levels/kinds of respect? Until trying this exercise out for myself recently I would have said YES. The truth is, it can be very difficult. I spent a good deal of time thinking about each person I was generating a list for. In the end, a couple people only had one or two folks I could honestly say they respected with any level of certainty. I did however spot one glaring correlations when reviewing my lists.
The most interesting correlation revealed in my personal lists was that the more respect I had for someone, the easier it was for me to identify who they respected.
Who are the folks on the top of your own respect list? Mine includes but is not limited to:
Who are your most respected connections and why? What other correlations do you see when you start writing them down as I did?
Try making your own respected lists for the peers and colleagues in your life and leave a comment sharing what you found!
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Categories: Entrepreneurship, Leadership.
Leadership requires attentive listening backed by an assertive communication. I believe the most effective leaders I personally know are all relatively soft-spoken individuals.
Delivering a narrow message to a broad audience using obtrusive communication channels creates a perception of pontification (and spam). True leaders do not pontificate onto others. True leaders do not need a volume knob to drown out critical opinions. True leaders defer to other leaders for matters outside their knowledge base or skill set. Most importantly:
True leaders target an engage-able audience by reducing the signal vs. noise ratio of the medium the message is being delivered through.
Being an assertive, soft-spoken leader is about finding and engaging the right audience or group who are willing to act and follow your lead. If you find yourself turning the volume knob up on a particular matter; examining your own knowledge base and skill set may help root out your personal leadership shortcomings.
Every situation a leader encounters will not be perfectly suited to their style of leadership. Recognizing and handling the ill fitting situations deftly with grace is a skill all leaders should strive to improve upon. Being self-aware of the moment you reach for the volume knob is an easy skill to learn….as long as your volume isn’t already turned up to 11.
What other advantages have you found by having a soft-spoken approach to leadership?
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Leadership.
This post was inspired by a good friend of mine, Justin Brady. He is relentless in pursuing meaningful relationships inside and outside the business world he operates within. His video from Ignite Des Moines is included at the end of this post. The idea for his “Networking for Nerds” talk came from guiding me through some of these tips at a real event. I was intrigued by his honesty and willingness to help me. I told Justin point blank I would love his great advice to be disseminated farther than that night. Thankfully, he came and did the talk.
Justin affirms my belief that being a small business owner makes you part of a select group of people that are not afraid to strike it out on their own. He proves that we are all in this together. We need to stick together. We need to know what others are doing. We need to have an idea of each others clientele. Even more specifically, each others IDEAL client. The importance of referring preferred clientele can not be understated.
Refer someone to business you love but aren’t sure they know you. You may kick-start a relationship and a line of referrals in the process. Word of mouth is a powerful force. If you are disengaged in the local business community (or a jerk), no one will be sending business your direction. Fight against the urge to silo yourself. Helping other small businesses out is EASY and it costs you NOTHING.
Again, we are all in this together. There is strength in numbers. Let’s use math and common sense to our advantage.
Now, take a minute or five to learn a thing or two from Justin.
Networking for Nerds Guide by Justin Brady in PDF Format (with a bonus tip!)
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Categories: Community.
This is the first post in a series of posts that show how common the roots of coworking and Open Source are. Illustrating the commonalities was the focus of my talk at Highlight Midwest and I believe it is worth writing some of those thoughts and concepts down.
Coworking and Open Source communities are built around including people. A closer look reveals that there is different levels or rings associated with being included in a coworking or Open Source community.
Core developers make up the innermost ring on most Open Source projects. Non-core developers, active forum members, outspoken mailing list participants, and power users make up the next ring or rings. The outer rings of the project are made up by users who attempt to stay informed about the project or those who are not users but simply keep abreast of its ongoings.
Full-time desks and the space owner are usually at the middle of most coworking communities. The next level out is the part-timers and others that frequent the space during the day. Another ring out are those participating in events held at the coworking spaces. A good example of coworking Rings of Inclusion is found in the plan descriptions of Citizen Space.
Allowing participation at many different levels is one way that coworking and Open Source create thriving communities. Utilize the Rings of Inclusion concept for your community. You won’t be disappointed.
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Categories: Community, Coworking, Open Source.
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Over the last few months I have learned a many lessons dealing with how to build a successful community. When I started thinking about creating a coworking space in Des Moines I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew it would take a couple of months of searching for the perfect location. I knew it would take a few weeks to implement my vision once the lease was signed. I knew I wanted to build a community around the coworking space that I came to call Impromptu Studio.
The recipe for creating a successful community is quite simple: Never forget that individuals are community is king. Community-wide engagement is instrumental in making communities thrive. It is crucial to provide access to avenues for socialization and the free exchange of ideas. Online avenues could be websites, blogs, forums, e-mail lists, Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace. Real world avenues could be group meetings, luncheons, or organized events.
It is easy for folks to say they love your idea or concept. It is easy for those same people to say they would jump at the opportunity to take part in what you are creating. However, Alex Hillman of Indy Hall says it best, “If you build it, they won’t come.” Constantly remind yourself that talk is cheap. Instead, find ways to engage your community that will create meaningful connections and bonds. Having more than cursory involvement in your community is absolutely paramount to your success.
We all think we can mask our real motives behind our interactions with others….the truth is, people can usually see right through your thinly veiled intentions. Instead of hiding what are motives, why not ask or tell your community what you are up to. Community resentment is not a situation you want to find yourself in. Be proud of what you are doing. Let them know what you are up to! Having a community rally around you is a great feeling.
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Categories: Community.
1. Checkout source:
git-svn clone svn+ssh://path/to/trunk
2. Work Work Work then:
git commit (/path/to/file/or/dir/ or -a)
or
git add /path/to/file.extension
git commit (/path/to/file/or/dir/ or -a)
3. Repeat Step 2 Ad nauseum
4. Sync up with svn repository again or to sync up any time(see 7 for stashing uncommitted changes):
git-svn rebase
5. If there are conflicts:
Fix offending file/files
git-add offending file/files
git-rebase --continue
6. Commit work back to svn repository
git-svn dcommit
7. To sync with uncommitted local changes (stash, sync, restore stashed changes and delete stash)
git-stash
git-svn rebase
git-stash apply
git-stash clear
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Categories: Open Source.
Daniel Shipton is the CEO of BitMethod and operations director at Impromptu Studio. He rocks a diverse background spanning virtual reality, app development, coworking, and community building.
Dan is an established leader of Des Moines’ emerging technology culture – building relationships with events like Ignite Des Moines, Whuffaoke, and the Movement Bash and encouraging others in his support of user groups, tech conferences, hack nights, start-up weekends, and arts events. He is passionate about big ideas and has worked with organizations including John Deere, BNO News and Iowa State University.