Community Global Writings, from Joss.

Your feedback was right to point out that the tasks we are being remunerated to do could be done by others; the manner in which the feedback came, however, was not.

"The summit left me with a feeling of unappreciation that partly (and rightly) derives from not making the time to visibly update on ideas and metalearnings, but what’s hurtful is that I felt judged for the lack of visible work, rather than acknowledging the work we had done to handle as many community needs as we could, under a small budget, and almost full-time."

I think a big problem of this lack of visibility of work is related to the very nature of the fellowship model: money attached to sometimes fuzzy concepts, people that mostly do the work alone, inexistent (or very rare, like bi annual) check-ins and scarce retrospection. The value of having smaller work items, executed collectively and processed weekly or every two weeks (with live updates on a recurring call) is that work is ensured to be useful, shared and agreed and no-one can express concerns and negative feedback afterwards: you need to show up to have a say

Another problem with documentation: we're obsessed (at least someone) with documenting and exposing our work - especially because we tend to work in isolation.

If I reflect on the 4 principles of Agile Manifesto, this shows me a lot that OuiShare at today is far from being an agile organization (one which puts value production, egalitarian teamwork and servant leadership at the forefront)

FROM: http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  (on a global scale we minimize interactions, these are mostly concentrated in summits)

• Working software over comprehensive documentation
  (we're obsessed with documenting, less with generating tangible pieces of value)

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  (We have a rigid 6 months contract - fellowship - budgeting management plan)

• Responding to change over following a plan
  (as I stressed at the summit, we need to move from 6 months strategymaking to liquid strategimaking and budgeting)

So when you say:

"A lack of documentation and having no time to guide each other are reasons that brought us to this:.."

I think instead what we lacked on a global community level was... COMMUNICATION

We always speak as we are a "whole" but the reality is that this community and organization is strongly shaped by few leaders and - as a matter of fact - is not resilient (depends on leaders which carry too much weight on their shoulders, centralize - they're not yet enough servant leaders - and tend to break up sometimes).
We will always have leaders but to quote Anto, we need to scale and enable leadership, and leadership starts from SHOWING UP.

For example when you say:

"Because there were no other team members beside Fran, Anto and I working on this deeper understanding every day, they are the only ones who can attest to my ultimate value– which is how Connectors look into validating someone’s reputation today, by checking with each other in case there’s no digital proof.
Even though our findings were public and open at all times, and my interventions were felt inside and outside the organization, our lack of awareness and curiosity tilted the balance to “interesting…. but…"

Did you reflect about what was the root problem for this issue? (again I think is lack of organic communication and process to get involved).

Communication is also key to ensure a process of continuous feedback and to build "operational" reputation (which is based on how much what you do is directly valued from others in their daily practice and not on how much you show others what you're doing)

Note also that if you build your knowledge deliverables mostly alone they will speak your language, and not the language of others (this is a remark that @antoninleonard also brought up sometimes, but I think that collaboration can help radically solve this issue)

Finally regarding backfeed and decentralization: there is a strong danger that decentralization will push us even more into... isolation so I really praise the work that is happening (apparently from some chats I had with some of you, again, lack of communication)

At the end you say:

"For a month and a half I’ve been revisiting a question we ask each other recurringly:
“What is really connecting us to each other inside OuiShare?”,
only this time not finding a convincing answer. "

This is a critical thing to understand for everyone but especially for founders and people that, to quote @francesca , bring their full self to OuiShare. This is a problem if we want OuiShare to be something which is able to create a really crossing-border, international, diverse community (something that rarely exist in this world, maybe don't, maybe never will). This is a call for understanding our culture.

Congratulating for you work
Lastly, I want to congratulate for all your amazing work, especially in

Ease welcoming of new people
Having brought empathy and listening on the table so widely and strongly

PS: A personal feedback on your communication style.
I love it, looks like you're talking with a poet fairy every time, but is sometimes way too indirect and hard to understand, it takes tens of interactions with you to get familiar :)

PS2: you owe me tequila twice.

PS3: hope this comment is worth.

I've started many times to write/delete/re-write an answer to this essential thread. I have the feeling that it's too complex to be written but should be said instead.

So, I'll just mention the most important point : I acknowledge the work you've done so far, and I think you're the good person to do it. I'm kind of fed up of the "let's co-do something, co-organize, co-write, co-blablabla"... in the end, nothing happens. I do believe in leadership, experimentation, right to fail. I often lack time to read, answer, even listen to everything that happens in OuiShare, and as long as I'm not doing something concrete in a specific project or with a specific person, I'm not allowed to criticize it/her/him. In one word, I TRUST YOU.

Bring us some Tequila next time we all meet Joss :-)

Thanks for the work you did already, by trying to make visible what is indeed mostly virtual.
Yes, it's true we're not very good at documenting and keeping track of all, but it is also true that we all have very few time to read documentation, and we all know that following what happens within OuiShare, and trying to contribute on all these discussions and needed but invisible tasks, is (almost) a full-time job. I agree with Simone on the fact that we have to be better at fluid, agile communication. I also agree with you Joss on the question of culture. It is true that welcoming isn't really part of it (I wish it could change, but it's only a personal wish, I don't know if it is meant to change ?), as it is true that we need to get better at feedback, not only during our "in real life" meeting, but during all our virtual connexions. And we do need facilitators for that, to "hold the space" as some people put it :-)

Oh girl, you have been doing a lot of interesting work. I understand it was unclear to many but that often is the case in OuiShare. And I feel it is an issue from both the ends: doer and observer...And as said above in different comments: transparent communication and empathy towards your co-workers is the key! I think it is very important we all appreciate online/offline others effort (it makes us so happy), don't close ourself for critics (this is very important for learning) and develop an empathetic approach in our work (it is important others understand what we are doing; try to simplify).

Mucho amor Joss :) Just for being in the same boat I respect all the work of all the people involved, without doubt and without judging. Respect is what I feel about all of you. Nonagressive communication workshop is needed I think, perhaps for the next summit :)

Hey everybody. Big Thank You to those who responded above, for showing up ;)

---

Last week, a friend sent me this quote:
"Having the last word was once a sign of one’s wit and smarts. It meant that your comment had gravitas and staying power. But today, having the last word is the ultimate in weakness: It means being the person who doesn’t merit an answer."

I found eye-opening how such a simple paragraph expressed our "contributions world" right now, which is how I'm referring to the post-collaborative times we (us) are in: value is given to contributions in a criteria we haven't identified yet, with a tone that is heavy in distancing.

The quote above came from a NYT article that a 21-yr old wrote about dating as a millennial, and it couldn't be more close to how I see our culture here today: we lack the curiosity, love and energy to connect because it's been done so much and we seem to be beyond it; we miss to communicate in order to include; we fail to reflect on what we say to each other.

I agree that communication and connectivity are key issues to develop, I too see future societies (or teams, if we go small) struggling with this, and worse: at risk of losing its meaning in the transition.

You all know I'm very interested in vision and culture, and I'm aware that the "values" conversation is an ongoing and unsolved one in OuiShare, yet I would like to make a call to revisit it once more, but this time I propose we look for answers from a different perspective:
Which behaviors can be found, should be found, in the collaborative societies we promote?

If we agree that we should explore a vision that is made of all our voices, or a joint vision that allows the inclusion of new voices, perhaps our new values are there, and we're just lost in how overused the words have been.
Perhaps a new, joint language will be found on our way, and our practices will follow.

I see us coming back from holidays, breaks, and reflections, so I'll still be right here. Thank you, everyone.

---

@simonecicero , I appreciate you emphasizing the elements that shaped your feedback.
Here's what else.

Dear Joss, I felt inspired by your writings. I've recently read an article http://www.lemonde.fr/tant-de-temps/article/2015/06/19/patrick-viveret-il-faut-accepter-de-ne-pas-tout-vivre_4657892_4598196.html. It's about real living, choices, true love among others. It's very connected to what you say.

I have this feeling at the moment to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Not being able to listen, speak, love while being totally present. I guess I'm not the only one, which creates some frustrations in our community. So, "il faut accepter de ne pas tout vivre" :-)

Hey there, @samuelroumeau :)
You know what would be nice? To update our feelings toward FOMO.
I was re-watching Mr Nobody yesterday and remembered the idea of choices: we don't know the future and we don't know what to do; yet if we knew the future, we wouldn't know what to do either :)

Giving way instead of taking others out of the way.

Thanks a lot @jocelynibarra for having taken the time to express all that so clearly.
I want to jump on some of the things you says, and why I believe you are targeting a crucial issue within OuiShare, that I experienced and felt at my very first real contact with OuiShare, at the London summit. I remember the conversations I had with some of you on that topic, which really jumped to my face: how can we build a collaborative society, or even just a collaborative organization like OuiShare, if we don't pay attention to the basic daily peer-to-peer interactions, to the humans that we meet, whatever the context? I remember I was really disappointed, for example, that the people we needed for starting the day arrived 30min or 1h after the agreed time. I'm not judging anyone, just describing a fact and what I felt.
That is why we started that OuiCare team, to start discussing about that P2P interaction dimension of our organization, and of the collaborative society we aim to build, and proposing actions to work on that.

I do totally agree with you about the "less doing", and "more being" (that's what we call "presence", "being present") and that the community is not about WHAT we do, but HOW we are/do together. The example of feedback is clear: you were sad not because of the feedback in itself, but how it was given.
You emphasize here a tremendously important point I think. I love Krishnamurti, that Indian philosopher, and he says that "cooperation is the fun of being and doing together - not necessarily doing something in particular. [...] So real cooperation comes, not through merely agreeing to carry out some project together, but with the joy, the feeling of togetherness, if one may use that word, because in that feeling there is not the obstinacy of personal ideation, personal opinion." (Think on these things - Cooperation and sharing).
That's why I felt frustrated and sad when some people from some local community stayed on their side at the beginning of the summit, and then I felt so relieved and joyful when the "bubble burst" and I felt that "togetherness"...

I admit, and I already told you, that it is hard for me to understand what you say Jocelyn, I think it's because you express your ideas in a conceptual way and my head is more concrete oriented ;-) But thank you for sharing that document that helped me understand more clearly what you are doing ;-)

Hello Myriam,

Yes, I read you..

I see a lot of initiatives around developing our culture, or bits of bit... I can only hope we feel the desire to meet and tell each other what we're doing once we're more organized.

Following your thoughts on Krishnamurti, I have my linguists to my rescue :D Sometimes drawing lines in what's invisible marks the difference we need in order to (re)act.

If words have gotten us this far, how can others not?

I'm guessing the governance exercise wil get us close to a joint space, and then Care, Welcoming, Content and Connectivity will be evident, and Culture will have its first apperance to be formally discussed. I obviously don't know this, but that's one path I can see.

Thank you for being open to my being conceptual (and sticking to it for myself). I am taking that into account for when it's time to work closely, and I'm mostly grateful for focusing on being concrete: that's our hint for balance ;)