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Re: [all candidates] beyond tech: how do you deal with humans?



On 2013-03-19, Gergely Nagy wrote:
> anarcat <anarcat@debian.org> writes:
>> Why are you good candidates for that role? What social skills do you
>> bring to the community in terms of mediation and leadership?
>
> I'm pretty darn good at mediation, did that both inside Debian (see an
> example shortly below) and outside of it. It is something I find
> challenging and satisfying, an area where I have had great success in
> the past, an area I find particularly interesting (people *are*
> interesting in general).
>
> I speak, I teach, I coach regularly on various topics (Debian included,
> of course), other times, I use a handful of magic dust, and make things
> simple. On other occassions, I evangelise. One of my fondest moments of
> recent years were hearing these words - said very quietly under her
> breath -, by a person who's been hating GNU/Linux for the past decade or
> so: "Can you get me a Debian sticker? I love Debian."
>
> Other times, I listen, and just stay invisible.
>
> To illustrate my skills, let me briefly mention a few accomplishments:

[...]

Thanks, those are pertty good answers.
   
>> How would you have dealt with the difficult decisions the previous DPL
>> had to make regarding various conflicts or problems that occurred during
>> his mandate(s)? Would you have intervened? How?
>
> This is something I'd rather not answer, on one hand, because it would
> take too long, and on another, because in the most interestring (for
> some values of interesting, anyway) cases, I simply do not have enough
> historical data to see the whole picture, therefore can't make a well
> informed judgement, either.

Too bad. :)

>> Could you give an example of such a situation where you have
>> successfully mediated a (potential) conflict? Which tools did you use to
>> deal with the situation?
>
> Although this happened years and years ago, when I was young, foolish
> and hot-headed, there's one particular feat I'm proud of to this day. 
>
> [...]
>
> This was a tough and dire situation, at a time when I wasn't half as
> much prepared, not half as much experienced as I am now.

Thanks for walking the plank, algernon - and exposing such a sensitive
example. I was disappointed to have no answer to my question, but you
seem to have provided the best one so far. :)

Good luck to all candidates,

A.

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