Re: Q to all candidates: about advancing Debian (as organisation) while not being DPL
>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org> writes:
Chris> I'd be very interested if you and the other candidates could
Chris> elaborate on their thoughts in this approximate area.
Chris> As a bit of background, I've actually written this reply
Chris> twice before (or, admittedly ones somewhat similar) but it
Chris> was difficult for it to come across as not appearing churlish
Chris> or otherwise grumbling about my experiences. However, I hope
Chris> with this paragraph, readers will read it in its intended
Chris> context regardless. :)
Chris> So, in general, I fear that the candidates may be
Chris> over-estimating how much of the DPL's tasks can be delegated
Chris> to teams or other individuals.
I consider this one of the big unknowns. I may be more prepared than
some of the other candidates in that I think I've had relevant
experience from the IETF. Area Directors (and the IETF chair) get
consulted in much the same way, so I do think that I have experience
understanding what you can and cannot delegate in a large volunteer
project. However Debian is unique. I've budgeted a fair bit of time
enough that even if I'm not very successful in delegating I can still be
successful as a DPL.
I will be disappointed if I don't find some way to get more people
involved in the work of dispute resolution. Reading between the lines
in your bits mails, it sounds like that is something where getting more
people involved is important. Honestly though, I cannot actually plan
how I could delegate that until I experience it. By working with the
anti-harassment team I'm starting to understand what might be possible
and starting to understand what role that team can play in the process.
Even if I am not successful at delegating that work I think I'll be good
at it. However I think longer-lasting changes are possible if we're
able to do two things. First, in addition to resolving disputes help
people learn new ways of approaching conflict while in the process.
Yeah, that means things take even more time at first. Secondly,
delegate what we can and over time make that not a one person job.
Fortunately the above are incremental: there is value even if I don't
fully succeed.
Chris> A lot of teams have entirely-legitimate questions before
Chris> acting (for example, checking over some document) and often
Chris> check-in with the DPL, asking for advice, guidance or whether
Chris> the Leader's experience or contacts mean they have been
Chris> exposed to a novel angle or approach to what they are trying
Chris> to achieve. This is, of course, eminently sensible and
Chris> healthy IMHO.
It is, but it's also something that a good manager balances. When I go
to my boss, he often doesn't directly answer my question. Instead he
focuses on empowering me; on answering the part where he does have
specific experience but helping me get to a point where I'm able to do
more on my own in the future. I'm not as good as he is at that skill,
but I do have years of experience mentoring people and empowering them
across multiple companies and volunteer projects. I don't have any
magic bullets, but where skill, dedication and experience can help with
delegations, I think I'm in a good place.
Chris> More importantly however the majority of tasks that land on a
Chris> DPLs plate may technically and «prima facie» be delegatable
Chris> but the total time and energy required to forward it, ensure
Chris> it is correctly followed-up on, context switch, ping later,
Chris> forward any replies, etc. etc. etc. regretfully exceed said
Chris> time/energy of just "getting it done" yourself to begin with.
I'd certainly get out of the loop of forwarding replies; redirect better
than proxy for time management:-)
And yet the rest of what you say--particularly context switching,
pinging, following up are all true.
Chris> I suppose part of the solution here might be to ensure and
Chris> promote an atmosphere where teams feel more empowered to push
Chris> ahead without quasi-approval (as well as ensuring some
Chris> requests reach the "right" place in the first place) but
Chris> these are really far harder, long-term goals that would
Chris> require supreme dedication to even start to move the needle
Chris> on. I'm afraid I would be somewhat skeptical of any candidate
Chris> who thought they possess any sort of magic bullet to any of
Chris> this before being truly exposed to it outside of the abstract
Chris> concepts I've outlined above. :)
Yep, and I think it's the long-term cultural changes we perhaps need.
I certainly have been known to have lots of dedication especially when I
see small results that might become bigger over time.
Succeeding is important to what I want to accomplish in making cultural
changes around communication. However,I'm prepared to be a successful
DPL even if I don't figure out how to move that needle very far.
In other areas I do think delegating specific tasks will work well. As
an example Martin talked about working on better corporate engagement
and on identifying and describing grants that Debian developers could
apply for.
I think that sort of delegation is similar enough to existing team
delegations and seperable enough that it could work quite well.
Similarly, some of Jonathan's ideas seem very seperable and easily delegated.
Chris> Indeed, some of these issues are not /really/ solvable in the
Chris> sense that I'm not sure I, as a member of the Debian
Chris> community, would want to be without the option of being able
Chris> to ask the Project Leader for their connections, experience
Chris> or plain-old sanity checking before doing something
Chris> especially if that action might affect the reputation or
Chris> image of the Project.
Agreed.
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