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Async-First Working Groups #69
russelltrow
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I think this is a good idea. However, I also think we do get value from our
community group synchronous meetings. Maybe we should have regular purely
social synchronous catchups? It would be more efficient as we wouldn't have
to go through the processes and we could vary them early morning/late
afternoon?
…On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 3:59 PM Russell Trow ***@***.***> wrote:
@jawache <https://github.com/jawache>, @russelltrow
<https://github.com/russelltrow> & @Sophietn <https://github.com/Sophietn>
would like to propose running the following experiment which would alter
how the GSF's Working Groups operate. We very much welcome your comments.
Summary of the Issue
Currently, synchronous meetings (meetings where everyone gets on a call
simultaneously) are how the Foundation functions, our consensus model and
voting require synchronous meetings. This is challenging for people who are
not in the same time zone as the meeting for people who have a meeting
clash.
Meetings are currently a core component of the functioning of GSF.
image.png (view on web)
<https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/oc/assets/11027021/2a7fac82-97bb-4f4a-984d-3076f00884b8>
A meeting-centric way of working on distributed teams can undermine deep
work and flow, inclusion, flexible work and in the long run knowledge
sharing. It also doesn’t lend itself to scale.
Adopting Asynchronous Collaboration in Distributed Software Teams
<https://www.infoq.com/articles/asynchronous-collaboration-software-teams/>
We’ve observed Meetings can be a blocker to collaboration
- Meeting are cancelled due to chairs being unavailable or low turnout
on the day
- Meetings don’t always achieve quorum and are therefore unable to
take decisions
- Meetings can happen at inconvenient hours for those outside Europe.
Members who want to attend but are unable to, are left frustrated they are
missing out on key discussions & updates
- Items might sit on an agenda without discussion for a period of time
- The pace of decision making is tied to the cadence of meetings
- Meetings can lack the preparation to be effective
There is little engagement from the majority of the GSF membership
- Meetings have highly variable turnouts and consistently small
numbers of attendees
- Meeting attendees are consistently the same people
- Those who can attend meetings take the majority of decisions
What happens in meetings, stays in meetings
- Meetings are not documented comprehensively
- The outcomes of discussions are not always clear
- Actions agreed in meeting aren’t always tracked and followed up on
Recent examples
- Cancelled: 2023.11.30 · Issue #88 ·
Green-Software-Foundation/standards-wg
<Green-Software-Foundation/standards-wg#88>
- Cancelled: 2023.09.19 · Issue #94 ·
Green-Software-Foundation/opensource-wg
<Green-Software-Foundation/opensource-wg#94>
- Cancelled: [Cancelled] 2023-11-07 - Oversight Committee Agenda ·
Issue #60 · Green-Software-Foundation/oc
<#60>
- No quorum: 2023-11-08 - Green Software Community Working Group
Agenda · Issue #90 · Green-Software-Foundation/community-wg
<Green-Software-Foundation/community-wg#90>
- Outcomes unclear: 2023-09-04 - Oversight Committee Agenda · Issue
#47 · Green-Software-Foundation/oc
<#47>
Our Hypothesis
Adopting a more asynchronous operating model for our Working Groups will
have a positive impact on the the levels of engagement and contributions
from across the GSF Member Organisations by removing the barriers to
contributions imposed by physical meetings.
------------------------------
Proposal
We would like more asynchronous activity in the GSF, we would like to
experiment with the Oversight Committee and then Working Groups moving to
an *Async-First approach*.
Being "async-first" is not about being "async-only". It’s about
recognising the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous communication
patterns and being thoughtful about when you use either. The default, of
course, is to start most collaborations, asynchronously.
Adopting Asynchronous Collaboration in Distributed Software Teams
<https://www.infoq.com/articles/asynchronous-collaboration-software-teams/>
Actions
- OC discuss this proposal in January and agree how to proceed
- Measure the current level of engagement and contribution
- Run a 2-3 month pilot with the Oversight Committee starting from
February 2024
- Evaluate the pilot
- Identify the first Working Group to go Async
This would mean
- Fostering a culture where meetings are a last resort, and ensuring
that unavoidable meetings can be contributed to asynchronously
- Working Groups stop their regular meetings - extraordinary meetings
are still possible
- All collaboration, discussions and decisions only take place on
GitHub
- More regular asynchronous communication. Emails highlighting any
opportunities for asynchronous collaboration. Announcement of all new
motions and discussions
- An improved approach to remote decision-making and implementing the
GSF governance model
- Being more handbook-first
<https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first>
so roles, responsibility, policies and procedures are clear for everyone
- Replacing verbal status updates with automated dashboards and reports
- More closely monitoring levels of engagement from WG Chairs and
Contributors
We won’t
- Change how the Steering Committee operates
- Change how Project teams operate, they can continue to choose how to
run
- Make any changes without consulting with relevant stakeholders
Measures of Success
- Increase in % of WG mailing list who contribute to GitHub Issues,
Pull Requests or Discussions
- Increase in the diversity of contributors (Member Organisation,
country, timezone)
- Increase in WG contributor satisfaction
- Decrease in decision-making time (TBC)
- Positive outcomes without a significant increase in Project Manager
effort
------------------------------
References Articles
- Adopting Asynchronous Collaboration in Distributed Software Teams
<https://www.infoq.com/articles/asynchronous-collaboration-software-teams/>
- The Future Of Work Is Asynchronous—And These Companies Are Leading
The Way <https://blog.trello.com/the-future-of-work-is-asynchronous>
- 10 companies that prioritize asynchronous communication.
<https://www.modernteams.co/post/10-companies-that-prioritize-asynchronous-communication>
- How to Move Your Team Toward Async-First Communication
<https://async.twist.com/how-to-move-your-team-toward-async-first-communication/>
- The Art of Async: The Remote Guide to Team Communication
<https://twist.com/remote-work-guides/remote-team-communication?ref=async.twist.com>
- How async is your team? Take the Async Questionnaire to find out
<https://async.twist.com/async-questionnaire/>
Guidance
- A month with no meetings - An experiment to build an Async-First
culture <https://assets.techsmith.com/docs/async-first.pdf>
- The Async-First Playbook
<https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-gb/insights/books/async-first-playbook>
- Asynchronous agile | Go “async-first” <https://www.asyncagile.org/>
- How We Work | 37signals Employee Handbook
<https://basecamp.com/handbook/08-how-we-work#asynchronously>
- The complete guide to asynchronous and non-linear working
<https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/non-linear-workday/>
- How to embrace asynchronous communication for remote work
<https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/asynchronous/>
- The importance of a handbook-first approach to communication
<https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/handbook-first/>
- GitLab Handbook Usage
<https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first>
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2 replies
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I agree that this is a good idea and that there could be an element of a synchronous social meet. We would need to ensure that the social stays a social. But I do like the async idea a lot. |
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Totally, we're talking about regular social calls also, almost like what we used to have but even more social to ensure we still have a connection point with each other. Those calls should be at multiple times of the day to be inclusive of different timezones. What would you want in those kinds of social calls? |
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I love the detail in here - I ask my team to read the GitLab Remote Work playbook, and take the certificate - All Remote | The GitLab Handbook - for all of the reasons you're listing, and I see it at the bottom of your guidance. Sounds like a great way forward. |
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1 reply
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That's such a good resource @Sealjay. @russelltrow I think we might all benefit from taking this course? Perhaps even add to our PM onboarding https://www.coursera.org/learn/remote-team-management |
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In the sync calls I really like the chance to discuss high level stuff:
what we are doing, what's working well, what we think needs improvement but
is that all stuff that should move to async?
…On Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 8:54 PM Asim Hussain ***@***.***> wrote:
That's such a good resource @Sealjay <https://github.com/Sealjay>.
@russelltrow <https://github.com/russelltrow> I think we might all
benefit from taking this course? Perhaps even add to our PM onboarding
https://www.coursera.org/learn/remote-team-management
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@jawache, @russelltrow & @Sophietn would like to propose running the following experiment which would alter how the GSF's Working Groups operate. We very much welcome your comments.
TL;DR
We would like more asynchronous activity in the GSF, we would like to experiment with the Oversight Committee and then Working Groups moving to an Async-First approach.
Summary of the Issue
Currently, synchronous meetings (meetings where everyone gets on a call simultaneously) are how the Foundation functions, our consensus model and voting require synchronous meetings. This is challenging for people who are not in the same time zone as the meeting for people who have a meeting clash.
Meetings are currently a core component of the functioning of GSF.
We’ve observed
Meetings can be a blocker to collaboration
There is little engagement from the majority of the GSF membership
What happens in meetings, stays in meetings
Recent examples
Our Hypothesis
Adopting a more asynchronous operating model for our Working Groups will have a positive impact on the the levels of engagement and contributions from across the GSF Member Organisations by removing the barriers to contributions imposed by physical meetings.
Proposal
We would like more asynchronous activity in the GSF, we would like to experiment with the Oversight Committee and then Working Groups moving to an Async-First approach.
Actions
This would mean
We won’t
Measures of Success
References
Articles
Guidance
Decision Making
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