Principles for collaboration
A short foreword
Being aware of all the positives of a “network of unregulated affects”, here at infokitchen i seek to organize media-, culture-, literature-, design- and computer professionals who desire a bigger impact for their working time spent, while at the same time reducing the amount of daily stress on their bodies and minds.
This mind set has partially evolved because i have experience with trying to start-up a product all by myself and i have practical experience with working with a variety of teams. I know that having some guiding thoughts written down is good preparation for openly discussing them. Additionally i believe that sharing some state of mind when working together is important and even more so when there are very few resources (financial, personal, timely) available for doing well.
I successfully worked a lot in projects which fall into the category of “having very little resources” and I’ve unsuccessfully worked with inexperienced individuals (or sometimes just “assholes”) with many resources at hand. Thus sometimes, what could become some lifetime spent very well suddenly turned into hard times for everyone. In both cases, sharing some state-of-mind about each others view on work is helpful.
Do-it-yourself vs Do-it-together
For me there are some clear positives in trying to organize at work and those can be understood as a desire for more efficient work in a “doing-it-together” (“DIT”) style. Dreaming of benefits like (I) less stress because not being an individual at work or (II) overall better results in less time and so (III) a bigger impact on more lives. An organization, like a real dream team, where everyone does what he or she does (and wants to do) best while understanding the importance of focusing on ones own moves first, as all these inevitably affect all other nodes in a network. In any team the overall result is heavily dependent on each single one and how each one is able to communicate with everyone else involved. For guidance and further discussion i listed 10 of my thoughts on effective collaboration here. In the end, who wants to spent more time working than absolutely necessary to reach specific goal?
Guiding thoughts
With this principles, we believe to achieve the biggest impact as possible in other peoples life for the short time being and at the same time, don’t fuck up our-selfs on the way trying to do so.
1 Question your assumptions on a regular basis! (you know nothing)
2 Don't pretend to know a shitfuck if someone tries to communicate something to you! (you know nothing)
3 Take your time! (to sleep and eat good and to be better then the last time)
4 Do what you can do best! (and find the best team to do the rest)
5 Just be straight, we have absolutely no time to waste in your life (unless circumstances are really exceptionally well and challenging, a.k.a. the project is a party!)
6 Be thorough or be clever! (Touch the ground with your idea partner)
7 Think _with_ others! (Documents, sketches, drafts. Imagine, these are all people you're working with)
8 Always be prepared! (never waste other peoples fucking time)
9 Try to be profound! (argue, be "stupid")
10 If it isn't documented it hasn't happened! (self explaining)
Two more rules of thumb
You can just act responsible for what you do but this it what makes you as responsible as possible when it comes to those you interact with and others that entrust you
If you claim to be a super-node you need to be ready to take the shit (responsability) for others (too) otherwise you are simply not (a super-node)!
This notes were originally published on my blog on Dec 12, 2014 @ 17:43.