muratk

We at engageSPARK moved from jQuery mess to Ractive.js, which we're quite happy with. The UI components don't cause us much stress, because they're conceptually simple. What gives us headaches now is the data flow (stores and actions using reflux), so we're now thinking about remodeling this, and while doing so moving to redux. The particular technology is less often the problem, but how it's used, and that's been true for us, too.

> when people start giving them an operating place in the construction of governance, it can be a real problem

What do you mean by this? If you use them as guidelines for establishing processes and encouraging/discouraging behavior?

Hm, thanks for your thoughts, ArkyBeagle—we're currently figuring out the whole values thing, so these perspectives are really helpful. “very hard to wrestle with” is hitting the nail on the head.

I do believe values can be purposeful to the journey of a company. To my mind, there are two kinds of values: the ones that build your current behavior, and the ones that build the behavior you want.

The first I think is the emergent culture that you describe. In another comment you mention that it's hard to introspect to find values, and I agree. But by watching your culture (how everyone behaves), it's not impossible. These observations have helped us as a company to identify things that we like about our culture, and what we would like to see changed over time. These values you have, regardless of whether you write them down or not, whether you communicate them or not.

On a side-note: For me as a flawed person these observations have been tremendously helpful. For example, I noticed how I myself inadvertently help create a culture I really don't want by apparently making a very serious impression when focused on a task. That wasn't a problem before as far as I know (well…), but is now. Knowing, I can change my behavior, and mid-term our culture. :)

The second sort of values, the ones you want, I think are the ones described by marcosdumay. These are the values you want to be the future foundation of your behavior. I've seen cultures changing, so I want to believe it's possible to change our culture towards a desired state.

The thing about writing those values down is that you then can start measuring yourself against them. And a goal state is essential for improving anything. “I cannot understand myself”, maybe, but without something to compare yourself against, a contrast, an ideal, I'm not making much of an effort, either. :)

Thank you for handling public feedback gracefully.

Work the System, by Sam Carpenter.

Put into words what I intuitively tried to grasp: That a business (and our lifes, really) is comprised of systems that can be optimized independently of the rest, allowing for kaizen-style incremental, steady improvement of everything.

This is fun advice for team building (not in the let's-drink-a-beer sense, but in the forging-effective-work-teams sense). And it's great for learning what you need at the job — I am wondering how to get people to learn the other stuff. Looking at that new library, trying out a language feature they don't need (but maybe they might have), experimenting with our processes, challenging old habits, … none of it directly helps with the task at hand, but will be invaluable over time nevertheless.

The ideas reminded me of a Fowler article, and in fact he was just describing the LMAX's architecture: http://martinfowler.com/articles/lmax.html

Maybe that one is clearer for some.

Depends on what you define by “bad” team. I'm in the Philippines, and there's lots of BPO companies here (call centers, dev shops, …). They have to deal with a high rate of ppl leaving, and train their employees from scratch. Still, those companies are successful and ppl want those relatively well paid jobs, even if they'll jump ship for any reason at all. In this kind of environment, process is everything.

I wonder if there is a grey area where tech solutions can help push slow ideas by easing if not the “talking” then the spreading of ideas.

Let's say a FB group for nurses in Uttar Pradesh, where they can share their thoughts and ideas. You'd use the foot-approach to educate a part of the group. They can then gather experience, validate their learning and spread that. The idea would be that tech makes the idea spread faster, with you having to educate less people by foot.

The impact might be improved by working geographically, so that each nurse talking to the nurses she knows would be unlikely to talk to one already educated. But then, maybe overlapping groups would reinforce the learning. :p

Also, reminds me of an idea of an NGO had to record testimonies by voice calls, and then playing these testimonies to their peers. Still not the same as building a relationship, but probably goes in the same direction.

I do. The direct interaction with the pen, the aspect of drawing helps me immensely: I can pull that image from my memory much easier. Therefore, if I need to remember something, I'll write it down, instead of typing it.

Also, for communicating I find writing/drawing (whiteboard) a very handy tool (in the toolshed). There is the potential problem of bad handwriting, but I fix that by forcing myself to not being hasty.

Finally, there is the aspect of authenticity; that seems to be important: Many cafés and shops arguably use it to appear more humane.

The carefulness aspect I don't see myself. I can think while typing, whereas while writing my attention seems to be caught more by the task at hand.

I particularly enjoyed how he reacted to the social backlash to that line: By apologizing, not editing the article and ending with “I thank you.” Someone mature, on the internet?