1 Introduction
what this training does and doesn’t cover
Most people would rather fail than change.
— Robert Wilson
- But change does happen, follows patterns, and can be guided
- This workshop introduces a few basic ideas and tools for getting an organization to make a lasting change to its goals and/or the way it operates
- Assumes discussion and action are safe in your environment
- Exercises can be done individually but work better in small groups (3-4 people)
- Also work better if done synchronously
- But may be done asynchronously if a workshop runs out of time
Note
Sessions are not recorded, and we request that you do not share notes or exercise results with people who did not take part without the prior, explicit permission of all attendees.
1.1 Learner Persona
- Sabina, 28, has a master’s degree in animal physiology and now works as a data analyst for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company.
- She takes open access publishing and open source software for granted, but has never been involved in politics or advocacy beyond signing a few online petitions.
- Sabina’s company doesn’t have a policy on staff contributing to open source projects, and the head of her department occasionally grumbles about “all this diversity stuff” distracting people from “real work”. She wants unambiguous permission for the former and official company support for the latter.
- Sabina doesn’t mind public speaking, but finds face-to-face conflict very stressful.
1.2 Prerequisites
- How to run a meeting
- Patience
- Society of Research Software Engineering was years in the making
- But has normalized RSE careers in the UK and worldwide
1.3 Not Covered
- Community building
- Lots of good guides, including (Alinsky 1989; Brown 2007, 2007; Lakey 2018)
- Important to distinguish community of practice from community of purpose
- Communication skills
- Change won’t happen unless someone can write and speak convincingly
- See (Kuchner 2011) for some useful insights
- Electoral politics
- If we were serious about open science, we would train cohorts of candidates to run for the boards of our professional societies
- And school boards and city councils and…