On Feb 22, 2016, at 10:06 AM, phoebe ayers
<phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 5:03 AM, George Herbert
<george.herbert(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Lila's vision here clearly calls the change
campaign out as having explicitly intended to break eggs.
It further suggests strongly that this was the Board of Trustees' intention in hiring
her, and that they agreed with breaking those eggs.
Since you bring it up, and ask for the perspective of past trustees --
as one of the people who helped hired Lila, I did so because I found
much of how she thought about technology, contribution and open
knowledge compelling -- some of which is stated in her mail above --
and I hoped that she'd have the right combination of openness and
boldness to help lead us. I also thought she had the right foundation
of skills and values to do the work in our weird, complex environment.
The Board's initial task for her, as it might have been for any new
ED, was to learn the organization, continue with the usual running of
the organization, and to work with us and Wikimedia as a whole to
develop a strategy for the future. We expected and supported her
focusing on technology, given what a big piece of the organization
this is and her own background; and we supported explorations into the
organization's culture and how it could improve.
I've heard a few conspiracy theories about how the board must have
intended to clean house with Lila's hire. From my perspective, that
was not the case. We hoped of course that Lila would help the
organization improve -- but I am thinking of improvements like
speeding up development and reducing drama around software rollouts,
goals that I don't think would either come as a surprise to anyone or
are particularly controversial.
That does not mean I was surprised that some staff left, especially in
the first few months after she was hired. People do leave in a
leadership transition, for many reasons. And I also was not surprised
by the possibility that Lila might create a different style of
working environment at the Foundation, which would lead others to
leave later. I am surprised and saddened however by this current
crisis (and the last few months leading up to it). According to many
people, things seem to have gone quite badly in terms of
communication, giving guidance and developing organizational consensus
around strategy. Those problems are general problems of execution and
management, and that is deeply unfortunate.
best,
Phoebe
--
* I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers
<at>
gmail.com *
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