Long ago, at a Mozilla Summit... well, last week... several Mozillians planned an afternoon "supporting session" called "Ideas Into Action: Next Steps for Me and My Team". It was planned for Sunday afternoon, but for a variety of reasons (mostly, I think, the plethora of amazing technical Open Sessions that cropped up like mushrooms after a rain) was not well attended. Karen Rudnitski, Selena Deckelmann, Ernest Chiang, and myself, had put some thought into a framework for y'all. I think it is still helpful. Maybe especially now, a week after Summit, with the clouds of #MozFlu and our hangovers and jetlag dissipating at last. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with finding time for my big ideas and wild notions among the day to day, already, again.
To that end, and to further the goals of our once poorly attended session, I submit to you:
Ideas Into Action: Next Steps for Me and My Team - Blog Edition
I encourage us all to consider the following four steps:
Remember what got you excited at Summit!
Was it the "Million Mozillians" idea? Candy Crush on Shumway? Security Champions? Appmaker, Marketplace, L20N? A conversation with someone you didn't know before - whether from Botswana or Belize (or Boston)? Write it all down. Big and small things. Maybe you already did this part. Find those notes.
Personally, I was really excited by the idea of the "internet the world needs", and volunteer community security champions, and open badges, and this totally badass robot made from an old One Laptop Per Child box that the folks from Uruguay brought to the World's Fair…. or the Innovation Fair…. one of them). How to make a Popcorn class work in a situation where there isn't reliable wireless (local web server of course). All the open hardware stuff, and Liz Henry's "bug bracelets". And every new person I met.
Remember the four pillars Mitchell walked us through.
Build, Empower, Teach, Shape. How do your favorite Summity things connect to the four pillars?
Come up with goals that tie these ideas together for you - in terms of how you could further the mission, build the internet the world needs - through what you do, who you know, and your own unique contributions.
Think of small, achievable actions, that will move you forward on these goals.
One for each. Or a few, but then only consider the first one as an actual "to do" item for now.
Think of another person (probably a Mozillian) who could hold you accountable for these actions, and ask them to meet with you at regular intervals to discuss progress.
Offer to hold them accountable, too. Keep meeting with them and iterating through "small actions"… and watch for big results. (This trick is not my invention, I got it from TRIBE... and it's been working for me!)
To that end, and to further the goals of our once poorly attended session, I submit to you:
Ideas Into Action: Next Steps for Me and My Team - Blog Edition
I encourage us all to consider the following four steps:
Remember what got you excited at Summit!
Was it the "Million Mozillians" idea? Candy Crush on Shumway? Security Champions? Appmaker, Marketplace, L20N? A conversation with someone you didn't know before - whether from Botswana or Belize (or Boston)? Write it all down. Big and small things. Maybe you already did this part. Find those notes.
Personally, I was really excited by the idea of the "internet the world needs", and volunteer community security champions, and open badges, and this totally badass robot made from an old One Laptop Per Child box that the folks from Uruguay brought to the World's Fair…. or the Innovation Fair…. one of them). How to make a Popcorn class work in a situation where there isn't reliable wireless (local web server of course). All the open hardware stuff, and Liz Henry's "bug bracelets". And every new person I met.
Remember the four pillars Mitchell walked us through.
Build, Empower, Teach, Shape. How do your favorite Summity things connect to the four pillars?
Come up with goals that tie these ideas together for you - in terms of how you could further the mission, build the internet the world needs - through what you do, who you know, and your own unique contributions.
Think of small, achievable actions, that will move you forward on these goals.
One for each. Or a few, but then only consider the first one as an actual "to do" item for now.
Think of another person (probably a Mozillian) who could hold you accountable for these actions, and ask them to meet with you at regular intervals to discuss progress.
Offer to hold them accountable, too. Keep meeting with them and iterating through "small actions"… and watch for big results. (This trick is not my invention, I got it from TRIBE... and it's been working for me!)
I cannot wait to see what we do.
