InnerSource & Monkeys

“Everyone loves a monkey” became the slogan that fifteen people adopted at the InnerSource Commons Gathering in Dublin this month.?

The gathering was incredibly successful. We spent two days generating new patterns and materials to benefit the greater InnerSource community. Between sessions, we did a facilitated LEGO Serious Play session to discover how we think. We also defined what InnerSource means to us as individuals and as a collective team.

The activity was fun and eye opening, we could not be possessive of our contributions when working with a team. In order for this to happen, trust had to be built. We used the David Rock SCARF Model to build the team by instilling security, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. This model says that if you instill these feelings, people will work together more effectively and be open to collaboration. If you cause the opposite feelings, people will become defensive and resist collaboration.

Soon enough, a group of near strangers became an effective team. During an exercise, someone added a monkey figure on a flagpole because it could add some humor to the activity. That monkey created a sense of togetherness that lasted past the end of the two days because that contributor added it for the team's benefit and not just their own. It was an individual contribution that created a better experience.

During the LEGO exercises we discussed how our individual builds and collaborative builds related to InnerSource and the interactions between contributors and teams:

Opening projects to contributions from external teams is a step in the right direction, but there may still be a sense of possessiveness, our team versus theirs. The goal is to make all contributors equal. Building trust and a sense of fairness between teams encourages stronger contributions. The diverse perspectives across teams facilitate the development of more comprehensive solutions.

Current and complete documentation gives potential contributors a better understanding of the environment they are working with and style of contribution that will be beneficial. It clearly lays out expectations. Quality documentation tells contributors that the project is important to someone and maintained. The more complete and thorough the information, the more contributors will understand and trust that someone is invested enough in the project to review their pull request and merge it to make the project even better. Quality documentation promotes a sense of fairness and gives autonomy to contributors because they understand they are on an even playing field.

The white boarding sessions and team building exercises during InnerSource Commons Gathering showed everyone there that team building promotes collaboration and promoting certain practices will create a better opportunity for the success of? InnerSource among teams.