Inner Source Building Blocks:Pull Request Culture & Psychological Safety

Guy MartinDirector – Open@ADSKguy.martin@autodesk.com | @guyma | @AutodeskOSS

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What I Do

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Why I Do It

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Inner Source Building Blocks

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Building a ‘Pull Request’ Culture Shared responsibility/control

Code Processes Policies Information Tools

Engaged employees drive collaboration Review prevents ‘anarchy’

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Lack of psychological safety

Lack of time/motivation

Lack of tooling

Barriers to a Pull Request Culture

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Psychological Safety

A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.

Amy Edmondson Harvard Business School Professor

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amy-edmondson-on-psychological-safety-2015-11

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Psychological Safety Particulars

Relevant For Areas Of

High uncertainty

High interdependence

E.g. – technology/software development

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Psychological Safety Goals

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Frame work as learning problems, as opposed to execution problems Acknowledge uncertainty, ask for everyone’s help

2. Acknowledge your own fallibility "I may miss something — I need to hear from you.”

3. Model curiosity by asking a lot of questions Embrace the power of ignorance (different from stupidity)

Improving Psychological Safety

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Frame work as learning problems, as opposed to execution problems. Release Early, Release Often Allow the community to learn from/build on mistakes

2. Acknowledge your own fallibility. High-functioning communities have this Not all communities do (Linux Kernel!)

3. Model curiosity by asking a lot of questions. Active participation in chat, mailing lists, bug lists, etc. Ask (and try to answer) a lot of questions

Psychological Safety == Open Source?

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Practice Radical Candor Be honest, but constructive

Default to Open Decisions Communication Documentation

Meritocracy Reward the best contributions, not the highest ranking people

Egalitarianism Make it open to people of all levels Encourage a diversity of participation/viewpoints

Open Source Practices Psychological Safety

Thank You