New pattern: Hive Mind #579
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mishari
requested review from
lenucksi,
NewMexicoKid,
cewilliams,
spier and
robtuley
as code owners
spier
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Thanks for sharing this @mishari.
Looks like a great start already.
A couple of ideas that the pattern might benefit from:
- can you explain the term "hive mind" somewhere? maybe best in the Solution section?
- possible rewrite the Solution section in full prose, rather than just bullets. This is the section that should contain the most meat, as many readers will skip from Problem straight to Solution.
- are you aware of any literature that we could reference in this field?
A purely technical comment:
I suggest to rename the file to hive-mind.md. The term pattern should not appear in the file name (as all of the files in these folders are patterns.
As this is an Initial pattern, I would be happy to merge this relatively quickly, to then motivate further input from other people in the community.
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| * Create a safe space (like a specific repo, brainstorming channel) where employees can share unfinished ideas. | ||
| * Encourage opening (WIP or draft) PRs that are not fully complete but provide a starting point for discussion. | ||
| * Cultivate a community culture that values and rewards collaboration and feedback. |
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How to cultivate this? Any specific things that one can do to work towards this?
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One other more general thought about this pattern: The pattern currently uses examples that seem to stem from both of these areas, it seems? |
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| ## Patlet | ||
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| TBD |
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How about: Provide a safe space and encourage partial/unfinished ideas to change the company culture to encourage and nurture innovation.
| * Environments where there's a fear of criticism or judgment for unfinished ideas. | ||
| * Cultures that prioritize individual achievement over collective collaboration. | ||
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| ## Forces |
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It's good, when possible, to express forces in terms of trade-offs; they are constraints that make the problem more challenging; trade-offs are possible at a cost. E.g., Inertia: employees often follow established cultural norms. Breaking the cultural norms and establishing new norms is difficult because of the same inertia.
This force isn't acting only on the employees who might have ideas to contribute, there is also the lever in the dimension of the force to change the norms.
I mention this because often with patterns, the solution involves expending effort/energy to use the levers to counteract the forces.
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We could add these instructions to our template. What do you think?
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@mishari your current version express forces in terms of trade-offs really clearly!
Is that something that you got ChatGPT to do, or did you write that on your own?
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Actually, after reading the forces again, I wonder if this is what @NewMexicoKid had in mind?
I thought that he meant trade-offs between two things that both have their benefits, so one must strike a balance that is right for the org, in order to address the specific problem.
The current Forces read more like <the bad thing> vs <the good thing>, so in that case it is clear that one would want to work more towards the good thing :)
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@spier, you're correct; however, even in the case where you have a "bad thing" vs a "good thing", the concept of the trade-off is important because you might not be able to attain the "good thing" except through a high cost (which may or may not be worthwhile). Further, because you're dealing with an assemblage of forces, moving the lever on one force could have unintended effects on the other forces.
The important bottom line is that the listing of forces should help the person who is thinking of using the pattern make adjustments to the proposed solution to fit their own context. E.g., the prospective pattern adopter may have a slightly different context or a slightly different set of forces. Seeing clearly which forces were present for the proposed solution in the pattern really can help them with adopting/adjusting this solution for a slightly different situation.
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Thank you, these are really helpful points.
As the Forces are one of the areas that I (and many others) are struggling with, I keep wondering how we might integrate some of this information into our template.
I could actually take your text above and integrate it "as is", and then see if it helps future pattern authors. That would be an easy test. Although getting feedback would take time, as brand new patterns are not submitted all that frequently.
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I've made a lot of edits, not entirely happy with it yet but have committed it as a WIP for further feedback. Thank you @spier and @NewMexicoKid for your input. |
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"Celebrate WIP" could be another title for this pattern. One thing that I found interesting: started reading the new Solution section and immediately thought "this sounds like ChatGPT". Then I saw that it indeed was. So apparently it does have some recognizable traits? Curious what you asked ChatGPT to get this output? |
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@spier I started out with this prompt: I'm writing an InnerSource Pattern called Hive Mind to motivate people in an org to "ask for help" Often in corporations, there's a strong need to release a finished idea into the open. But here in the InnerSource Commons, even a vague intuition can be expressed, with others in the community contributing to help make it whole, or discrediting it. When implementing InnerSource or even open source, one should be encouraged to open up early on to elicit feedback from other participants in the community, treating the community as a "hive mind". On a single-repo-level, here some things I can think of (but not sure if that is what you are after):
also a key message is instead of looking for ways forward by themselves, practitioners should just ask their respective communities for suggestions on how to move forward. It seems in many organizations the culture is to solve a problem by yourself, or in a team, but not so much to do so in the open, bringing in participants and interested parties from far and wide. the pattern will solve this problem. Ask me questions you need to help me write the pattern, I will then ask you to generate it one section at a time Then I refined the draft by commenting it and telling it to add text. Finally I asked it to rewrite the Solution as prose. |
I want this to develop into more cases where it's useful to reach out early. I think there are other cases such as "seeking help early" that also work and should be incorporated, which is why I used the "hive mind" using others as an extension of your mind I think really works as an analogy, therefore the hive mind title. I will rewrite to add this aspect as well |
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Quick technical note: Sorry about this hiccup. Will look for a way to fix this. |
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| ## Title | |||
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| Hive Mind | |||
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Maybe we can let AI create an image illustrating "Hive Mind" for us?
"hive" is where the bees live, right?
Could imagine quite a number of cool illustrations related to that.
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Is this pattern related to establishing a more positive "failure culture?
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| Advocacy plays a role as well. Encouraging community members to initiate preliminary PRs, even if they're not exhaustive, sets the stage for an open dialogue. This transparent method aligns with the hive mind's principle of inviting early feedback, where ideas undergo continuous sculpting by the community. | ||
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| Cultural shifts are integral to this solution. Organizations must emphasize a culture that not only supports and celebrates collective input but also places it on a pedestal. Such an ethos reiterates the belief that the hive mind, with its plethora of perspectives, can significantly elevate the caliber and range of generated ideas. |
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What would be an example of a specific implementation of this?
Maybe this point could link to the "praise participants" pattern?
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| Cultural shifts are integral to this solution. Organizations must emphasize a culture that not only supports and celebrates collective input but also places it on a pedestal. Such an ethos reiterates the belief that the hive mind, with its plethora of perspectives, can significantly elevate the caliber and range of generated ideas. | ||
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| Communication serves as the lifeblood of the hive mind. Establishing rapid sharing channels, akin to the brevity of Twitter, facilitates instant thought exchange and feedback. These nimble mechanisms resonate with the hive mind's principle of dynamic, ongoing collaboration. Moreover, periodic "idea-sharing" sessions further the cause. These meetups serve as platforms for galvanizing the hive mind, transforming individual inklings into visions owned by the entire community. |
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Can you elaborate on what this block adds on top of what the "Create a safe space " section already contains?
The "brevity" bit seems new here. Also the idea sharing sessions.
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| * **Fear of Accountability vs. Collaborative Ownership:** There's a concern about assuming responsibility for ideas that might not be well-received. However, fostering a culture where the community collectively owns and refines ideas can distribute this accountability. The trade-off involves transitioning from a culture of individual responsibility to one of shared ownership and collaboration. | ||
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| ## Solution |
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It's interesting. Now that this is all in prose I am looking for highlighted phrases or a summary of the key points. In a way something similar to the bullet opoints that you had here previously :)
I think we could do this by adding sub-headings ahead of the paragraphs, or similar (I will add one example below, so that you get the idea).
For reference, these were the bullets you you previously had in this Solution seciton.
Previously the solution section bullets were:
- Create a safe space (like a specific repo, brainstorming channel) where employees can share unfinished ideas.
- Encourage opening (WIP or draft) PRs that are not fully complete but provide a starting point for discussion.
- Cultivate a community culture that values and rewards collaboration and feedback.
- Host regular "idea-sharing" sessions where team members can present their initial thoughts and get feedback.
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| ## Solution | ||
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| Understanding the essence of a "Hive Mind" is foundational. At its core, a "Hive Mind" represents the collective intelligence or consciousness emanating from the collaboration of a group or community. This collective approach embodies the notion that when a community collaborates, it can brainstorm, refine, and execute solutions far more effectively than isolated individuals. The continuous feedback and iterative enhancement facilitated by the hive mind often lead to solutions and innovations that single contributors might not have envisioned on their own. |
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| Understanding the essence of a "Hive Mind" is foundational. At its core, a "Hive Mind" represents the collective intelligence or consciousness emanating from the collaboration of a group or community. This collective approach embodies the notion that when a community collaborates, it can brainstorm, refine, and execute solutions far more effectively than isolated individuals. The continuous feedback and iterative enhancement facilitated by the hive mind often lead to solutions and innovations that single contributors might not have envisioned on their own. | |
| Before going into the details of the solution, understanding the essence of a "Hive Mind" is foundational. | |
| At its core, a "Hive Mind" represents the collective intelligence or consciousness emanating from the collaboration of a group or community. This collective approach embodies the notion that when a community collaborates, it can brainstorm, refine, and execute solutions far more effectively than isolated individuals. The continuous feedback and iterative enhancement facilitated by the hive mind often lead to solutions and innovations that single contributors might not have envisioned on their own. | |
| The following are the key elements that enable the Hive Mind in an organization. |
Besides my proposals above, I wonder if we could make the language a bit simpler, to make it easier for our international audience to understand the text?
e.g. "emanating" is a word that I would not have know.
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| Understanding the essence of a "Hive Mind" is foundational. At its core, a "Hive Mind" represents the collective intelligence or consciousness emanating from the collaboration of a group or community. This collective approach embodies the notion that when a community collaborates, it can brainstorm, refine, and execute solutions far more effectively than isolated individuals. The continuous feedback and iterative enhancement facilitated by the hive mind often lead to solutions and innovations that single contributors might not have envisioned on their own. | ||
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| To harness the power of the hive mind within an organization, it's pivotal to establish a welcoming environment where individuals feel empowered to articulate and incubate their raw ideas. Such spaces, whether virtual like a specific repository or physical like a brainstorming room, invite the broader community into the ideation process, sparking the hive mind into action. |
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| To harness the power of the hive mind within an organization, it's pivotal to establish a welcoming environment where individuals feel empowered to articulate and incubate their raw ideas. Such spaces, whether virtual like a specific repository or physical like a brainstorming room, invite the broader community into the ideation process, sparking the hive mind into action. | |
| ### Create a safe space | |
| To harness the power of the hive mind within an organization, it's pivotal to establish a welcoming environment where individuals feel empowered to articulate and incubate their raw ideas. Such spaces, whether virtual like a specific repository or physical like a brainstorming room, invite the broader community into the ideation process, sparking the hive mind into action. |
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Similar sub-headings could be introduced for the other paragraphs, to create a short summary of the key point of the sub-section.
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Had to try the image generators now :) Some Inputs I tried:
The first ones were all superhero style. I tried to get versions without bees but it didn't work. This needs more work 🤣
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This might go into a more useful direction
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If this pattern is about "risk taking" as well, then there is an interesting quote in this story about Panasonic:
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Hey @mishari. Sorry about all the notification noise that you must have received from this PR. Hope you don't mind :) |
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@mishari @fioddor one general question about this pattern: Also please see the open comments on the PR. As this pattern is still in Initial state, let's decide together what is "good enough" for the time being, so that we can get it merged into the mainline. And as always: Thank you for contributing and sharing your knowledge here! |
Yes, I see it often in organizations that are Silo'd, when they communicate it's often highly filtered.
Noted
I'll look into the comments and get back to you.
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Initial check in of Hive Mind pattern as discusses in issue #371
cc @spier