From: Charity Majors
To: friends
Date: July 4, 2017
Subject: tech lead skill share
How do you learn to be a good leader and support system for other people and teams? It's still the hardest problem in computer science.. apparently.
Personally, I don't learn much from classes, books, coaching etc. I learn from stories. A good story about a hard problem becomes a tool in my toolbox. You never know exactly which tools are gonna work in any situation, which is why you wanna walk around with a big fat toolbox. But gathering tools is slow, and takes lots and lots of crises to wear them in.
I have some ideas on how to crystallize and accelerate -- and democratize -- this learning process. You are being bcc'd on this email because I thought you might care too, or christine did.
Here's the plan.
I'm going to run a study group and skill share that meets once a week for 6 weeks. Each week will have a theme, something like "interviewing", "career development", "self care", that kind of thing.
We'll meet up once a week, at my house or some other private living room. Probably Sundays. We'll start the week of August 6th, skip Labor Day weekend, and finish on September 17th. I'll create a private Facebook group for logistics and continuing discussion, and decommission it at the end.
You should come if ...
- You're at a place in your life and work where you need to level up at leadership and communications skills, and you're ready to put in the work
- You have stories to share, and thorny questions of your own to solve. You can make it at least 4 of the 6 weeks.
- You are willing and able to keep a fucking secret. It's a small town and this must be a safe space for sharing.
So email me if you're interested or would like to nominate someone. I'll hand-pick a group of ~8 people to round out a balanced group(*) and pull it together over the next week or two. Please don't send me your problem children for re-education, that's not what this is.
That's it.
I have a lot of ideas and thoughts on how to get the most out of a group like this, but I don't want to over-determine the outcomes, so I'll leave it there. :) There may be some small reading assignments, visiting lecturers/experts, etc. We'll see.
If it's a good experience, I'm happy to share what worked with others so they can run their own discussion groups. I think that time boxing it is key to creating intimacy, urgency and focus, but who knows?
hugs,
charity
(*) I'm looking for a diversity of roles (manager, IC, tech lead) and seniority (mid to experienced). I'm also looking for at least 2/3 to be women and queers.