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WTF are inclusive communities and how to maintain them.

Carla Gaggini and Jade Amic

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The journey

Define:

What does it mean?
Why does it matter?
Why us?�

Build:

Building from the inside out.
How we did it?�

Maintain:

It’s more than just a code of conduct.

Takeaways

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Define

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What does it mean?

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“Diversity is being asked to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance. ®”

Vernā Myers - Inclusion strategist, cultural innovator, thought leader, and social commentator.

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Why does it matter?

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“... be part of something - to experience real connection with others but �not at the cost of their authenticity, freedom or power.”

Brené Brown - researcher on shame, vulnerability, leadership and belonging

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Why us?

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Jade Amic

@jdamic

Carla Gaggini

@CarlaAtGG

As you can see don’t take everything seriously, but this is something we are serious about :) �We are not in front of you because we have everything figured out, but because we care, we’re trying, learning and unlearning as we go.

Introduce… Carla I know
slack channel, in our team or on a stage, Carla makes a difference wherever she goes.
Her years of experience in events have given her a front row seat into what it takes to curate, nurture, protect and empower communities.
As Head of Content, Events and Community, she’s been my right hand… and sometimes my left too.
She’s someone that cares as deeply about people as she does about the communities they are part of and I’m proud to be here with her.

excellent strategist, that she’s creative, determined, passionate and ingenious. She’s also generous, kind, patient and understanding.

The reason why we are giving this talk together

Jade truly cares about people. She cares about understanding them, about elevating them and becoming better together, she’s committed to leaving the world a bit better than we found it.

great human being above everything else.

And now, let’s kick off this talk!

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Build

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Building the foundation

…from the inside out.

Individual

Internal community/team

Wider community

To feel a sense of belonging, �we need to know ourselves.�

To create a sense of belonging, �we need to know each other.

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Building our internal community

…from the inside out.

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Our shared value system is the foundation for how we exist �internally and externally. ��Values that are truly shared, created by and representing all of us �as an internal community.

Finance

Engineering

Marketing

Project Management

People Team

Innovation Hub

Executive Team

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Building our internal community

From the individual…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5

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Building our internal community

From the individual…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5�
Bring top 5 values together and look for commonalities

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Building our internal community

To the group…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5�
Bring top 5 values together and look for commonalities�
Bundle those into themes

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Building our internal community

To the group…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5�
Bring top 5 values together and look for commonalities�
Bundle those into themes�
Look for representations of �those themes�

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Building our internal community

To the group…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5�
Bring top 5 values together and �look for commonalities�
Bundle those into themes�
Look for representations of �those themes�
Create a character to represent �the themes

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Building our internal community

To the group…

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Each choose individual values and �select top 5�
Bring top 5 values together and �look for commonalities�
Bundle those into themes�
Look for representations of �those themes�
Create a character to represent �the themes�
Discuss how that character would act �in different situations

I mentioned earlier that it’s about behaviour. The last steps within each team was to go through scenarios to understand how the characters would act…

Burning building
Need to work with others
When they get stuck

The key here is once a behaviour has been defined, it holds each of us to account.

Eventually we had characters and key values for every team in our internal community. Next, we needed to bring it all together so they could become our company's core value system.. ��To do this we looked for common themes in the same way we did in Step 3 of the team workshops. Within these themes we looked at the words people had used and the meanings people had given these words to ensure that these nuances were included, even in the broader themes.

I’d like to share our 5 core values that we created, together, that guide how we work internally and externally and how we hold each other to account:

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Building our internal community

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TRUST

COLLAB-�ORATION

PURPOSE

GROWTH

CREATIVITY

If we don't know how to do something, we will learn.
We learn from each other and from reflection - when we know better, �we do better.

We create a Psychologically safe space by allowing each of us to show up openly and authentically.
We are honest, humble and trust each other to do the right thing.
We practice acceptance of and care for one another.

Passion and resilience drive us to achieve purpose.
We strive to do meaningful work - work that is of real value to others.

When we work together, we will win.
Combining our diverse thinking �and skills leads to the most innovative problem solving.
Made possible through clear and frequent communication, willingness to have hard conversations �and transparency.

Creativity is about experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.

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So how do we take who we are as an internal community and impact the wider community?

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Building the wider community

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Defining our purpose

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WHY

HOW

WHAT

Through innovation we will collectively build �a better tomorrow.

By collaborating with the community, we increase the understanding of the cloud native world through content and ideas.

We facilitate learning and conversation through accessible content, focusing on �5 main pillars:

Strategy
Culture
Technology
Equal opportunity
Ecological Impact

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Building the wider community

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By the community,

with the community,

for the community.

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Building the wider community

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4500+ subscribers to our monthly �WTF newsletter
14 bi-monthly collections
Over 30 WTFinars
1 x WTF is Cloud Native conference
3 x WTF is SRE conferences
12 x Podcast Episodes

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Shared values and WTF

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GROWTH

When we know better, we can do better.

Together we learn more and we can go further.

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Shared values and WTF

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TRUST

If you feel safe, you show up holistically.

We love “soft topics”.

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Shared values and WTF

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CREATIVITY

Have fun.

Break the rules.

Make mistakes.

Take risks.

Be accessible.

Think outside �the box.

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Shared values and WTF

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COLLABOR-ATION

Nobody has ALL the answers.

We learn from each other’s experiences.

YOU are in this with us.

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Shared values and WTF

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PURPOSE

We want to do something meaningful.

That’s why we organise events like this one.

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Holding ourselves accountable

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Stay true to

your purpose.

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Maintain

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It’s more than just a code of conduct

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But yes, you do need one.

It’s for everybody.�
It reflects and opens different points of view. �
It’s a reminder of our values.

Arguably the very first step to nurturing a positive and safe environment is to share and enforce a Code of Conduct.

A good place to start is mentioning that no-one is above the Community Code of Conduct: not even you, Community leaders even if you are the one who wrote it. The CoC applies to every single member of the community, every event attendee, every team member, every volunteer, every speaker and every sponsor (yes, even if they paid $$$ to sponsor you).

A lapse of judgement can happen to anybody, no matter the role they are covering or how much they are respected by theCommunity. - different point of views = learning

And that’s why the CoC is not only a way to establish a safe environment, but also an opportunity to remind ourselves of our values and what we stand for.

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It’s more than just a code of conduct

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It’s also about enforcing it.

Lead by example. �
There’s no blanket solution.�
Listen carefully.�
Take action.

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Interlude, story time.

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It’s more than just a code of conduct

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It’s about being able to make a difference.

It’s about ensuring our CoC is visible and accessible.

It’s about remembering to be empathetic.

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Key takeaways

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It’s easy to bond over negativity, it’s stronger to bond over values.�
Listen. Give people space to show up authentically and wholeheartedly.

Know yourself. Start from the inside out.�
We are ALL accountable.

The first one is that it's very easy to bond over negativity, �over how hard is it to foster diversity and inclusivity, over how hard is it to keep your purpose strong and resilient,�over how hard it is to keep up with a Community that’s changing every day and becoming bigger and bigger…

What we hope we showed you today is that to the contrary, the strongest bonds are built over shared values, purpose, commitment and accountability.

Give people space to show up. Listen. Start from the inside out. Belonging is something that connects us all, let’s create that.�
Know yourself. Start from the inside out. …Find safe spaces for yourself and create that space for others. �
ALL of us are accountable for building and maintaining diverse, inclusive and safe communities. No matter the role we have, whether we are the maintainers, leaders, members or temporary visitors, we are all accountable for our behaviours and for learning from our mistakes.

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Thank you :)

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