Peer-to-Peer Awareness Levels
Intro
We don't believe in pyramids (stars); we believe in spheres (circles) where everyone has a significant role to play. Freedom comes with a lot of responsibility. Many of us are still stuck in the hierarchical (fear-based) way of working, striving to go higher up and make decisions. We strongly disagree with this approach; there is no "up." Everyone is the center of their circle.
By respecting others and being transparent in your plans and work, others will follow you based on the quality of your work, not your level in an organization. In our world, everyone is "a boss," but this respect and influence need to be earned.
We believe everyone needs to work together in a truly peaceful way and empower each other to co-create and realize our joint dreams.
Not everyone is at the same capability level in their career. We have defined some levels that can help us work together and think about ways to grow professionally and personally. We believe this will help us grow and become more effective as an organization and community.
The first step is to agree on these capability levels and recognize the need to progress in them. If these levels don't resonate with you, another type of organization might be a better fit.
Our Levels
- Pup: Young, eager to learn, passionate, and wants to grow.
- Wolf: Ambitious, a bit careless, efficient but still learning.
- Elephant: Protector, guide, strong, reliable, and able to teach others.
- Dolphin: Wise, experienced, expert in less-is-more, thoughtful, and a teacher.
- Eagle: The top, capable of anything, enjoys freedom.
Let's be clear: we all make mistakes, and that's perfectly okay. That's how we learn. The focus is on personal commitment to demonstrable growth. No one should want to stay at the pup level forever.
We are an ambitious startup and need wolves, elephants, and dolphins to build our dreams, not just pups.
Personal growth is crucial; it's not just about business and technology.
We have created a test which can potentially help you define your level. Feedback is very welcome. Please send your advice to kristof@incubaid.com.
Pup
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Requirements:
- Ambitious
- Positive energy
- Willing to learn and grow, both professionally and personally
- Intelligent
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Expectations:
- Realize that in a FreeFlow organization, everyone gets a lot of freedom but must be responsible and 100% transparent.
- Understand and know the values of the organization/community.
- Aspire to become a wolf within a maximum of 2 years.
If any of the following apply, you are still a pup in P2P collaboration:
- I want to be a boss or believe having all freedom means: "I like to be trusted and work on my own; people need to trust me. I get things done, and I believe transparency and feedback are not required."
- When things go wrong or I don't feel well, I believe it's mainly due to external issues (e.g., my boss, another person, the company). In a real P2P organization, you can always escalate nicely within your circle, let others know the issues you see, the information you lack, the items blocking you, and welcome feedback.
- I believe everything in threefold contribution section is over the top. I don't really buy into it, but I want this job and think it's cool, so I play along.
Wolf
Some may ask why all of this is needed and why they can't just be trusted. Your company does trust you, or you wouldn't be working there. You're not working for a pyramid company, so full transparency and some discipline are needed for P2P collaboration to function. Read more about this here
- Traits of a Wolf:
- Not afraid
- Dares to be 100% transparent
- Whatever a wolf is working on is visible, and peers can review it at any time
- Organized & disciplined
- Work, text, code, and specs are well-structured and documented (less is more)
- Actively uses the agreed and defined toolset and is fluent in it
- Sticks to agreed methods and documents in the right location
- Communicates properly (all on task/story/feature request)
- Quality-minded
- Work is documented/organized so anyone can evaluate it without talking/chatting
- Critical of their own work and others' work in a positive way
- Looks at themselves first before blaming others
- Respects others' work/time
- Doesn't blindly redo stuff; talks with the original authors
- Respects choices made by original authors and follows those choices (e.g., code style)
- If changes are needed (e.g., refactoring, style changes), ensures they're really required, communicates with the authors, and doesn't act without agreement
- Ensures delivered code/content is always on code/document management systems
- Makes it easy for others to continue, test, and reproduce work
- Ensures work can be found and comments are on stories at any time
- Sees personal development as important and works on it
- Good in English (written & spoken)
- Not afraid
If any of the following apply, you are still a wolf in P2P collaboration:
- I struggle to understand what is "good enough." Maybe I haven't taken enough time to understand my work area, or I'm too quickly satisfied with my deliverables. I have a hard time putting myself in my "customer's" shoes.
- I have difficulty with the 20-80% rule and lose time on unimportant things.
- I want to own stories but can't meet the requirements.
- I think everything is constantly changing, but maybe I don't understand the bigger picture. I need to take more time to read and understand the broader context.
- I refuse to use essential tools for P2P work (e.g., git, markdown). I don't see their importance. If these tools are too challenging, I need to accept that I can't own a story and ask for help to use them transparently.
- I keep reinventing instead of understanding what's already there and improving it. I prefer creating new things and pushing my way.
Elephant
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Traits of an Elephant:
- Strong, big, powerful, and beautiful
- Promoter of the mission, believes in what we do
- Positive energy, with a lot of power
- Puts love/respect first in most actions
- Great values and discipline
- Efficient, good at the less-is-more principle
- Expert in at least one domain
- Can quickly assess quality of content or code and execute when needed
- Not afraid to help others and show them the path
- Proven ability to execute on personal development items
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Operating in the 4D World:
- See stars vs spheres
- Does not blame others; looks within to fix situations
- Thinks before acting (work story = mini project based)
- Works with and defines story cards well
- Owns story cards and communicates appropriately (escalates when required)
- Describes the work and allows feedback before starting
- Understands that a story is accepted only if stakeholders agree
- Not afraid to be 100% transparent and open about not knowing something
- Organized & disciplined
- Work, text, code, and specs are well-structured and documented
- Actively uses the agreed toolset and is fluent in it
- Sticks to agreed methods and can work organized
- Communicates properly
- Quality-minded
- Work is documented/organized so anyone can evaluate it without talking/chatting
- Critical of own work and others' work in a positive way
- Independent
- Escalates when stuck
- Takes responsibility for their work without needing constant checks
- Good in English (written & spoken)
Dolphin
- Traits of a Dolphin:
- Experienced and proven exceptional value for the mission
- True expert, technically or in coordination, or both
- Gracious in how they get things done
- Inspires others
- Can present well and lead by example
- Modest, uses wisdom to inspire, not intimidate
- Teacher who helps others and learns through teaching
- Thinks before doing
- Exceptional values, serves as an example (love first)
- Evolved significantly in personal development
- Proven ability to execute on personal development items
- Quality of work is way above average
- Free because they know how to organize/coordinate circles and avoid mistakes
- Chooses their own work in line with the mission
- Works when and where they want
- Chooses their own holidays and timing
- Few dolphins in an organization, but valuable
Eagle
- Traits of an Eagle:
- Super rare
- Works from love, empowers others
- Passionate about the mission, best ambassadors
- Priceless contribution and value for the mission
- Capable of exceptional things, flies over the world
- 100% free, does what they want
- Very aware of their strengths and weaknesses
- Compassionate