Session: 3-K
Topic: Community Leadership
Host: Scott Moore
Notes: Scott Dodds

Community Leadership has a lot of definitions. In this session, Scott Morre was interested in hearing about what the definitions are and how we foster leadership within the communities.
Why are people here?

• Tech advancements have societal implications, and someone needs to lead - how does leading a social media community differ from leading a department in a company or a family?
• Scott had some great ideas in the last session (social psychology 101), and wanted to hear more. Also wanted to hear from other community leaders and the lessons they have to share
• More interested in learning how other models prosper, since we only know what we have done before
• Want to learn how to nurture an open source community in a commercial context - most interested in the human aspect, and how to mediate conflict between members.
• Work primarily with with internal communities, and view leadership as synonymous with being a champion and facilitation - how to spread the wealth.
• Came from an innovation/technology community, and want to discuss helping the influencers, power users and grow
• Want to learn more about how other communities treat leadership and enable leaders
• Have found that there needs to be a driving force and purpose, then it is not so hard to delegate and get others to do things for you. And how important recognition is - how do you translate that into an online model
• Interested in the study of tribes (Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches by Marvin Harris), particularly the Big Man role that does not lead directly (not the Chief) but facilitates the economic activity, etc. the difference between authority and leadership. "The power behind the throne"
• Worked for WebMD communities and blog network - in the process of being independent and involved in the political scene, saw how communities can make a difference
• Helping to develop the Microsoft MSN communities, but also involved in communities in the grassroots political sense.
• Tend to be in a leadership position, first instinct is to do it herself - wants to learn more about how to delegate to others in the community

The question of how leadership is going to happen is often neglected. If the company is not going to do it themselves, they need to define how to make it possible for the community to take leadership themselves. This speaks to the difference between community leadership and community moderation.
One participant noted that having a clearing defined governance model is essential, and found the Ubuntu community model very good. elements of that model:

• BDFL: benevolent dictator for life - that person appoints Community Council members
• Community Council members: in charge of defining and refining the rules
• Technical Board - works with the community to define high level needs
• Task group: forms and is approved by the community council members

How is the Community Manager not the BDFL?
Way we understand it is the BDFL is the spiritual leader, with power to put on the brake (veto). The Community Manager (CM) is the day-to-day leader, within the council. Sort of like the split between church and state in a theocratic model

Another model is the Product Managers lead (dictators) and the community manager sits in the middle, a liason between the two interests. Its a good thing the roles are split, since the company has its own interests, and the members have theirs - the company BDFL can't argue against his company's interests, but the CM can play that role - if the Ubuntu members felt exploited, the CM steps in to mediate
Every community is different, but how do you identify and solicit those roles?
They will exhibit the desired behaviors, and then you would approach them (back-channel, email). They are best discovered through observation, ensuring they are trusted by the community and by the organization. The way to promote them is to encourage others to view their content, by highlighting it, floating it, recommending it, etc.

The subject matter experts and the leaders are often separate. Being a connector is a skill in itself. The connector is the host of the party, the welcoming committee. There are also conversationalists, who stir the post, keep the conversations going.
In Wiki communities, leadership flows to those who do the most work - most content, highest quality edits, etc. may not have the people skills. They lead by example. It can be effective to take SMEs and supplement them with those who have good people skills.
Veterans/elders are a good source for leadership within the community as well, because the've been there and know the lay of the land - but they may also come with baggage that you should be aware of.

Has anyone tried anything formal to improve the people skills of the leaders?

One member tried to bring some training on non-violent communication into their community - how to have conflict without abuse or 'pushing all the buttons'. There are methods of communication that can be used to diffuse conflict, which may be helpful.

Question: have you floated that to the community? Members are unlikely to say they are not good communicators.

Have tended to try to teach by example rather than use a more formal program. People mimic, so maybe they'll mimic the taking of the training?
Community guidelines, rules and expectations. user-facing as opposed to the legalese
Thou Shalt Not vs Thou Shalts
Jamie Wales of wikipedia created high-level principles, and then the teams developed their own. Guidelines were different per region/culture, but the rules were the same. Allows for cultural differences.
TechSoup - moderators wanted to change the rules to make them more enforceable. They try to keep the forums and products separate, and avoid letting members sell their services/products. So they are really strict on self-promotion. They created a back-channel/private forum for the volunteer moderators to discuss issues, and recently made a change based on what they said.

Has anyone used a mentor program to keep new members successful?

WebMD had a buddy-to-buddy weight loss program, all volunteer - just created a place for them to do it. Smoking cessation was another.
Question: Any additional functionality?

No, just a forum - though they would have liked to do more if they had budget/resources.
Other methods of engaging leaders:

• Status and badges for reputation can assist with promoting good behavior and leadership. Point systems can provide unintended consequences. Make sure your reputation system rewards participants for the behaviors that you want to encourage.
• Private messaging through backchannel let moderators 'talk people down' and coach them into better behavior. Talks some of the heat out of it.
• Set up guiding principles were equally important for internal teams, and they used those principles to make the big decisions.
• Peer recognition was good, spolights to feature content of interest, leaderboards to highlight good content, others will emulate that. This also improves quality of the content in the community. But it depends on what motivates your members. Counter-example: parents of kids with disabilities. When he mentioned to the membership that there is typically a core group of about 10% that contributes the most (90-9-1 rule of participation inequality), the members overwhelming said they hoped they weren't in that group (and of course it was all of the 10% who were saying this).
• Welcoming committees were mentioned previously. Another counter example: Since the first impression is the one that lasts, we wanted to make that good. So we developed what turned out to be a complicated system for ensuring all member could be a part of the welcoming committee. One person came in and said - why don't you make it really simple, just giving certain members a badge for a limited period of time. It allowed more people in the community to participate, avoided making cliques and made it more distributed. What motivates people is what is important.
• Tangible rewards can be tricky to get right. Over and over again we hear that when superusers are given tangible rewards (free or discounted software, gift cards or other items with monetary value) the response is almost always "Thanks, but that's not why I'm doing this". The best kinds of rewards are ones that increase their access to your organization and build trust. "Predictively Irrational" is a book that talks about how people respond counterintuitively when things are assigned a montary value.

"The currency of leadership is access and trust" - Scott Moore