Good Values are Hard to Keep
I wanted to switch gears a bit a touch on the topic of community behavioral norms, and how they shape the organizations which they operate within. Although this is directly related to how I manage my own team and life I will applies these general principles to Steemit and the broader community of Blockchain and Distributed ledger technology (DLT) companies. These concepts in their original form are proprietary, and I have modified them and believe that they can be a contribution to the community discourse. I personally strive every day to live and work by these principals, and they have always served me well in developing and maintaining strong structures in my work and personal life. As a community we must strive to represent the core values of the Steem blockchain. These values as I see them will be broken down into 3 important subsections which include unity to achieve common goals, answerability and accountability and the values of trustworthiness and transparency. Steemit can encourage and grow these core values within its community of users as this would push forward the community growth and adoption of this the decentralize social media platform.
Unity of Direction Will Drive User’s Perceptions.
The Management team at Steemit must continue to strive to unite the community of users to achieve common goals and objectives for the Blockchain and DLT business at large. There are a few best practices which I will go over related to implementing common goal.
- Firstly, I believe Steemit already encourages very effectively the sharing and distribution of material and best practices among community participants, and I would hope that the management team would also share openly with the community how we can best participate within the design of this structure. I do believe the intention is to refine the structure of Steemit so that the most relevant information may be disseminated through the community, and this should be of primary importance to participant of the community.
- Secondly, we must all respect the rules of the game on the platform and in this process we should become more invested as a stakeholder in sharing an contributing to the general objectives of the Steemit blockchain. In this sense we are all direct shareholders and management within our own area of influence which will grow overtime the more we contribute.
- Thirdly, we must always remain respectful of the views of other and actively listen to other community participants. We must also be conscientious of the direction in which the broader Steemit management is taking the platform. Being respectful does not mean agreeing or avoiding discussing difficult topics with other community members but rather it mean approaching difficult topics with a measure of empathy that enables though and ideas to be expressed efficiently through out the community. The golden rule should be applied here as we continue to do onto the community as we would have it do onto us as participants.
Our Ability to Account for Our Mistakes is Our Biggest Strength
As participants we are responsible for our contribution, content and how this impacts the broader community. We must be willing to be answerable to our community for the outcomes generated by our discourse. Thoughts flow into word and words flow into actions and these all impact our relationships within the Steemit community and the larger outside community. I see this section more as general guidelines for community behaviour although all available permutation cannot be covered here, I will break them down into 3 easy rules.
- My word is my bond and if I give my word to anyone related to any promise I will keep it. I strive to follow through on my commitments to provide interesting and valuable information to the community and support the Steemit platform. Keeping ones’ word is the foundation of reputation and must be held onto dearly as a once lost it is not regained easily.
- Second rule of thumb is that one must always take responsibility for behaviour and past actions. Things said in haste cannot easily be unsaid, and as a member of a larger community we have a responsibility to own the thing we say and do. We must also hold accountable the manager of the public good Steemit blockchain. Their management put into actions has a profound impact of how we communicate, and if there is mismanagement they must take accountability and communicate this to the community.
- The third guideline flows from the second in that accountability helps refinement and refinement comes when mistakes are recognized, and behaviours are modified. I think that this is self explanatory and generally people who can quickly recognize, account for and modify behaviour will be able to excel at pretty much anything. Management at Steemit must also have an adaptive framework of problem recognition and solution implementation given the rapid pace of change in this technology sector. I have always strived to be better at those things which my family and community have come to rely on me for. I take this same standard of care for the way that I communicate my idea via Steemit as I believe in its broader values which I will touch on in the next section.
Transparency with Privacy, Amazing!!!
I will always strive to demonstrate the values of trustworthiness and transparency in my relationship with every person that I have in my circle of influence. One would expect to have the trust of their family so long as they behave in transparent manner with them. Anything one write, says, thinks or does should accurately portray that they can be trusted by the community. I have 3 principle guidelines which I strive to follow as a guide for this section.
- I have always operated with full honesty and integrity with my family and community. Honesty is indeed the best policy, and I have seen to many individuals in my line of business put values aside to make a quick profit. This often comes at the cost of their integrity and the benefit of having long term meaningful business relationships. This also means speaking truth to those in positions above you in a respectful and honest manner. When I speak to those above me about a situation I always accept that I may be wrong or right, and further accept that many outcomes are outside of my capacity to make optimal decisions and positively impact outcomes.
- If you are honest and maintain your integrity always you will have no problem treating others with a fair and even-handed approach. You must try your best to see the situation through the eyes of the other but this in no ways means that you must submit to an incorrect understanding of a specific issue. If you treat your opposition with the dignity they deserve and evaluate their opinions as objectively as possible you may find that there is a better way to communicate your ideas and further open the topic up for discussion. Agreeing to respectfully disagree with someone opens a diverse community up to ideas that they would not otherwise entertain or exposed to if they were solely in an adversarial environment.
- Always try to balance in an even-handed fashion your moral guidelines and the principled codes of ethics structured of the community you belong to. This one is a bit tricky as you could potentially be contributing to a community that does not share your values, but this is all the more reason to work, live and influence positively such a community. What I find personally wonderful about Steemit is that it is a free market of ideas where all ideas may compete in the public square. The fundamental value of freedom of expression will we hope overtime refine and open bad ideas up to criticism and reinforce and reward good content.
Conclusion
To finish, I know that I could go deeper into the topic as each point could have a dedicated blog, but I wanted to give the community an idea of the values that I bring to bear on my writing and relationships. I open this discussion up to the Steemit community at large and challenge us all to continue pushing our common goals while respecting the values of accountability, trustworthiness and transparency.