How an inner community begins - pt1

I experienced some problems and joys during my professional life; one of them was when together, my work mates refactored the weekly meeting. To preserve the real names, I’ll call called the company I worked for as The Enterprise. I don’t like texts like “10 steps to success”, “How to be rich in 5 steps”, so I decided to just tell my true story.

Logbook,January 14, 2020 2PM; Today was my first participation in a weekly meeting with all the PHP developers at the Enterprise. I opened my Zoom 15 minutes before/to 2PM and I waited for 10 minutes until someone appeared, but 50 developers were missing. 2h30 PM, after a long conversation about random stuff, the meeting started and the topic was “Open topics”. I was confused about it, but I was new at the company, so I didn't retort. The next 45 minutes were just complaints and after the first 3 minutes I suddenly didn't pay attention. October 24, 2020 2PM, I finally realize about this confusing meeting, we need to change! Everyone complains about everything but none of them wants to take the lead and solve it. Could I do something? I’m not sure.

First steps

After this my journey started, I proposed some changes, but just when the main responsable went on vacation and left the leadership with me, it was my chance to change things. I began with a form to know what the needs were and compile the complaints, but to my surprise only 20% of developers answered. What's going on? I needed to know.

I called some close friends of Enterprise and some developers that I didn't know how to ask in person for some advice on how to improve the meeting. Surprisingly, most of them were discouraged, disillusioned and disappointed about not just the meeting, but also about the Chapter (group of developers). That was bad news and I had no idea how to solve it.

Plan in action

My first goal was the meeting, so I decided to focus on it. Time management is crucial, punctuality needs to be respected, we should have an agenda, everyone needs to be prepared before the meeting. Side loop conversations should be avoided and we should be fluent in subjects. Before the change, the attendance in the meeting was only 40%, how can I make this number grow?

Now I need to apply these policies. I looked for buddies to help me with the topics and the agenda. So after a week, the agenda was done and I was ready. I sent the invite with the topics and explained how it will work, no more delays.

My first meeting as the host started exactly at 2PM and with a defined agenda, there were only 5 developers, but I promised no delay. I wrote down the complaints and I gave the developers a deadline when I will solve these problems. For the first 3 months it was hard for me to solve every complaint, some of these problems I couldn’t solve, but I answered with the reasons.

After 3 months I became the Chapter Lead, together with 5 friends, the best ones, we learned a lot with our errors. These 5 friends grew and we were 20 developers helping the internal community.

Not everything was easy and happy, in my account there are people I disappointed and something I couldn't fulfill, but in the end the number of comrades who became friends and learned was greater, so the result of this sum was positive.

What is the outcome?

It may be obvious advice, but at first invest in avoiding forms and talk more with members. Look for bottlenecks that may be preventing people from participating.

This story may help you to find a different way to lead changes, obviously your background could be in a distinguished culture, country and company so you can find another approach to improve your environment.