From the Inside Out: How Self-Talk Affects Your Community
*Excerpt
Identifying and discouraging negative self-talk is a simple thing, but it can have a huge impact on your community in a positive way. It increases self-confidence, improves morale, and generally results in happier, more productive community participants. This, in turn, will make you happy.
Description
Negative self-talk is a pervasive, invasive, and unproductive way of thinking. It can trigger a cascade of things, from abandoned patches (“I am not smart/talented/good enough to figure this out”), to withdrawl from the community (“I screwed this up and everyone knows and hates me”), to general discouragement (“I suck, and have nothing valuable to contribute here”).
In this talk, I’ll discuss the various methods Dreamwidth and other organizations use to handle negative self-talk, and the best way to deploy those techniques. I will also discuss things to keep an eye out for in your community that may be at the root of this type of self-talk, and processes you can go through to eliminate them. Finally, there will be a quick overview of impostor syndrome, and the role it plays here.
Speaking experience
I have presented at OSB for the last two years, and presented at YAPC::NA in 2013.
You can see slides from my previous presentations here:
http://www.slideshare.net/dreamwidth/careandfeeding
http://www.slideshare.net/dreamwidth/keeping-your-culture-afloat-through-a-tidal-wave
http://www.slideshare.net/dreamwidth/ingroup-bias-osb2014-powerpoint
Speaker
-
Kat Toomajian
Dreamwidth Studios, LLC- Blog: http://misskat.dreamwidth.org/
- Twitter: zarhooie
- Favorites: View Kat's favorites
Biography
Kat heads up the Dreamwidth Support team, and specializes in user/developer interaction. In her spare time, Kat enjoys recreating history with the Society for Creative Anachronism, being a total loss claims rep for an insurance company, napping, and playing “where did you stash mommy’s socks?” with her ferrets, Hermes and Isaac.
Sessions
-
- Title: Write It Down: Process Documentation from the Ground Up
- Track: Culture
- Room: B302/303
- Time: 1:30 – 2:15pm
-
Excerpt:
The collective knowledge base of an organization can be difficult to crack. Some things have “always been done that way” but no one knows why. This talk will help to expose those undocumented corners of your project, and give you tools for writing process documentation for new contributors using lessons from Not-For-Profit organizations.
- Speakers: Kat Toomajian
-
- Title: From the Inside Out: How Self-Talk Affects Your Community
- Track: Culture
- Room: B204
- Time: 2:30 – 3:15pm
-
Excerpt:
Identifying and discouraging negative self-talk is a simple thing, but it can have a huge impact on your community in a positive way. It increases self-confidence, improves morale, and generally results in happier, more productive community participants. This, in turn, will make you happy.
- Speakers: Kat Toomajian