CHAOSScast Episode 124: Practitioner Guides: #7 Diverse Leadership
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CHAOSScast – Episode 124
This episode of CHAOSScast kicks off a new Practitioner Guide series focused on “Building Diverse Leadership” in open source communities. Harmony Elendu hosts with co-host Georg Link and guests Dawn Foster and Peculiar Umeh, exploring why diverse leadership matters, how CHAOSS’ practitioner guides turn “walls of metrics” into practical action, and how three specific metrics: Board/Council Diversity, Sponsorship, and Inclusive Leadership, can help projects become more welcoming, representative, and sustainable. Hit download now to hear more!
[00:00:35] Dawn, Peculiar, Georg, and Harmony share their backgrounds.
[00:02:57] Dawn gives us an overview of the Practitioner Guide series and emphasizes that the guides focus on how to improve projects using metrics, not just on measuring.
[00:05:13] Georg asks Peculiar what inspired her to write the “Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership” guide. She describes working on CHAOSS metrics templates and wanting to help non-data science people use them.
[00:08:09] Harmony connects the topic to broader industry conversations on diversity and inclusion. Peculiar explains that diverse leadership brings different perspectives, experiences, and voices into decision making and uses CHAOSS as an example.
[00:10:30] Dawn expands on how seeing leaders “who look like you” motivates people to participate and aspire to leadership.
[00:11:28] Georg talks about diversity as social justice and explains benefits for the projects: resilience, innovation, and better products for diverse users.
[00:14:25] Peculiar shares the three metrics and why there were chosen. Dawn adds that guides are designed to change projects, not just describe them.
[00:18:09] Georg notes Board/Council Diversity is the most intuitive to measure and Dawn cautions that many aspects of identity are invisible and the guide recommends surveys to ask community members whether they feel represented and heard.
[00:21:03] Georg explains sponsorship vs. mentorship. Peculiar shares her own experience of being advocated for and supported in open source. Dawn tells the story of Danese Cooper sponsoring her showing how sponsorship accelerates careers.
[00:25:27] Georg explains Inclusive Leadership as the governance scaffolding and Peculiar describes what the guide offers.
[00:27:50] Harmony asks how they can implement the guide and monitor progress. Peculiar highlights some implementation steps and Dawn re-emphasizes using recurring surveys as monitoring tools.
[00:33:27] Dawn notes that every practitioner guide includes a Cautions and Considerations section, and Georg reminds us that interpersonal relationships are crucial for understanding how people experience the community.
Value Adds (Picks) of the week:
- [00:35:25] Harmony’s pick is n8n and automations.
- [00:36:10] Georg’s pick is looking forward to the holidays with his family.
- [00:37:54] Dawn’s pick is watching chunky squirrels play outside her window.
- [00:38:24] Peculiar’s pick is taking time to rest.
Panelists:
Harmony Elendu
Georg Link
Guests:
Dawn Foster
Peculiar Umeh
Links:
CHAOSS
CHAOSS Project X
CHAOSScast Podcast
CHAOSS YouTube
podcast@chaoss.community
Georg Link Website
Harmony Elendu X
Dawn Foster X
Peculiar Umeh LinkedIn
CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership
About the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides
The Linux Foundation Report -Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Source
The Linux Foundation-Decentralized innovation. Built on trust.
Inclusive Leadership: Effecting change: Introduction | OpenLearn-Open University
CHAOSS Data Use Awareness Recommendation: Privacy and Ethics
n8n
Previous Practitioner Guide Episodes:
Episode 85: Introducing CHAOSS Practitioner Guides: #1 Responsiveness
Episode 88: Practitioner Guides: #2 Contributor Sustainability
Episode 89: Practitioner Guides : #3 Organizational Participation
Episode 97: Practitioner Guides: #4 Security
Episode 120: Practitioner Guides: #5 Demonstrating Organizational Value
Episode 123: Practitioner Guides: #6 Sunsetting an Open Source Project
Special Guest: Peculiar Umeh.