Apparently, the Seattle Startup Weekend had some problems out of the gate Friday. Founder Andrew Hyde writes about some of the issues and the recovery that is trying to put the weekend on track for a 9p launch tonight. This is important for two reasons.
First, scuffles, huffs and hurt feelings are likely in any scenario where you put several dozen strangers in a room with a task and a deadline. Some weekends have fared better than others, but the universal generality at work is that Friday night is the mostly likely point during the 54-hour marathon for angst. We will be arguing for a few ideas about which some people will be passionate, and yet we won’t yet know each other well enough to roll with the rejection.
Second—and most importantly—we wouldn’t be armed with this knowledge if it weren’t for the transparent nature of Startup Weekends. That means, people blog, tweet, stream and are willing to share their process in a public manner that ultimately serves future endeavors very well. Take this bit by Elizabeth Grigg yesterday:
As Seattleites who are shy of confrontation and of authority, it makes sense that we would want the idea process to go as quick as possible (regardless of result), and it makes sense that if someone hands us a data structure we say thank-you and work with it. What should have happened? A more dogmatic group would have added a checkpoint and determined what the bar for entry was, and whether this met it. Yet, we’re from Seattle, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and setting up a dogmatic structure like that sounds, well, not very nice. Let’s just all agree on something and get on with things. Yet it’s these checkpoints that we cite as the thing missing in the postmortem.
Bloomington isn’t going to be like any other Startup Weekend, and at the same time we’ll be like them all. We Hoosiers (and weekend guests) can’t be shy about suggesting ideas and fighting to back them up, taking the risks appropriate to a startup project. What happened in Seattle or Toronto or any of the previous cities is informative, but not predestined. Yet our ability to cope with whatever faulty group dynamics may arise is improved significantly by past reporting on how things went.
We thank the hundreds of past founders for sharing. Soon, it will be our turn to do the same.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Kimm // Jan 27, 2008 at 5:09 pm
As one of the Seattle SW participants, I can also share with you that even when it might look like the group is totally mired in process or thrashing, that it IS possible to come out of it and hit some kind of stride.
Ever since 11:30 or so on Saturday, things have been humming along pretty smoothly and feeling really positive around here.
Anyone familiar with managing change knows there is a messy period and the best thing is to convey that this is normal and transient in nature. Things get better.
People who left here Friday night or early Saturday might have done so without realizing that their personal experience during that fraction of the weekend was not the overall experience that the rest of us have had.
Good luck to you all with your upcoming weekend!
2 Seattle Startup Weekend » Insights About Process // Jan 27, 2008 at 5:32 pm
[...] folks in Bloomington, the next scheduled Startup Weekend event, are watching us closely, and for good reason. There is a [...]
3 Bloomington Startup » Blog Archive » Requesting chatter from local bloggers // Jan 27, 2008 at 6:29 pm
[...] like any other Startup Weekend, and at the same time we’ll be like them all. We are going to benefit from the transparency provided by the previous cities. Our ability to cope with whatever faulty group dynamics may arise [...]
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