The "official" launch of the "We Are Smarter Than Me" (WASTM) project was on November 16, 2006. About a week following that, I joined the group. Within a few days, chaos was beginning to rear its (ugly?) head. Just in the last few days it finally got to the point where we all had to pause and think about group dynamics, structure and governance issues. My comments at the time were that I was actually encouraged to see the chaos and confusion; I saw it all as the natural progression of groups.
Bruce Tuckman's 4-stage model (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/tuckman.htm) came to mind when I initially joined the group which, at the time had about 1500 folks and climbing. I read someplace that they were hoping to recruit upwards of 10,000 people over the internet to help and write this book. (Imagine that!)
The Tuckman model suggests a 4-stage progression coined "Forming," "Storming," "Norming," and "Performing." The gist of it is that a few people (or thousands) come together to "form" a group. After a period of time, group members find they have to grapple with conflicting personalities, behaviors, goals, etc. This conflict basicallly describes the "Storming" stage. Unless the group implodes (and some die in the norming stage), they enter into a stage where they begin to reconcile the differences and begin "Norming." And, it's only after they normalize into roles and responsibilities do they actually begin "Performing."
Things finally came to a head yesterday with Jon Spector, one of the founders of the project and the Vice Dean of The Wharton School, coming online in one of the discussion forums to address the issue directly. He'll be hosting a meeting with his colleagues on Friday to discuss the situation and see what a new path forward might look like. In the meantime, Jon wanted to solicit input from the group so he can take that to the meeting. I remember thinking what a courageous thing to do. And, after seeing the maturity of responses despite the frustration that had been evident, I was encouraged that our very large (and growing) chaotic community was likely going to survive the Storming stage.
If you subscribe to the idea, as I guess I do, that each of the Tuckman stages is a sort of progress check, then it's hard not to look forward to the chaos and confusion that marks the stage our community finds itself in at the moment.
Happily, this story isn't done yet. I'll keep posting updates here...
