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about/values-and-culture: Add reference on team values and culture
- This is to help with onboarding new people (the sections come from some reference I was reading about what you should define as teams grow). - This is a draft based on ideas, discussion in the respective chat topic.
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about/index.rst

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Science-IT is the organizational manifestation of Aalto Scientific
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Computing.

about/values-and-culture.rst

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Aalto SciComp values and culture
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================================
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As a team grows, it's useful to outline its values and the way it
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works. This is our team's attempt at that.
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Core values
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-----------
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1. We are researchers who aren't academics.
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2. University research needs more than papers to succeed and help society.
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3. Superstar team and processes, not superstar people.
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4. Radical openness.
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Explanations:
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(1) **We are researchers who aren't academics**. Research is far more
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than publications. We help round out the skillset that
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high-performing teams need, even if we aren't directly involved in
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publications.
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(2) **University research needs more than papers to succeed and help
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society.** Software, data, and general skills are important
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university impacts. We recognize this and help to keep it going.
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(3) **Superstar team and processes, not superstar people.**
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"Superstar" isn't a good term because it glorifies single things,
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but our society works because all the parts work together. Even
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our team only works because it's a part of a broader university,
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national, and international ecosystem. But still, if we have to
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say something is our "superstar", it's the way our team works
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together (people+processes), not any individual people.
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4. **Radical openness.** We are open by design, there are few reasons
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to hide our work. Something doesn't have to be perfect to be
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findable. We also want to set good examples for the university community.
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Cultural practices
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------------------
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a. Remote first so that everyone can participate.
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b. Working at the speed and chaos of the research.
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c. Garage binds all our work together.
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d. Work is quite independent but we always help each other first.
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e. Technology is harder than it should be.
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f. Helping people use technology is hard. We work hard to get good at it.
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g. No private messages so we can work together.
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Explanations:
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(a) **Remote first so that everyone can participate.** We are
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professionals in the middle of our careers. We have many things
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going on besides work, which we need to allow people to work
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around. All of our core activities should be attendable remotely,
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so that our team members will never have to choose between their
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personal life, health, etc. and taking part in the team.
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On the flip side, we understand the need for team connections and
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try to have good team-building and customer-interaction events,
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in-person and otherwise.
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(b) **Working at the speed and chaos of the research.** Research is
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fast-paced and agile. We acknowledge this and try to work at that
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speed, getting stuff done at the right speed for research and
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development, even if it's not the perfect solution long-term. We
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take these short-term lessons and work to make proper long-term
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solutions once the patterns emerge.
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(c) **Garage binds all our work together.** The :doc:`/help/garage`
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session is a time our team can come together to help others, but
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also help ourselves. It allows us a time to chat with each other
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(internally) without having to book a meeting every time. Garage
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attendance isn't required every day, but people should come when
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it makes sense.
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(d) **Work is quite independent but we always help each other first.**
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Even though we work very independently, we are a team. We should
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take the time to help each other first, since that keeps the whole
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team running smoothly.
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(e) **Technology is harder than it should be.** These days, computing
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is in every field (that's why we are here). But computing is
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harder than it should be: there is so much stuff to learn, user
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interfaces can be so esoteric, and there are so many different
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paths to people's final goals. We acknowledge this and support
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users where and how they are. We should never blame users for not
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knowing enough, but blame the technology for being so difficult to
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use.
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(f) **Helping people use technology is hard. We work hard to get good
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at it.** Continuing from the above, it takes skill to help others
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with technology. It's easy to fall into traps of user-blaming or
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getting frustrated. We need intentional effort and practice to be
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the best supporters we can be.
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(g) **No private messages so we can work together.** It's easy to
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think "this is just noise, I will send private messages". But
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that means that only a few people can answer and no one else
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learns the solutions. Use public channels to ask generic
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questions instead of choosing a recipient and asking them. Zulip
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chat is good at organizing lots of information without a person
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needing to read everything. Of course, purely personal matters
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like absences, one-on-one meetings, continuing one-on-one work, is
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quite fine by private message.
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Discussion
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(to be added)

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