Communication

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With our Element.ioP2, and WordPress communication stack, we cover the three levels, three speeds, and three archetypal spaces of communication, collaboration, and sociality.

  • Three Levels: Conversation, Discussion, Publication
  • Three Speeds: Realtime, Async, Storage
  • Three Spaces: Caves, Campfires, Watering Holes
  • Three Sensitivities: Dandelions, Tulips, Orchids

This communication stack is based on the one we helped develop at WordPress.org and Automattic.com. Stimpunks augments it with the vocabulary of neurodiversity and contemporary progressive education.

For details, visit our Stack Field Guide page.

I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company.

I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company – Automattic

Guides to Our Stack

Progressive, Project-Based Onboarding

When onboarding new contributors into our communication stack, we borrow heavily from prosocial models and the NeurodiVenture model.

Part of those models is an onboarding process that involves collaboration over time.

An intensive 12-month induction and on-boarding process
☞ a foundation for mutual understanding

The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations

At Automattic, we developed a project-based hiring process that also features working with someone over time to build a foundation of mutual understanding.

All positions at Automattic involve a paid trial in the application process, which is a short project or set of tasks that will be assessed by our hiring teams. We’ve found that the best way to evaluate working with someone is to do just that!

Trial projects vary depending on the role you are applying for, but they are based on very real areas of work within our teams.

Depending on the role you are interested in and the time you’re able to commit, the trial can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Most candidates complete the trial while working full-time and we know life is busy! Because of this, we encourage all candidates to determine their own working hours and schedule during this project.

How We Hire – Automattic

As such, we onboard volunteers progressively into our systems as we work together. We believe strongly in “default-to-open”.

But we don’t give volunteers the keys to everything immediately. We work with you over time, get to know each other, and then let you into everything except a few rooms that must be private for legal/regulatory reasons and to preserve your privacy when reporting and discussing Human Resources/Covenant/Code of Conduct type stuff.

That time is usually a few months if you’re a regular contributor. If you’re an occasional contributor, that’s cool, but it’ll take longer to get to know each other.

So, if you don’t have access to our General P2 or certain rooms in Element, that’s why. Our organization is fairly wide open on our General P2, and we want to get to know you first before exposing those bits of our selves.

We also have a commitment to “bring safety to the serendipity” of online collaboration, especially for the minors in our community and for the folks who have been taken advantage of online because of their disabilities.

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