My impression from having worked at 2 EA organizations in the last few years, and the conversations I’ve had in the community more generally, is that paying more attention to and sharing more thoughts about how to build orgs and other organizational issues could be very valuable. E.g. on: management, hiring, how to scale, communication, feedback, pros and cons of different decision-making structures, how to productively confront interpersonal conflict, accountability/oversight mechanisms, …
I think one of the strengths of the EA community is that improving our reasoning as individuals has really become part of our ‘cultural DNA’. I’m thinking of all the discussions on cognitive biases, forecasting, how to weigh different types of evidence, etc. If the cultural status and available knowledge on ‘organizational improvement’ could become as strong as for ‘self-improvement’, that would make me really optimistic about what we can achieve.
I guess I’m mostly comparing the two EA orgs I’ve worked with, and my memory of informal conversations in the community, with my experience elsewhere, e.g. at a student-run global poverty nonprofit I volunteered for while at university. It’s possible that my sample of EA conversations was unrepresentative, or that I’m comparing to an unusually high baseline.
Thanks for making this available!
My impression from having worked at 2 EA organizations in the last few years, and the conversations I’ve had in the community more generally, is that paying more attention to and sharing more thoughts about how to build orgs and other organizational issues could be very valuable. E.g. on: management, hiring, how to scale, communication, feedback, pros and cons of different decision-making structures, how to productively confront interpersonal conflict, accountability/oversight mechanisms, …
I think one of the strengths of the EA community is that improving our reasoning as individuals has really become part of our ‘cultural DNA’. I’m thinking of all the discussions on cognitive biases, forecasting, how to weigh different types of evidence, etc. If the cultural status and available knowledge on ‘organizational improvement’ could become as strong as for ‘self-improvement’, that would make me really optimistic about what we can achieve.
It seems to me that some of those issues have been discussed quite a bit; e.g. how to recruit, how to communicate, and how to give feedback.
Thanks, that’s good to know.
I guess I’m mostly comparing the two EA orgs I’ve worked with, and my memory of informal conversations in the community, with my experience elsewhere, e.g. at a student-run global poverty nonprofit I volunteered for while at university. It’s possible that my sample of EA conversations was unrepresentative, or that I’m comparing to an unusually high baseline.