Our Values:Discussion/First value

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This detailed discussion is referring to Our Values and follows a first discussion here. You can find rules on how to participate in discussions in the Discussions main page.

Description:

There is broad consensus on content of the value itself but diverging opinions on the best naming.

Given the importance of setting the correct values for the company and community i opened this detailed discussion.

Please add to goals we have with the value, pro and contra arguments, describe them and sign which current opinion you have. Opinions can always be changed. Changing an Opinion is neither good or bad, but Opinions should always be well reflected and help us to reach the best possible course of action. --PirateCaptain (talk) 10:12, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

Options

Currently discussed Options

• Strive for excellence
• Growth Mindset
• Continuous Improvement

Goals of the value

• Clear communication of our ambition to continuously build on the wiki and turn it into one of the most sophisticated investment knowledge collections
• Clear communication that articles should be continuously improved and we value all - even the smallest contributions - to reach that goal
• Clear communication that we value in depth and detailed work
• Clear communication that we aim to continuously improve on all processes and create very well running systems
• Clear communication that we aim to continuously improve ourselves
• Clear communication that we value people with passion and persistency who aim to achieve mastery in their field
• Attraction of people with similar attributes
• Gaining of trust that the quality of all our work will continuously improve and that all processes will eventually run very well
• Gaining of trust that we are able to reflect on our mistakes and improve and change everything which is not great
• Gaining of trust that we will succeed together and build something great
• Explanation why eventually good articles should be improved to great
• Encouragement to ask questions in order to improve

Add more

Comparison table

Pro	Strive for excellence	Growth Mindset	Continuous Improvement
	Focus on improvement until it is great	Association with good values	The description is very natural
			Describes iteration well
			True for all experience levels
Contra	Value might sound intimidating	Potentially focused too much on personal development?	Less expressive
	Foster perfectionism?	Term not universally known
	Harder to admit mistakes?
	Not humble enough?

Argument descriptions

Strive for excellence

Pro

• It is true that we strive for excellence and want to reach a very high level of quality through continuous iteration --PirateCaptain
• Striving for excellence means that we push ourselves to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do. This includes that we must also continuously improve through creativity and innovation. -- Anja --PirateCaptain
• You can do something for long and still fail at it because you didn't execute it well. --Aron
• "Excellence" itself is a motivation, as you learn you strive to excell in your learning journey --Aron

Contra

• The value might sound intimidating or deterrent to newcomers and discourage them from contributing
• The value might foster perfectionism. Perfectionism is defined as declining contribution due to fear that something might be wrong. This is not wanted we want to encourage contribution, experimentation and personal growth.
• The value might make it harder to admit mistakes or not knowing something as this could be seen as not being "excellent". We want to encourage openness when mistakes happen or when we don't know something or we are not capable of something so that we can improve as we are all learners.
• Not being humble enough makes it again harder to admit mistakes, decrease the speed of the learning curve and the value might be too arrogant.
  

Growth Mindset

Pro

• Clear description of positive attributes associated with personal growth

Contra

• Potentially too focused on personal growth and not improvement of the work itself?
• There might be confusion among people what growth mindset means
• Growth mindset is not bad at all. But to my opinion it is a much weaker expression than "striving for excellence" and too general. -- Anja

Continuous Improvement

Pro

• The description "Continuous improvement" is very natural when talking about the topic. When saying "We strive for continuous improvement" it is more clear to an outsider what is meant compared to saying "We strive for excellence" or "Growth Mindset". It's also slightly more natural saying "I took this decision because of our continuous improvement value" then saying "i took this decision because of our strive for excellence/growth mindset value"
• The value describes our goal of getting better through iteration well
• The value is true for everyone from beginner to expert
• We could combine the values "Continuous Improvement" and "Strive for Excellence" by including in the description of "Continuous Improvement": Perfection is not human. We are starting simple. By Continuous Refinement and Improvement we are striving for excellence. --PirateCaptain

Contra

• The value is less expressive and might be boring
• The description is not really a personal mindset and might not classify as a value? --PirateCaptain
• Continuous improvement does not mean we will achieve excellence. It could mean we are making improvements but still end up on a low level.

New Ideas

Naming of Value:

• Excellence through iteration

• Collaborative improvement

Opinion Poll

Strive for excellence

Growth Mindset

Continuous Improvement

Undecided

My current tendency is "Strive for excellence" but not decided yet. Looking for more arguments or counter arguments--PirateCaptain (talk) 11:12, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

Final thoughts

If applicable add final thoughts here

Anja: My final thoughts/comments on growth mindset/striving for excellence:

I still vote for striving for excellence (and I totally agree with Arons comment from 09th of January)

I cannot see anything arrogant in "striving for excellence". Striving for excellence means that we push ourselves to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do. This includes that we must also continuously improve through creativity and innovation. These issues are absolutely essential for a succesful business.

Growth mindset is not bad at all. But to my opinion it is a much weaker expression than "striving for excellence" and too general.

Additional comment after reading Arons and Magalys thoughts: I understand what Magaly wants to point out, but I think good entrepreneurs know that continous improvement is essential for a successful business and that you can never stop at a point (stop keeping eyes wide open and continue to develop if necessary).

I also agree with Aaron that "We strive for excellence" includes "Growth Mindset" and "continous improvement".

Aron:

I feel that "We strive for excellence" encompasses "Growth Mindset" and "continous improvement". To achieve excellence, you have to develop a growth mindset and continously improve. Also, Unlike "growth mindset" and "continuous improvement", "we strive to excell" has an end goal "excellence". For that reason, I still vote for "we strive for excellence". I also agree with Anja-I think it's not arragonant to want to excell in a professional setup.

Magaly:

I vote for the new "continuous improvement", I think it will feel more welcoming for all kind of people that would want to join.

Contrary to what Aron pointed out, I  think continuous improvement does also have a goal defined in it, which is never -ending, hence imo better. "Strive for excellence" may sound like you could reach that point/goal and stop there.

Is not that I think "strive for excellence" is bad, or that we should not try to be great and produce high quality in our work. My worry is more in how it is perceived.

Moritz:

I changed my mind and am now again leaning towards strive for excellence. The main reason is that one could make small continuous improvements over time at a low level but still never become very good as excellence or mastery is not clearly targeted. Therefore choosing a field in which excellence can be achieved and pursing that field seems imperative to me. It is also important to recruit for people and try to win over people who strive for excellence in their respective field.