Note: This is an unpublished draft meant for preview purposes. Send any thoughts to info@bennorris.com.
As I have taken stock of my life lately, I have realized that two of the most important values to me right now are compassion and authenticity. The more I think about these, the more excited I get. These two values, especially when combined together, permeate every aspect of our lives. So I am thrilled to be launching a new project: Authentic Compassion.
This project will start with a series of articles called Compassionate user stories.
As with my Mental Work Health articles (which are on a dedicated site at mentalworkhealth.org), you can get these alongside my other writings at bennorris.com, or on a dedicated site at authenticcompassion.com.
My whole career has been in software, but in different roles. This has given me a broad perspective and appreciation of the impact that someone in one role can have on another.
I have realized that this perspective has yielded unique benefits. My experience has allowed me to serve as something of an interpreter between disciplines.
In modern product management, a user story is a common approach to identify functionality that a software team needs to enable. Rather than focusing on the team or the system, they focus on the person they are actually serving, and describe the benefit and motivation for that person.
This seemed like the perfect framework to structure my articles around as I seek to share some of my experience in the hopes that it can help people trying to navigate complex relationships and work together with other people.
I have seen that as people are authentic and honest, while also considering their impact on those around them, everyone is empowered to do their best, and teams thrive and deliver.
Whether you work in software and can immediately relate to these experiences, or whether you have to apply the particulars to yourself and your relationships, I think you will resonate with some of the lessons I’ve learned. I hope you will join me. We’re all in this together.