“Can I help?”

Tl;dr. Managing large academic projects requires skills we don’t all have. Teach others what you know, and ask others to teach you what you need to learn. By giving away our knowledge, we all do better (and if someone learns from you and then does better than you… Isn’t that kind of awesome?)

Back a million years ago (by which I mean 2008), various combinations of Phil, Fraser, and I were giving workshops on how to communicate science through blogs and podcasts. At one point, an audience member asked, “Why are you guys teaching us this? Aren’t we just going to be you’re competition?” I don’t remember where I was when this was asked, but I’ll always remember Fraser’s answer, (paraphrase) “If we can get more people communicating science, we can get more people consuming science, and that’s good for all of us. And… If you’re good enough to supplant us, that’s on us for not keeping up, and kudos to you.”

I didn’t have the words at the time to say something like this, but the call and response, “How can I help?” “Let’s build a community together!” has always been at the core of what I want to do with my career. (There are reasons Fraser and I have been working together for over 10 years!)

Today, the community that we started in 2008, continues on through the volunteer run Carnival of Space roving blog roundup, and the 365 Days of Astronomy program of podcasts and YouTube videos that is managed by Avivah Yamani. Not only were we able to train those people in 2008, but across the years we’ve said to them and generations of others, “Let me help you build your name”, and “Let me give you a place to grow.” Oh and, “If you outgrow us, can you maybe please help promote what we do?” We watched as folks like Ian O’Neill and Amy Shira Teitel went from being budding communicators to being leaders in our field. It’s kind of awesome. They are responsible for their awesome, but… we got to ride along for a bit.

In creating CosmoQuest, we’ve taken that idea from #scicomm into the realm of science. We are working to develop a platform where we can say, “Look, we have this tool that researchers can use to do science, and that the public can use to help do science – let’s just science!” While we have worked to slowly map rocky bodies with names beginning with M or V, we’ve also reached out to other teams in Citizen Science to say, “How can we partner?” and “How can we help?” knowing that the whole community can benefit if we learn from one another and build on each others efforts.

So, why am I talking about that on a management blog? Well… it’s because there are a lot of things out there that I’m now asked to do that my PhD in astronomy never prepared me for, and I have needed help just like those budding podcasters in our workshops. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to take a page from Amanda Palmer and learn the Art of Asking.

Running a large project like CosmoQuest requires me to understand budgets and forms. Running it well requires me to understand business models, funding models, mission and vision statements, motivating teams, motivating individuals (which is not the same), motivating myself (which is really not the same!), project management, and the art of the elevator pitch. Graduate school taught me about the budgets, the forms, motivating myself (sorta), and the elevator pitch. The rest… I got help from friends. I literally have written emails to friends outside of academia and said, “You do this thing. I do not know how to do this thing. Can you visit and demonstrate this thing and let me learn from you?”

As near as I can tell, the best entrepreneurs and activists have all learned how to leverage all their connections toward creating something awesome, and the best of them know that helping others can help them or at least help pay off their Karmic debt. I’m trying to learn from them.

The best advice I can give anyone starting a project is to go through their friends and social media followers and find people from big business, start ups, and consulting who can help you understand the best practices from outside academia (because they have a whole lot more lessons learned, and frankly do it better than us).

Over the past couple of years I’ve had two old dear friends visit my team and give us all lessons on communicating better, brainstorming effectively, and I had one advisor, Llwellyn Falco, help me get to the Agile Games conference in Boston so I could learn from an entire field of experts in things I really need to know. I reached out to Steve Dengler at XE.com (an app that has saved me from currency mistakes many times!), and asked for help learning business models. I worked with Peter Lake of CISCO and iTelescope to learn about how to leverage business connections and possibilities in corporate partnerships. I’ve had followers become friends (Ed Brown, I’m looking at you), as they shared a pint and taught me about the need to have longevity plans, and funding models even for academic programs, and it is those conversations from 2011 that allowed me to survive sequestration in 2012.

I could keep typing, listing names and saying how they helped… but the key factor is, I asked and they helped, and together we are making a project I hope they can all be proud for supporting. I know my business models don’t totally stand up to muster yet, but maybe I’ve gone from unacceptable, to alright for a second week cadet. My longevity plans are there, and they worked, but it would have been nice to have survived with more student positions intact. I still have a lot of learning to do. But I know that, and I know who to ask for help.

And I hope folks know they can ask me for help too.

Learn to ask. Learn to share. Give away your knowledge and learn more than you thought possible.