January 4, 2019
| Dear Sovrin Community – Within the Sovrin Foundation you’ll find a combination of unique traits that are woven into the fabric of this small, but growing, organization. Perhaps these traits are a function of the size of our organization and its humble beginnings. Small groups of people with shared passions often work well together. Perhaps they come as a result of the mission – one which has, at its root, the goal of changing the way the world thinks about and manages our digital lives. Privacy, security, and identity has been a passion of mine and it is one that is shared amongst our community. Or maybe it’s just a bit of luck – that the right group of individuals, with the right personalities, just happened to start working together to make self-sovereign identity available for everyone. Whatever the reason, we share the traits of transparency, honesty, and integrity. In my experience, the best, and most successful organizations have at least two of these traits as part of their culture, but never have I encountered one which possessed all three, until now. As Sovrin grows, it is my goal to maintain these qualities in our community and to truly embed them in the depths of the Foundation’s culture. I’ve had some time to think about how and why the Foundation developed these traits, and what it really means to us as we work making our mission of identity for all a reality. Operating with these characteristics means being on the “same page,” and the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing. It breeds success, and it has a name: The Shared Mental Model. The Shared Mental Model means that we all have the same overarching goals, and part of my job is to effectively communicate those goals to everyone in our Sovrin community. It also means that we will work together to create those goals. It means that we share information, progress, challenges, and successes with each other. The Shared Mental Model is one of collaboration. It is an environment of knowledge. When one group in our community knows what the others are doing, we can all be better informed about our work and proceed with the understanding of how the things we do affect others. We can work knowing that the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. As we begin 2019, we will continue to embrace this Shared Mental Model that started in the early days of the Foundation. We will share our goals and our mission with you, and with the world. We will verbalize, verify, and monitor our progress. We will operate and collaborate, and work with the transparency, honesty, and integrity that is the hallmark of the Sovrin Foundation. We look forward to the sharing the journey of self-sovereign identity with you in the coming months and years. May the New Year bring happiness, achievements and inspiration for the future. |
Heather Dahl
Executive Director & CEO
Sovrin Foundation
This letter was originally published in the January 2019 edition of the Sovrin Foundation Newsletter. Sign up here to receive the monthly publication.
« Self-sovereign identity video: An introduction to Sovrin Upcoming Sovrin Agent Connectathon »