The end of an era
We Are Open Co-op closes today: 1st May 2026, International Workers' Day 🤘
A decade ago I didn't really know what a worker co-op was. But when John suggested it as a structure for he, Laura, Bryan, and I to work together, it seemed like a great idea.
Over the years I've learned so much about a whole range of things. There's those I've talked about before like consent-based decision making and non-violent communication. But there's other concepts like solidarity, and having equal ownership of a business you're building together on shared values.
It's also just fun to co-work with people you like on stuff you care about. It's productive to be in control of your calendar and be able to shape your days and weeks around your preferences and energy levels. And it's rewarding to achieve things at pace and demonstrate to clients different ways of working.
I'm going to miss all that. But it's not like I'm going to forget what I've learned. My experiences at WAO built on things I learned at Mozilla, and that, in turn, rounded out the skills I learned as a teacher, senior leader, and researcher in formal education.
What I'll miss most is working with Laura on a daily basis. That woman is a force of nature and, when we're in sync (probably ~90% of the time) the momentum we generate is scary. I've never met anyone who is both big picture and details-oriented at the same time. And I've never met someone who cares so much about their work.
I'm sure I'll have more reflections in due course, but for now, check out the final, collaborative post we published on the WAO blog this morning:
WAO
We spent the last few weeks archiving the fruits of 10 years of collaboration. That's accessible from the website we created to replace our home page. Check out:
We Are Open Co-op
The momentum that WAO has provided me I will be channelling into projects through Dynamic Skillset. But for now I'm raising a glass to my co-op buddies: cheers! 🥃