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# System prepended metadata

title: Our values
tags: [about-us]

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# Our values

Last updated: 2023-01-16
URL for this page: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/values
URL for this site: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/how-we-work

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We strive at IOI to ensure our work balances being **trustworthy** and **evidence-based** with a design that makes the topics we care about **actionable, approachable, reusable, memorable, and understandable**.

We are committed to **openness and transparency**, and endeavor to share our process, findings, and work in formats that enable participation and reuse. Transparency and access are two critical components of the healthy, inclusive ecosystem we are building towards, and we aim to reflect that in our work.

We believe in **iterative** development, and are committed to soliciting and incorporating feedback into our work products and process. “The perfect is the enemy of the good” and we believe working in the open (and sharing works in progress, warts and all!) is an important part of the process and ultimately make the outcome better and useful in the long run.

Underlying all of our work is a framework anchored in ensuring the work we do and recommendations we provide **foster a healthier, more equitable and inclusive research ecosystem**. That weaves through every aspect of our work - from our governance bodies to our decision making tools and the research we produce.

In addition:

-   **We believe clarity is kind.**
    -   We’re not afraid of asking [clarifying and probing questions](https://www.nsrfharmony.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/probing_questions_guide.pdf "‌"), and we respond in a transparent and respectful way. We see this as an act of kindness.
-   **We empower, not assimilate.**
    -   We’re gathering to experiment in ways we can work better together; ways that bring out the best in everyone and avoid reinforcing and imposing old processes and structures.
-   **We value getting it right over being right.**
    -   We acknowledge that feelings of defensiveness are a normal feature of being human. When these feelings arise, we will do our best to replace them with curiosity while embracing new perspectives.
-   **We may not get it right the first time.**
    -   We iterate - on our processes, projects, and opinions. We believe in creating, sharing, testing, and improving. This iteration cycle will be the first of many that will evaluate our way of working.
-   **We actively keep each other accountable.**
    -   We know it’s everyone’s job to ensure we are signaling, centering, and acting on our EDIAR (equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism) values and goals, particularly the ones that historically and currently benefit from systems of power.
-  **We are people first.** 
    -  We continuously try to make sure our meeting structures and tools are best serving us and ensuring we can be whole humans.
    -   We make space for one another when there are caretaking / life needs, and lean on process and communication to make sure there’s support should someone need it (be it COVID, life stuff, kid / parent stuff, you name it).
    -   Kiddos are welcome on meetings (even if Board/ Steering related). Very much a place where we recognize that life happens. :)

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## See also
* [IOI Privacy Policy](https://investinopen.org/ioi-privacy-policy/)
* [IOI Code of Conduct](https://investinopen.org/code-of-conduct/)
* Archived copy of this page (via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/values

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This page first published: 2022-08-02

###### tags: `about-us`

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