Grants talk:Project/MSIG/SandraH./Communication and Leadership skills development for Arabic community

Sharing it with the Arab community

Hello..

I have shared about this grant proposal in Arabic Wikipedia Medan, in order to keep the Arabic community updated on the progress and outcomes of the grant now and project later.

Warm regards.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 19:32, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Overall Positive Feedback

This application team has shown their interest in addressing a valid need in their community and to improve the communication and leadership skills for community members. This aligns with Movement Strategy’s Invest in Skill and Leadership Development recommendation. It is especially good to see that this team has already identified the training vendor with a course that is already prepared, which means you will be able to kick start the project effectively. YPam (WMF) (talk) 21:12, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Feedback for Improvement

Regarding the training course

• It would be good to expatiate on why this approach is taken currently. In addition, to strengthen this proposal, it will be important to demonstrate the project team’s understanding of the Arab community regarding the challenges being called out. Referencing situations and previous approaches taken (or even research conducted) that may or may not have worked, would be a critical foundation for demonstrating the need to run this project at this point in time for the Arab Community. Note that the application is already proposing a solution to a problem, but the impetus for this solution will need to be set to demonstrate the true potential impact for running the project.

• Unfortunately, as far as we know, there is no study that address this topic in the Arabic community. However, based on our experience, we can provide some examples to help highlight the problem:

• Example 1: The Arabic Council: It was a body formed from different user group to represent the Arabic community in front of the foundation. Unfortunately, the project did not work because of communication problems. All discussions in the meetings were sharp, the people were continuously attacking each other with no effort spent to find a common ground.
• Example 2: Wikimedians of the Levant: Discussions between members were sometimes blocked because of communication issues. On several occasions, members fail to communicate publicly in a proper way, causing conflicts that can be easily solved if words were chosen carefully. Unfortunately, such problems led to some active members leaving the group (We have the names if needed).
• Arabic Wikipedia village pump: it is a common pattern to find discussions achieved with the following conclusion: "No consensus" due to lack of communication skills. Following this pattern you can easily see that the two parties are not listening to each other, and each of them is trying to prove his/her point without making any efforts to understand the others point of view: Example 1, Example 2 --Sandra HANBO (talk) 20:42, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

• Considering that the team intends to adapt an existng training course, it will be good to provide more details as to how the project team aims to ensure that the training is truly contextually relevant, not only for the Wikimedia context but also for the Arabic community context. Some clarity regarding measure the project team is taking to ensure that the course is tailored for applicability and impact for the volunteers in this community, would be good to see.

• Originally the training was applied to the context of support for the movement charter drafting committee, and other committee participants.

The stated goal of the proposal was:

“The aim of the training is two-fold: to help volunteers develop the skills necessary to collaborate, communicate and make decisions effectively in their roles as committee members, and to offer volunteers globally recognized certification that signals their experience, abilities and achievements to others within and outside the Wikimedia movement.”

The scope of work was defined as follows:

Train Wikimedia volunteer committees with the following specifications:

Skill Areas:

• Consensus building - Learning to reach an agreement, make decisions, and find solutions that everyone can actively support

• Conflict resolution & transformation - Learning to handle conflict creatively and nonviolently; learning to address, reframe, and transform conflict

• Nonviolent Communication - Learning to listen deeply and communicate compassionately; learning to communicate in a way that builds trust and empathy

• Organizational effectiveness - Learning to work efficiently and effectively together; learning to manage workflows and accountabilities

The stated project goals for the Wikimedia Levant group are now as follows:

• 6. Invest in Skills and Leadership Development:

• 31 Global approaches for local skill development and mentorship

• 32 Leadership development plan

• 33 Skill development infrastructure

• 27: Guidelines for board functions and governance.

• 5. Coordinate Across Stakeholders Enhance communication and collaboration capacity with partners and collaborators, and

• 4. Ensure Equity in Decision-Making

Our work is oriented to improve professional and personal skills through triple communication and leadership skills development courses. During the NonViolent communication course, The members will learn multiple skills like solving Problems in communication, Deeper transformation in people, Self-aware of what is social programming, and others. Whereas CoResolve sessions are aimed to work with Group dynamics, with More focus on the relational aspect. improve leadership, collaborative decision-making, and solve the conflict in groups .. etc. In Sociocracy it aims to understand the Concept, How we can apply it in WMF and in the outer world.

In our perspective, no adaptation or tailoring is needed. We also want to mention that the invitation came from members of Wikimedia Levant who took the original course and were enthusiastic about bringing this work to their colleagues, being that they are aware of the challenges they face and that this would be of great support and use to them.

The challenges mentioned by the Wikimedia Levant group who invited us to do this work are similarly of systemic nature as in the original project, namely due to patterns acquired and internalized in our conventional socialization processes, such as binary models of thinking - good/bad, right/wrong, either/or, win/lose, often combined with moral judgements. Derived patterns of power-over as ways of dealing with conflicts are also common, and a host of inherited behaviors and models based on power hierarchy in orgs, and many others. These foundational patterns and models of thinking tend to generate in organizations an equally patterned host of symptoms we see as problems: inequity, polarized conflict, incivility, disengagement, lower collaboration than what would be possible, etc.

Research on the matter points to the hidden costs of conflict (CPP Global Human Capital Report), disengagement in orgs (Gallop), Incivility in the workplace (Harvard Business Review) an others - point to a host of behaviors that can be easily identified in the daily life of almost any organization operating within conventional relational culture.

Introducing NVC, CoResolve and Sociocracy invites to change since the three of them introduce in different scopes a humanizing change in paradigm, showing forms of, rather than binary, complexity-based solutions to co-creating realities where all voices matter, all needs matter, and where understanding and empathy is a source of creative strength and resilience. These practices are introduced, exactly because they invite to a different model or paradigm in perception and practice, and while they to not guarantee or ensure anything (as any other training) since it will depend on participants taking it seriously and applying the knowledge. However, we are confident in the transformative impacts as has shown our experience over a decade and in 12 different countries.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 08:05, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

• Has the project team considered allocating preparation time not only for translation but also for making the training material and format more relevant to the context, this is with regards to the examples that the training uses, and also the teaching style.

• Yes, we did contacted "Michel Bakni" who make the interpretation service (English-to-French & vise versa) when the courses were taking place last summer. Michel is a native Arabic speaker, he is also a part of the translation team in the WMF, and thus, he is familiar with the movement and the course contexts.
• Michel answered positively and he will provide the help creating materials in Arabic.
• We adapted the trainings budget to include Language consultation (5 Hrs/course) [15 Hours in total] to reflect to this note. --Sandra HANBO (talk) 20:42, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Project Planning

• Generally, it will be great for the team to provide more details regarding the overall project plan, for example, who their learners are, how many learners do you plan to recruit, your recruitment strategy, the participant management plan, and project timelines.

• We are planning to have 20 participants. We will divide the numbers by 80% (16 members) for Arabic Wikimedia User groups. 20% (4 members) for the Arabic community members outside user groups. Unfortunately, we can not ask for more participants due to organization restrictions as the course can not be successfully performed with a number greater than this.
• We will officially communicate the Arabic user groups (Wikimedia Algeria,Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group, Egypt Wikimedians, Iraqi Wikimedians, Wikimedia Tunisie, Wikimedia Community User Group Sudan, Wikimedians of the Levant, Wikimedia MA User Group) by email asking them to suggest two members per group. As there are 8 Arabic user groups we expect to have 16 participants. If any group failed to suggest two members the free chair will be automatically added to the Arabic community quota.
• We will create a bourse program for the last 4 participants, we will ask community members to apply for the course and form a neutral jury of trustfully members of the community to study the application and select 4 members for the program. The selected members will not receive money in any form, but they will be granted free access to the live course.
• To reduce the gap between men and women in the Arabic community, we will insist on 50/50 representation in all the previously mentioned steps.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 21:58, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

• It will be good for the project team to provide some details on the potential tangible behaviors and outcomes you expect could result from this training. Keeping in mind that soft skill training (as is the case with the Nonviolent Communication and CoResolve units) and learning is difficult to assess. Please provide some details regarding outcomes and other concrete improvements you envision will happen after the training. For example, could meetings be more effective? Will there be new cross-community collaborations? Will there be quicker/better resolutions to conflicts?

Typical outcomes of NVC training:

• Higher effectiveness in offering constructive feedback, positive and negative
• Increased expression and listening capacity, leading to more effective :: communication and understanding, more effective collaboration
• Increased conflict management capacity, leading to less time loss and team relationship corrosion
• Increased self-awareness, self-care, self-responsibility
• Higher sensitivity and empathy/compassion towards others

Typical outcomes of CoResolve training:

• Increased effectiveness in inclusive decision-making
• Skills in consensus-building
• Skills in conflict resolution
• Increase in participatory leadership skills
• Leaders learn to read group dynamics in ways that more likely to effectively and constructively transform conflict

Typical outcomes of Sociocracy training:

• Participants learn skills that bring more efficiency and effectiveness to workflows and accountability

In general:

• Collaboration capacity will expand within and between teams
• Increased awareness of impact on others
• Increased self-responsibility
• Increased psychological safety
• Increased awareness of oppression & equity
• More effective meetings
• Increased effectiveness in decision-making
• Better listening/understanding capacity
• Stronger relationship connection and resilience
• Faster and more effective conflict resolution
• Increased engagement
• Increased creativity--Sandra HANBO (talk) 08:10, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

• Do consider building in and providing some measurements for tracking success on this project. How does the project team intend to measure the ways in which these training planned will address the challenges of non-violent communication as well as the leadership skills of the Arab community members?

We have been applying questionnaires at the start and at the end of training to measure levels of change in understanding and integration of key concepts, such as empathy, self-reflective evaluation, group dynamics understanding, governance practice. Another evaluation can be applied a few months after the training to evaluate over time what has changed.

It is important to note that all three trainings are introductions, and have a role of creating shifts in perception and practice. Many impacts of these trainings are immediate, and other take time and practice to integrate more fully.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 08:10, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

• The training currently runs for up to 44 hours, which means that learners potentially have more time to practice and familiarize themselves with the concepts. However, for volunteers with busy schedules, this training length could result in a loss of engagement over time. How does the project team intend to mitigate this?

The project timetable can be found here.

It is divided into three main courses with a pre-defined date for each. It normally takes 2 hours/per week to attend the live sessions. Additionally, we expect that every participant will spend 1 hour on average per week doing the homework and studying the course.

We believe 3 hours/week is still manageable for most people if they are aware of the schedule of the sessions. moreover, we plan to make a tolerance margin of 1-2 sessions/course of absence per participants. If this condition is satisfied the participant can still be certified.

It is also possible to ask usergroups to provide substitutes if a user cannot attend all the 3 courses. --Sandra HANBO (talk) 08:12, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Targeted Initiative

• The team highlights recommendation #4. Ensure Equity in Decision-Making and initiative #27: Guidelines for board functions and governance. The project itself appears to target Skills and Leadership development as stated in the title. Please provide clarity regarding the specific Movement Strategy Initiative this project aims to advance.

Modification was included in the grant proposal.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 21:25, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

Budget details

• In the budget, project coordination and fiscal sponsorship request 10% each of the total budget, yet the total figures are not the same. Suggest building out the budget with a separate column for each currency. YPam (WMF) (talk) 21:38, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

• I have added comments column describing the process and united the currency in the column.--Sandra HANBO (talk) 08:51, 8 December 2022 (UTC)