Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Sources/2016 Wikimedia Foundation Leadership retreat agenda
Logistics
edit- September 28-29, 2016
- Time: Wed 9.30 am start, Thurs 5pm close (ferry at 6:15pm, schedule changes often, please double-check before departure)
Participants
edit- Foundation C-team (Katherine Maher, Maggie Dennis, Lisa Gruwell, Joady Lohr, Wes Moran, Michelle Paulson, Heather Walls, Jaime Villagomez)
- Christophe Henner (Foundation Board chair)
- Suzie Nussel (facilitator)
- Anna Stillwell (facilitator)
Topic
edit- Strategic vision
Goals
edit- Substance (Developing an initial point of view as the Foundation’s C-team)
- Shared understanding and expectation of how to define “movement strategy” - particularly in our special context as “strategic vision”
- Shared understanding of c-team strategic priorities and perspectives
- Have conversations that are focused on opportunities over challenges, and look 10-15 year into the future, rather than 3-5
- Develop preliminary list of Big questions and thematic areas for strategy engagement (to be shared with the community for feedback in October)
- Need focused work to determine the right level of questions to engage on - How to actively engage in higher-level thinking (movement direction) and reduce tactical submissions (such as product features, etc.)
- Develop initial SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to inform strategy process and give community members baseline information
- Process
- Shared team ownership and leadership of the future of the movement and the Foundation’s role within the movement
- Shared understanding and ownership of the coming strategy timeline, processes, and best-case outcomes, and the executive team’s role within this process
- Based on past processes, key learnings
- Build strong support for community-collaborative outcomes
- Bring issues, misconceptions, confusion to the surface and address accordingly
- Develop clear understanding of next steps to complete deliverables for Oct. Meta posting and Nov Board retreat
- Resulting in detailed project plan / resources identified to complete all tasks
Proposed agenda
editSeptember 28 | 9.30 - 5.00
Developing a shared point of view on strategic direction | ||
9:30 - 10:00
10:00 - 10:15
10:15 - 11:00
11:00 - 11:15 Break (15 min) 11:15 - 12:00
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch at Tiburon Tavern Back Patio 1:00 - 2:05
2:05 - 2:15 Break (10 min) 2:15 - 3:45
3:45 - 4:00 Break (15 min) 4:00 - 5:45
4:45 - 5:00
5:00 - 7:00 Free time 7:00 - 9:00 Group dinner | |||
September 29 | 9.00 - 5.30
Structure the engagement process (draft for community review) | ||
8:30 BREAKFAST
9:00
10:30 - 10:45 Break (15 min) 10:45 - 12.05
12:05 - 1pm Lunch 1:00 - 2:45
2:45 - 3:00 Break 3:00 - 4:00
4:00 - 5:00
5:00 CLOSE |
Pre-Reading/Viewing
editProposed definitions of types and levels of strategy:
editMovement Strategy
Movements are a type of group action, that carry out, resist, or undo social change. They are large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizations which focus on specific political or social issues. A movement strategy defines a shared vision, direction and goals for individuals and organizations in the movement. It is strongly connected to the emotional logic that drives volunteers and donors to participate and belong. It answers the questions “Who do we want to be and what are we trying to achieve together?” |
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Watch a leading thinker on movement strategy: Taj James, Founder and Executive Director of the Movement Strategy Center. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye00UGYF5QI
Organizational Strategy
An organization strategy is the sum of action an organization intends to take to achieve its long term goals in support of a movement, taking into consideration the strategies of the other movement organizations. It also defines the economic logic (fundraising models) that will support the organization. It answers the questions “What do we want to do and what is our role in the larger movement?” |
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Read a leading thinker on organizational strategy: Jim Phils, Professor at Apple University; Former Director of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Integrating_Mission_and_Strategy_for_Non.html?id=tvoRDAAAQBAJ
Product Strategy:
“Product strategy is defined as the road map of a product. This road map outlines the end-to-end vision of the product, particulars on achieving the product strategy and the big picture context in terms of what the product will become.” In a nonprofit context, products support the goals of the organization and the movement. Programs can also be considered products. This defines the functional logic of the organization. It answers the the question “How are we going to do it?” |
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Read more about product strategy: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
The book discusses how to guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business success. The stories of how P&G repeatedly won by applying this method to iconic brands such as Olay, Bounty, Gillette, Swiffer, and Febreze clearly illustrate how deciding on a strategic approach--and then making the right choices to support it--makes the difference between existing and succeeding. The Product department recently applied elements of this approach to Reading strategy over the past year.
Other materials
editSocial movement / Theory of change
editEnglish Wikipedia articles
- Social movement theory
- Social movement organization
- New social movements
- Resource mobilization
- Rational choice theory
- Framing (social sciences)
- Not Social Movement Theory, but also relevant: Computer-supported collaborative learning
Books:
- Social Movements and Organization Theory (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics). David, Gerald F.; McAdam, Doug; Scott, W. Richard; Zald, Mayer N. Link
- Social Movements, 1768-2008. Tilly, Charles. Link.
- Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Manuel Castells. Link
Articles:
- Four Stages of Social Movements (Emergence, Coalescence, Bureaucratization, and Decline).
- Social Movement Strategy, Tactics, and Collective Identity. Smithey, Lee A.
Organizational Strategy
editArticles:
- Adaptive Strategy. O’Donovan, Dana; Rimland Flower, Noah.
Books:
- Playing to Win. Lafley, A.G.; Martin, Roger L. (used by Reading team)
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Rumelt, Richard.
- Why Strategy Execution Unravels--and What to Do About It
- Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
- The Innovator's Dilemma
- Blue Ocean
- The Open Organization
- The End of Power
A whole slew of books and websites on why simple is better than everything else, including when it comes to strategy and design principles:
Community engagement
editPlease note that no book on community management is tailored to our unique situation. All approaches need to be reviewed with an eye towards modification to our circumstances.
- Buzzing Communities: How to Build Bigger, Better and More Active Online Communities. By Richard Millington.
- While engineered (as they all are) for a different kind of community, Millington (of Feverbee) takes a nuanced look at community development based on the life-cycle of the community. Many of his suggestions could make potentially valuable approaches for affiliate organizations especially in emerging communities, although (again) it’s not engineered for our kind of crowd.
- Design to Thrive: Creating Social Networks and Online Communities that Last. By Tharon Howard.
- Howard’s approach to community building is based around his “RIBS” model: Remuneration, Influence, Belonging & Significance. Basically, people participate if they feel rewarded for their efforts (pleasure is a reward); if they feel influential in their community or on a sphere that matters to them (in our case, potentially the knowledge sphere); if they feel accepted, as if they belong; if they feel that what they are doing is significant.
- Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-based Social Design. By Robert E. Kraut.
- Have not yet read this book, but it’s in my stack. Came highly recommended.
- The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation. By Jono Bacon.
- A Ubuntu manager interviews other online community managers about how to herd cats, basically: how do you keep volunteer movements on course? This is unread in my stack.
- Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards. By Patrick O’Keefe.
- This one is a little older. It gets some good word of mouth, but I haven’t poked at it enough yet to know if it will apply.