Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/2019 Community Conversations/Toolkit

In this Toolkit, you will find information that will help you:

Decide which formats to use for hosting an online conversation
Develop an online discussion schedule
Effectively host meetings online and in person
Encourage participation of many voices and create a friendly space

There are also appendices with templates, policies and guidance notes that you can adapt and use, as well as additional resources to help build facilitation skills and provide ideas for engaging with communities.

Community Conversations and the Movement Strategy Process

There are several elements of the Movement Strategy Process already underway, and the community conversations will support and intersect with these areas.
Below is an outline of how the different parts of the Process work together and the flow of information that you will be a part of.

Conversation flow

Working Groups identify the key questions to be further discussed (these are at the center of the Scoping documents)
Core Team will prepare information (surveys, briefs etc) to be distributed in wiki and non-wiki environments
Community Relations Specialist will coordinate the flow of information to the Strategy Liaisons
Strategy Liaisons will engage with their groups and communities to discuss the materials
Strategy Liaisons will summarize the discussions and provide up to 5 key points per Thematic Area back to the Working Groups (in English)
The Liaisons will post these 5 key points from the conversations with their communities on meta
Additional material that provides value to the conversations will also be posted on meta
Working Group requests for further context and detail will be managed by Community Relations Specialist and forwarded to respective Liaisons

Translation of material

There are 8 language communities that will be the main focus for conversations, and an additional 20+ that will be engaged in targeted ways. The Core Team will coordinate the translation of the documents created to engage in conversations with organizations and communities.
Strategy Liaisons will provide translation of organization and community conversation summaries and key points. They may coordinate this with a volunteer in the community or they undertake this themselves.

Conversation Topics

An important part of your role as Strategy Liaison is to guide your group or community through meaningful discussion and debate. With 8 Scoping Document topics and up to 10 questions within each one, this can be a lot of material to cover. While communities are more than welcome to discuss as many topics as they feel they are able to add value under, we suggest that for many groups, selecting 1 or 2 themes and between 3 and 5 questions under each theme is a useful guideline for generating feedback that is meaningful and in depth.

Conversation Formats

As a Strategy Liaison for your group or community, you know best where to meet and engage with your community. We recommend to go where your community is, and not try to bring them to a meta page or any other site with low participation. There are a range of possible engagement models that you can use to dialogue with communities and organizations, such as:

On-wiki conversation - individual or collective participation in discussions on home-wiki or meta-wiki. This is a helpful format for surfacing collective input.
Online text conversations - collective conversation using social media text solutions to surface common ideas and questions from the group.
Online meeting conversations - collective conversation in an online meeting form to surface common ideas and questions from the group and to discuss controversial aspects to find common ground.
In-person meetings - collective conversation in an in-person meeting form to surface common ideas and questions from the group together with partners, new voices and individuals, to discuss controversial aspects in-person to find common ground (online formats will be preferenced over in-person meetings; a detailed process for designing and seeking approval for an in-person meeting will be developed)
Online surveys - are useful for capturing individual focused input on key questions in the thematic areas

On-wiki conversation

“Village pump” conversation

On many wikis, the main discussion page of the community ("Village pump") is the most active place for conversations.

You can create a new topic on the front page of the village pump, explain the process, and point to the questions you are seeking answers for.
Then create a discussion topic on the talk page, or create subtopics for all nine thematic areas to invite community members to be aware of all the conversation themes.

Conversation on a separate page

On some large wikis, the Village pump is very active and discussions get lost after a few days. In that case, you can create a separate page for Movement Strategy discussions to keep everything concentrated in one known space. To get started:

Transfer relevant materials (e.g. scoping drafts, questions to communities) from central meta page to your wiki
Post a message on the Village pump from time to time to help people remember to participate. For example, you could do this every week. That's it!
Also remember to add a link to your page on the liasons list.

Online text conversations

Many communities and groups are active on chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Messenger), Facebook groups, or even IRC channels. This can make them useful platforms for facilitating movement strategy discussions with your community or group.

Keep in mind: social media and chat platforms work well for discussions but are not the best channels for providing continual access to framing and support materials, as these can get lost in the chat timeline.

Suggestion for setting up an online text conversation:

Preferably use the existing communication channel for the community
Use the landing page on meta or create a separate page on wiki for context materials
Post a message about strategy discussions from time to time so it is not buried in other discussions
Keep a log of strategic discussions to gather this information in one place.

Online Conversation Posting Cycle

If you have decided to have online conversations, you can either design your own sequence for getting the discussion started and keeping it flowing, or you might want to consider a sequence like this:

Step 1 (week 1) - First posting - Introduction and briefing. Share the link with general process information as well as scoping documents from the Working Groups. Accompany it with a personal message and call for participation. Encourage your audience to read the documents and reflect on guiding questions. Ask to share initial thoughts.
Step 2 (week 2-3) - Second posting - Thematic conversations. Focus on one or more thematic areas that your group has been or is interested in debating in more detail. You can create a schedule for different discussions on different thematic areas. Otherwise the discussions might lose focus, and it will be a hard to follow the mix of all the different topics. As a starter, we recommend choosing a thematic area and one or two guiding questions from the scoping drafts on which to focus your first conversations.
Step 3 (week 3-4) - Third posting - Summary. Summarize the conversations in your group by 1) identifying key questions for your group in thematic areas, 2) providing answers to questions raised by the Working Groups, 3) providing answers to guiding questions from the Working Groups. Share the summary with the group for review (preferably on wiki or in an online document for better feedback functionalities).
Step 4 (week 4-5) - Final posting - Sharing. Create summaries for each thematic area, translate them to English and forward them to be shared on meta and with the Working Groups.

Online Meeting

Online meetings are useful for having a more free form verbal discussion regarding the Movement Strategy Process. This allows participants to have an allocated time slot where they can share their thoughts in this form, but it also requires documentation and facilitation of the meeting discussions for it to be effective.

For online meetings any platform can be used (e.g. Google Hangouts or Meet, Skype, BlueJeans, Zoom, Facebook group calls etc.). Ideally video could be used for creating better personal contact, but it is not mandatory.

Here are some tips for supporting a good flow in online meetings:

Share context and reading materials with participants in timely manner prior to the call
Share the agenda of the meeting well in advance (don’t put too many items in the agenda of one call)
Use a mix of calendar invites and written messages on wiki and social media to invite people to participate in the discussions
Have a designated facilitator and note taker for the meeting (determined in advance of the meeting)
If the community is interested in several thematic areas, consider hosting several calls. To keep discussions focused and on topic, calls should ideally not exceed 80 minutes

There are additional tips for hosting online meeting conversations in appendix of this toolkit.

In-person Meeting

In-person meetings are useful for having deeper and more intimate conversations in your community or group regarding the strategy. In-person meetings are also a good chance to bring in partners and new voices to conversations. They also provide space for resolving controversies and conflicting ideas and can be very beneficial to overall community health.

Having an allocated time slot and location for meetings to happen in person can also help discussions and allow participants to properly prepare and concentrate fully during the session. There is an expectation for proper documentation and facilitation of the meeting discussions.

The recommended minimum size of the group is 8 participants. For groups of more than 20 people, it is highly recommended to use a professional facilitator. Using a simple facilitation kit (flipcharts, whiteboards, markers, post-its, prioritization dots) is also a good idea. It is also recommended to prepare and distribute printouts regarding the thematic areas that will be discussed at the in-person meeting.

Keep in mind: organizing an in-person meeting can require a high level of effort and time, before, during and after the meeting.

Here are some tips for supporting a good flow at in-person meetings:

Share context and reading materials with participants in timely manner prior to the meeting
Share the agenda of the meeting well in advance, don’t put too many items in the agenda for one meeting
Use a mix of calendar invites and written messages on wiki and social media to invite people to participate in the discussions
Confirm participation interest and actual list of participants well in advance to find a suitable room for hosting the in-person meeting
Have a designated facilitator and documentation person for the meeting
If the community is interested in several thematic areas, consider a full day workshop or gathering on multiple occasions. On longer discussion days, plan in breaks as well as refreshments.

There are additional tips for further materials for hosting an in-person meeting conversations in appendix of this toolkit.

Online Surveys

Every Working Group has identified 1-3 questions on which they seek community input and that you could engage the community or organization on.

You could use a survey to get input from the community into these specific questions and thematic areas.

This survey can be shared in the communities and even beyond the communities, giving many people the chance to respond directly and individually

Data will be collected centrally and the Liaisons will have access to this information.

Creating Friendly Space Expectations

We are dedicated to providing a respectful, transparent, and harassment-free experience in the Meta-wiki Wikimedia 2030 pages for everyone. Wikimedia 2030 follows specific processes with specific goals. These expectations are needed to ensure a pleasant environment for focused discussions where contributors engage respectfully.

Civility and assuming good faith are core principles of the Wikimedia movement. We realize most people want to help the projects and fellow community members, not hurt them. Remember that most of us are volunteers and need to be appreciated for the time and effort we put into improving the Wikimedia projects.

We expect you to consider the following when engaging in discussion:

Context and background: Do I have a basic understanding of the context and background of the discussion? Have I made sure to educate myself before asking others to explain things to me?
Cultural differences: Am I being sensitive to cultural differences and language barriers?
Experience: Am I considering and not making assumptions about a person’s level of experience (with the Wikimedia movement, grantmaking, project management, etc.)?
Support: Am I framing my comments/questions in a supportive, concise and constructive way, offering suggestions for improvement?
Impact focus: Are my questions focused on the impact of the project proposal or am I overly focused on minor details?

We do not tolerate harassment of contributors in any form. Harassment includes:

offensive comments related to gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, or religion
violence, threats of violence, deliberate intimidation and personal attacks
stalking, following, or continued one-on-one communications after being asked to cease
sustained disruption of discussion
deliberate “outing” and/or doxing of any person’s identity without their consent
publication of non-harassing private communication

If you have concerns about the way you or others are being treated, please contact the Community Relations Specialist.

In order to help maintain a friendly space for participants, a few guidelines and useful talk page templates designed to help manage disruptive comments on talk pages. All users are encouraged to use these tools, and to suggest improvements.

Appendix: Guide for online and in-person meetings

Online meetings

This is a short overview of the steps that can make online meetings work better. This overview is not exhaustive and Working Group members can share their experience and expertise related to online meetings.

Objective

Every successful (online) meeting starts with the definition of the meeting’s objective. This frames the expectations as well as clarifies purpose and deliverables and can help make the meeting more meaningful for its participants. The latter helps with engagement and focus of meeting participants, making it more productive and enjoyable.

Working Groups are expected to hold different types of meetings for different purposes:

Informing - Can be used to provide an information update and/or pull in information from external experts, the Core Team or provide update on working items of Working Group members or subgroups. This is a meeting type with presentations, possibly followed by Q&A.
Discussing - Can be used to discuss topics that need input from all the members of the Working Group and/or external stakeholders. For a productive discussion, this type of meeting needs significant preparation time from all the participants and materials to be made available beforehand. Each discussion item can start with a short overview presentation (keep it sharp!) and a clear explanation at the outset of what is required from participants (decision, views, ideas).
Managing - These are meetings that can be held to maintain the workflow of the Working Group. This type of meeting will consist of checking-in on progress of Working Group tasks, possibly with a short presentation and follow-up Q&A. This will be followed up by clarification of next steps and possible assignment of new tasks.
Decision Making - These meetings need to have proper preparation with alternatives for decisions to be made. These can be presented at the beginning of the meeting, followed by a group discussion and decision. It is important to have an agreement regarding decision-making procedures prior to the meeting or actual decision-making.
Problem solving - These meetings can be used to tackle certain challenges or problems in the Working Group. It should start with presentation of the problem and its complexities , bringing in different viewpoints. This can then be followed by a brainstorming session and decision-making to solve the problem.

During an actual online meeting, these types can be mixed (e.g. one meeting can have informing, managing and deciding parts), but the nature of the meeting should be determined before scheduling the meeting and the objectives well communicated prior to the meeting.

Preparation

Preparation is an integral part of a successful meeting and sets the flow of the actual meeting. It is a good habit to come to the meeting well prepared, as it is a standard to descend to the level of least prepared person at the meeting to have everyone on the same page. This means that individual preparation has a direct impact on the effectiveness and productiveness of the meeting.

To support good individual preparation for meetings:

The purpose and agenda needs to be published well in advance,
Information related to agenda items needs to be provided in timely manner,
There should be time taken by every participant to structure their thoughts prior to actual meeting participation,
The structuring of thoughts can be supported by introducing a channel where people can provide feedback and have discussions around agenda items and information prior to the meeting.

To make this happen, it is good practice to assign one person (or rotate people) responsibility for preparation of the meeting and ensuring timely delivery of materials This does not relieve other Working Group members from their personal duty to come to the meeting well prepared and informed.

Engagement

An important aspect of any meeting, yet most importantly in virtual meetings, is engagement. Engagement starts with setting and communicating the purpose of the meeting, as well as the preparation phase. Everyone should feel included in the discussions and in the process and feel that their feedback is valued.

This also means that Working Group members should have a chance to add their important topics and discussion items to the agenda as well as have at least one speaking opportunity during the meeting itself. There should also be a space for engagement within each virtual meeting that can be created with direct questions to the audience as well as some interactive tools that facilitate contribution in different forms. Engagement can also be achieved with assigning concrete tasks or feedback round during the check-out.

Facilitators of meetings should remain mindful of who is speaking and who is not, and directly seek engagement and encourage those who may not be engaging.

Check-in

To warm up meeting participants and work towards focusing on the meeting itself, it is good to start an online meeting with an informal check-in where everyone gets a chance to say something. It can be a simple question, e.g. about their location or mood that helps them to tune into the meeting, letting them speak up and creating a social aspect to the meeting. Having a chance to speak up in the beginning of the meeting is helpful in reducing the need to speak later during the meeting, which helps people to stay focused and stay relevant during the discussion of agenda items, so everyone will have a chance to have a say. Check-ins are an opportunity for individuals to express what is needed, but it is not a time for dialogue or discussion. Acknowledging the engagement and thanking them for sharing is appropriate. At the end of this document, you will find a link to some effective icebreaker activities.

Focus

One key challenge for online meetings is staying focused, as there are many distractions in web browsers or available applications. As for the meetings all Working Group members will be taking their time, it is important that everyone stays focused, so the discussion flow will not be disrupted by questions that target things that have already been discussed. When attending online meetings it makes sense to ignore or turn off notifications from irrelevant applications and not work on other things during the meeting. Multitasking during an online meeting may result in loss of information for any individual and is disrespectful towards other participants.

Etiquette

To keep things comfortable for everyone and ensure a good meeting environment, below are suggested etiquette protocols for online meetings. Collectively establishing agreement on meeting protocols and etiquette as Working Groups are forming is good practice. Posting the agreements to a shared space for reference is also good practice.

Listen when others are speaking
Wait for your turn to speak and don’t speak while others are talking
When it is your turn to speak, do it clearly and with moderate pacing
When you talk be concise - brief but comprehensive
Use chat functions if you are unsure about the relevance of your comment or question or when you want to add to presenter
Mute your microphone when you are not speaking to avoid background noise
Use headset to avoid echoing
Turn off your camera if someone at the meeting has a bandwidth issue

Next steps

To make the meeting more valuable for all the participants, it is important to have clear deliverables for each participating individual. This can be in the form of new information acquired or some information confirmed, but for better engagement it should be a clear action item or next step that the person can start acting upon right after the meeting.

It can be done by taking special time in the end of the meeting to go over decisions made and also action items for everyone or these can be confirmed with a follow-up mail with meeting minutes where decisions and action items are clearly highlighted.

Good practice when tasking next steps is to ensure the following is clearly communicated:

Identify the person who is responsible for the task
Identify the expectations of the task (what are they to do. Discuss formatting / structure expectations as well as any expectations of who should be included/consulted in the task)
Identify the importance of the task (why it’s important, and what priority level this task has)
Identify when the task is due and how it should be communicated or shared

Simply, all tasks should identify: Who, What, Why, When, Where.

As part of the Etiquette Protocols developed collectively, it is also good practice to establish expectations and a process for people to ask for help, or identify challenges if undertaking tasks.

Meeting roles

To have well flowing and constructive meetings with clear deliverables and a good atmosphere, it makes sense to assign roles to some of the meeting participants to support the whole group in keeping the meeting on track:

Facilitator - Person responsible for managing the flow of discussions, ensuring that everyone gets their round to speak and also monitors different information flows (chat, comments in documentation etc.)
Recorder - Person responsible for recording key points from every presenter and participant during the meeting, creating minutes and ensuring documentation clarity around meeting decisions and action items.
Time keeper - Person responsible for ensuring that everyone stays within the predefined time limits during presentations and discussion rounds, supporting the facilitator in giving everyone space to provide their input.
Presenter - Person assigned with the task to make a short and clear presentation about predefined topic or talking point during the meeting.
Participant - Regular participant who actively listens to diverse contributions during the meeting and provides their own feedback in a concise manner to enrich meeting discussions.

Conversation Flow Template - Online Meeting

Step 1 (10 mins) - Intro and agenda. Should be used to briefly introduce everyone on the call to each other as well as for providing introduction of the context of the Strategy Process, Community Conversations as well as the purpose of the meeting
Step 2 (5 mins) - Q&A. Follow-up to context and meeting presentation, where people can get answers to their most burning questions.
Step 3 (20 mins) - Theme 1. This is a slot for content discussions, which can be used for discussing one thematic area or one topic inside the thematic area, based on the purpose of the call and interests of the community or group (if you want to dig deeper into one topic, then go with one model, if you just want to harvest main ideas from your group, go with another one.
Step 4 (20 mins) - Theme 2. Same as above.
Step 5 (20 mins) - Theme 3. Same as above.
Step 6 (15 mins) - Summary & Next steps.

Summarize the discussions and clarify points that need to be clarified from the discussions as well as highlight action steps from the call and next steps in community conversations and general process.

Conversation Flow Template - In Person Meeting

Depending on how many people are attending, you may want to break into multiple sub-groups. We have noted what parts lend themselves to this type of break out.

If the group is 5-8 people, we recommend you keep it whole group throughout
If the group is 10+ people, we recommend you use a mix of whole group and small group work. Small groups are generally best at 3-5 people each. This allows for deeper discussion followed by sharing with the whole group.

Step 1 (30 mins) - Warm-up and intro. At in-person meetings people need to warm up. It is advised to use an icebreaker activity that fits your cultural context. After this warm-up everyone should be familiar with each other. As an introduction the context of the Strategy Process, Community Conversations as well as the purpose of the meeting should be well clarified so people are on the same page. Follow-up to these presentations with Q&A, so people can get answers to their most burning questions and create a shared understanding regarding the in-person meeting and its outcomes.
Step 2 (60 mins) - Theme 1. This is the time for content discussions, which can be used for discussing one thematic area, based on the purpose of the meeting and interests of the community or group. Have printouts ready for the thematic area in discussion, so people can refer to paper material instead of getting their phones or laptops out. In smaller groups this can be the whole group discussion, in bigger groups it makes sense to have breakouts and then sharing and summarizing session in the end of the working time.
Step 3 (60 mins) - Theme 2. Feel free to add as many theme discussions to the agenda as you have time for.
Step 4 (30 mins) - Summary & Next steps. Summarize the discussions and clarify points that need to be clarified from the discussions as well as highlight action steps from the call and next steps in community conversations and general process.

Additional Resources