Dear Dan,

Thank you for sharing your insight and choosing a vivid real life metaphor for surfacing your concerns! It is really relatable in current times. I would like to build on your metaphor to provide more context for the situation and I hope this will be helpful in clarifying some things.

== Metaphoric description ==

- Perhaps this is not *your personal* pizza delivery, but actually it is a *community or family circle* event to which pizzas are being ordered? - Perhaps indeed the *decision to order pizzas has been made* by some other group of people, but it often happens in these community or family events that not everyone is being involved in making general decisions regarding the basic choice of food, because it would be really difficult, in many cases and some families *nearly impossible* to come to a (timely) decision. That is the reason why a general choice is often delegated to a representative / trusted group of people. - I think you are right that it is the local delivery place that is indeed on the phone, but I don't think they are yet asking the delivery time. I believe the question is rather what type of pizza do you want, *what are the toppings that respond best to your needs*? - There might be historical choices: *pizza bianca* or *pizza rosso*? - More modern choices: no crust or cheese crust? - And also highly controversial choices: pineapples or not? - Some of the people at the gathering will be vegetarian or vegan and we need to clarify and accommodate their dietary preferences, which come with certain complexity. E.g. not all of them are fungivores or mushroom eaters and some of them would rather have their pizza without cheese than to taste a plant made cheese like product. - There will be an even trickier approach in relation to gluten intolerants. Even if there are a number of pizza enthusiasts in the bunch, maybe the choice of pizza in the end does not fit all ... But now how do we mitigate that? Do we go with a low quality topping salad from the pizza place or figure out something else? - Setting these complexities aside the key question is - *how would you and your friends want your pizza*? And maybe you would be so kind to tell us while we have the local pizza place on the phone so we can actually get what you want. Otherwise it might be indeed a rather random choice from the menu or we don't get anything. Which is not really helpful

== Without metaphors == Now, what do I mean by this?

- We had a rather representative group of people from different corners of the movement who did intensive and extensive work on the recommendations. You can find the numbers of the composition in the selection process report [1] - Their background from different contexts in the movement was sufficient to map out essential challenges and opportunities for the movement and work on the general direction of the solutions to support the future development of the movement - We did consult a wider range of stakeholders to validate the initial thinking and significant changes were made over the course of iterations of the recommendations. [2] - Especially during the first iteration, some of the recommendations were on the level of actual implementation, which we realized needs in many cases to be contextual, so the recommendations were facilitated to a much higher level in later stages. - At the same time a meaningful engagement with most of our communities happens around the questions of - *What do these high level ideas mean in practice? and* - *How are we actually going to implement these ideas?* - This is why we need to ensure that we have wider representation of really diverse contexts in the transition discussions, so we can actually make informed and contextually relevant decisions about the implementation. This is why we have created a representative co-design group [3] to discuss how we are actually having these conversations in an inclusive and participatory way and this is why we are currently consulting on the initial draft plan [4]. - We have had significant shortcomings and misses in previous outreach events (some of which I cover in a meta thread on our transition discussion page [5] - feel free to jump in there). I think we learned from it and the online consultations in the beginning of the current calendar year [6] were much more successful than the previous ones. What we do know is that we cannot afford substantial shortcomings in engagement now, when recommendations move from theory to practice, when we actually start to implement things. We need to have tough conversations about the tradeoffs together and ensure that decisions are being made with people affected by these decisions sitting at the table. *Nihil de nobis, sine nobis* [7]. - *In short* - We need your insights now to think through and improve the engagement around movement strategy in the upcoming transition events - Even more we need wide participation at the events so we are all informed by different perspectives and contexts when making decisions about the implementation of the recommendations

I hope it all makes somewhat sense and I am happy to clarify my perspective, history of the process, and plans for the future further. Thank you so much for a metaphoric approach in your question - it really made my day and it was a joy to write my own metaphoric response.

Have a great continuation to the month of August! Kaarel

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen... [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti... [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti... [5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Tra... [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Reports#... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_About_Us_Without_Us

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 10:18 PM Dan Szymborski dszymborski@gmail.com wrote:

This is a bit like your local pizza place asking you what time you're going to pick up the pizza you didn't actually order.

"Here are the recommendations. Now let's start implementing those recommendations!" is definitely something that's missing a middle step.

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 3:00 PM Kaarel Vaidla kvaidla@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Hi everyone,

This is an update regarding the progress of the Movement Strategy and the design of the transition events.

The Transition Design Group <

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

...

[1] has over the past month been discussing how to create events that can facilitate a smooth and inclusive Transition process for the movement to start implementing the Movement Strategy recommendations <

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen...

...

...

[2].

The Support Team has been sharing weekly summaries <

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

...

[3] from the Design Group discussions, which have largely centred around people and process for the Transition events, as well as ensuring legitimacy of the process, needed resource, and communications.

Transition

...

will mark a major milestone for our movement to create a collaborative, 18-month implementation plan that will begin to shape the future of our work, culture, and collaborations.

The Wikimedia Foundation will organize the virtual Transition events, planned for September to December, 2020. Your help is needed to make sure the events can be as inclusive, participative, and engaging as possible.

We

...

are excited to share the outline for the transition events <

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

...

with you and invite everyone to provide feedback [4].

The draft outline offers both light and detailed information regarding

the

...

events. Even though the draft outline is available only in English at the moment, the actual events will be multilingual with materials available

in

...

a variety of languages and formats. The Transition events aim to be easy

to

...

join only once or for multiple events. They are for everyone, whether a newcomer or a seasoned strategy enthusiast. They are being designed for diverse participation across time zones and regions in order to create a movement-wide implementation plan.

The review period for the draft outline is for two (2) weeks from August

06

...

to 20. After receiving your feedback, the Design Group will finalize the plan and the Wikimedia Foundation will ensure the delivery of the events according to the design.

Please comment on the talk page on Meta <

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

...

[5] and feel free to use the questions below as an orientation:

How can the plan be improved? In your opinion, what are some barriers

to

...

entry that must be lowered so everyone can take part in Transition? 2.

How can we make sure that you and your community have what you need to participate in the Transition events? 3.

If you have attended other virtual events, what has your experience

been

...

like and what lessons can be applied in this case?

We are hosting office hours to hear from you. Join us on Tuesday Aug. 11

@

...

15.00 UTC (LINK http://meet.google.com/gtf-dpdu-bqs) or Thursday Aug.

13

...

@ 01.00 UTC (LINK http://meet.google.com/niq-pdex-cjk). Alternatively, you can share your thoughts directly via email

strategy2030@wikimedia.org.

...

Hoping that everyone is well and safe in these challenging times in the world. Very grateful for your time and attention.

On behalf of the Support Team,

Kaarel

[1]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

[2]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen...

...

[3]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

[4]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

[5]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Tra...

...

<

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...

...

...

--

Kaarel Vaidla (he/him)

Movement Strategy https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/2030

Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe

---

Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe