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Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Reports/Movement Strategy Playbook/Clarify roles and responsibilities

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Clarify roles and responsibilities
A group of female participants sit underneath a canopy mid discussion, one participant is taking notes. There are half empty bottles of water on the long glass / wicker table they are sat at.
Egypt Wikimedian UG Strategy Salon in Cairo, Egypt.

A consistent learning from Movement Strategy participants was the importance of being crystal clear about group roles and responsibilities. This is crucial both for better internal collaboration within the team, but also so that others outside the team know who to seek for help (eg, “who to ask for what.”)

  • “It was hard to tell how roles, authority, and decision-making would work.”
  • “We needed more clarity around management roles and responsibilities across the team.”

Publish a Team Charter

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Documenting roles and responsibilities can help. Publish a Team Charter or “User Manual” so that others outside the team know who to ask for what. Instead of just rigid role descriptions, make it a living document that evolves with the work.

  • “As a Strategy Liaison, it was unclear to know who was who in the team, or who to ask for what on [the] Core Team.”
  • “The focus felt like it was more on the initial design of roles and responsibilities, rather than adapting to the work when we realized what the work is once we had started.”

Tools and examples for clarifying roles and responsibilities

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Do you have tools, methods or ideas that you, your community or organization use for this? Add them to this section for others to see.