WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: Documenting assumptions and specifying initiatives

@metadata	sourceLanguage "en" priorityLanguages "es" "fr" "ar" "ru" "zh" allowOnlyPriorityLanguages true description "video in Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - Basics of partnership building for Wikimedia volunteers, with computer-graded exercises." label "WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: Documenting assumptions and specifying initiatives"
display_name	"Documenting assumptions and specifying initiatives"
subtitle-3620-9860-1	"Once we have this list of outcomes that are connected in a cause and effect chain, and I"
subtitle-9860-16010-2	"know about each outcome, how I'm going to measure it, I can document our assumptions"
subtitle-16010-22370-3	"because this diagram, nice as it is, is still based on some implicit assumptions."
subtitle-22850-27680-4	"And it would be better if we were to express our assumptions explicitly rather than leave"
subtitle-27680-30100-5	"them understood implicitly."
subtitle-30110-36200-6	"For example, our Ghanaian example assumes that we are able to train people on Mediawiki"
subtitle-36200-38420-7	"development. Are we?"
subtitle-38630-44090-8	"Is our Ghanaian group ready to train others in how to develop for Mediawiki?"
subtitle-44120-46150-9	"Maybe."
subtitle-46150-48530-10	"If we are, at what scale can we do it?"
subtitle-48530-50540-11	"Can we train 400 people?"
subtitle-50540-58480-12	"Or can we only train 40 people a year?"
subtitle-58610-60100-13	"[How many people do we have who can] do this or how often?"
subtitle-60310-65080-14	"Maybe we only have volunteer trainers who can do it twice a year, not twice a week."
subtitle-65950-67750-15	"So these are implicit."
subtitle-67960-69730-16	"We just say we will provide training."
subtitle-69730-74590-17	"This is the moment to actually document that we are assuming that we can provide training,"
subtitle-74590-79030-18	"say, once a month in the capital, maybe also in this other city."
subtitle-79030-80470-19	"We can write that down."
subtitle-81550-88390-20	"The example of the participation slide, the big purple one, assumes that we can change"
subtitle-88390-89530-21	"the wiki platform!"
subtitle-89800-93760-22	"The assumptions there, were that we can make, for example, registration easier."
subtitle-94000-99520-23	"I mean it assumed that we have access to the actual software the wiki runs on."
subtitle-99520-103180-24	"That is of course a reasonable assumption for the Foundation to make."
subtitle-103330-108520-25	"It is probably not a reasonable assumption for your user group to make, because most of"
subtitle-108520-112510-26	"your user groups don't have direct influence on the platform."
subtitle-112510-116260-27	"You cannot just change the way registration works on the wiki."
subtitle-117740-120340-28	"So again, that's a useful thing to document."
subtitle-120350-125240-29	"And of course, almost any program you can think of assumes that there are volunteers"
subtitle-125240-129680-30	"available with specific skills to do specific work at specific locations and"
subtitle-129680-132050-31	"times. Document that."
subtitle-132290-137930-32	"Document the skills and the volunteers that you are counting on, because you need to have"
subtitle-137930-141680-33	"that list when you are discussing it with your partner, you need to have that list when"
subtitle-141680-142790-34	"you are discussing it with your own community."
subtitle-146460-148830-35	"So that is about documenting your assumptions."
subtitle-150300-154590-36	"And now that we have these outcomes and the measurements and the assumptions, we are"
subtitle-154590-160800-37	"ready to identify where in all of this structure we can actually take action."
subtitle-163050-165270-38	"In other words, identify the intervention points."
subtitle-166260-171720-39	"So, for example, to achieve this awareness of the technical opportunities in Wikimedia"
subtitle-171720-176790-40	"among Ghanaian youth, we can design and post online communications."
subtitle-177240-182430-41	"Just use social media, etc., to tell people, "hey, there's a volunteering opportunity at"
subtitle-182850-192770-42	"Mediawiki here. Here are the docs, knock yourself out." We can give awareness talks,"
subtitle-192900-195530-43	"to give a half hour thing that says, "hey, this is the thing and it exists."
subtitle-195530-196820-44	"And here's a cool demo."
subtitle-196970-201260-45	"Now you look into it." Or, we can do in-depth trainings."
subtitle-201260-205220-46	"These are three different kinds of activities that I'm just giving you as"
subtitle-205220-211400-47	"examples, three different things that we could do towards this single outcome of"
subtitle-211400-214550-48	"awareness. And you can probably think of other things we could do."
subtitle-214760-220520-49	"So I'm just saying even this one topic of awareness could be approached in different"
subtitle-220520-224780-50	"ways. There could be all kinds of actions that we could take towards it."
subtitle-225230-230270-51	"And as we mentioned, to convince our legislators to propose a Freedom of Panorama"
subtitle-230270-237410-52	"bill, we might draft that bill, with some legal advisors and stuff, and give this to"
subtitle-237410-241400-53	"them and say, "Here it's ready, just pass it through Parliament; doesn't need a budget,"
subtitle-241430-247940-54	"doesn't cost anything and it'll make you popular!" So these are quick examples of"
subtitle-248060-254510-55	"literally finding and spelling out what we might do, not just what would cause what, but"
subtitle-254510-256100-56	"what we might do."
subtitle-256430-261620-57	"And when we say we, we should think about what we, the Wikimedia group, do, and what"
subtitle-261620-263900-58	"our prospective partner might do."
subtitle-264140-267980-59	"Because all of this-- we're now talking about a general program design tool, but"
subtitle-267980-270290-60	"we're talking about it in the context of a partnership."
subtitle-278780-284060-61	"So you might say to yourself now, well, we started out with an intuitive idea of the"
subtitle-284060-286700-62	"partnership, so we kind of already knew what we want to do."
subtitle-287420-290900-63	"I want to suggest to you that if you actually take the time and work through this"
subtitle-290900-298670-64	"theory of change model, you can actually show how our work here is going to have that"
subtitle-298670-299920-65	"outcome there."
subtitle-299920-302000-66	"You're going to be able to show it."
subtitle-302000-307160-67	"You're going to be able to demonstrate it and argue for it and ideally convince your"
subtitle-307160-314000-68	"partner. But it's also an opportunity to validate our thinking against our documented"
subtitle-314000-317690-69	"assumptions, because, again, when we were hand-waving, we said, "Oh yeah, we will come"
subtitle-317690-322580-70	"and we will train." Once we document our assumptions, we may discover "you know what?"
subtitle-322580-329030-71	"we could do this, but only with, I don't know, two professors, because we don't have"
subtitle-329030-334700-72	"more volunteers, to support more than two professors in an education program", for"
subtitle-334700-340250-73	"example. So this writing down of the theory of change can really help us keep our plan"
subtitle-340250-346190-74	"feasible. And it will be very embarrassing to discover that we have made promises to a"
subtitle-346190-349100-75	"potential partner that we cannot keep."
subtitle-349580-353660-76	"And this has happened in the past and has had unpleasant effects."
subtitle-356710-362350-77	"So this is why we want to not just go with our intuitive understanding of the kind of"
subtitle-362350-368140-78	"thing we would do in the partnership, but actually describe our interventions in our"
subtitle-368140-369220-79	"theory of change."
subtitle-370420-378550-80	"So we want something like this, with the identified intervention points, but with"
subtitle-378550-379720-81	"concrete numbers."
subtitle-380020-383350-82	"So social media campaign, okay, where?"
subtitle-383350-385990-83	"What social media accounts?"
subtitle-385990-387790-84	"Who would do it? How often would we do it?"
subtitle-387820-389050-85	"What period would we do it?"
subtitle-389050-390790-86	"How many different messages do we need?"
subtitle-390790-392440-87	"What kind of art do we need?"
subtitle-392440-397300-88	"To really spell out what it would look like and not just say "we will have a social media"
subtitle-397300-399460-89	"campaign" with hand-waving."
subtitle-417030-425280-90	"The last thing we need to do is to read through our complete theory of change and"
subtitle-425340-429990-91	"ideally, really walk through it in chronological order, meaning from the first"
subtitle-429990-439950-92	"goals towards more advanced goals towards long term goals, and make sure that it makes"
subtitle-440250-443750-93	"sense both in terms of the cause and effect –"
subtitle-443820-446370-94	"I mean, does this actually cause that?"
subtitle-446370-448320-95	"Is it likely to lead to that?"
subtitle-448620-452790-96	"– And that the assumptions and the interventions that we have designed, match"
subtitle-452790-458880-97	"our actual reality, our actual capacity, our funding, our available volunteers."
subtitle-458880-464400-98	"And to the degree we're able also matches our partner."
subtitle-464790-468570-99	"And if we're partnering with a small municipal library and our assumptions are"
subtitle-468600-473400-100	"that they can host a mass event in a stadium, that's probably not a realistic"
subtitle-473400-477990-101	"assumption. I mean, we should also try to make realistic assumptions about what our"
subtitle-477990-480960-102	"partner can do, to the best of our ability to judge."
subtitle-482070-485460-103	"And if something doesn't make sense, [doesn't seem] to match reality, this is the"
subtitle-485460-486690-104	"moment to fix it."
subtitle-486690-488430-105	"Before we go and talk to our partner!"
subtitle-488460-492750-106	"Go back to the drawing board and say, "okay, maybe I need to make this goal more modest."
subtitle-492750-494460-107	"Maybe I need the threshold of success to be lower."
subtitle-495060-498870-108	"Maybe I need to not do these three possible interventions."
subtitle-499500-504390-109	"Maybe I should do only two because I just don't have the volunteer power for it or the"
subtitle-504390-505530-110	"budget or whatever"."
subtitle-505710-510840-111	"This is the moment to scale down our excited theory of change and make sure that it"
subtitle-510840-512610-112	"matches our reality."
subtitle-514400-518870-113	"That is the last part, the last phase, the last step in our theory of change."
subtitle-521060-530080-114	"And this leads us to"
subtitle-534780-541230-115	"be ready to move on to our pitch, which, as I said, is the presentation of our theory of"
subtitle-541230-543540-116	"change to our potential partner."
subtitle-543720-547170-117	"But first, are there any questions about theory of change?"