About the Leadership Development Working Group

Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
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@XenoF with all respect, I am not overly impressed with the Leadership Development Group. where are they? who are they? why aren’t they here, seeking out our ideas? where is their engagement or curiosity about any of the positive ideas that people have tried to offer whether myself or anyone else? where is any proposal by them, or any positive resource they have tried to offer to the community, in a positive manner?

I tried to join the leadership group, and was told “selection has already ended.” I’m sorry, this seems a bit detached. if this group’s goal was real leadership, I think they could simply invite any interested editors to join an informal committee in an advisory role, or a community group, that can help to provide input to the leadership group itself. or else, I would have been advised to kindly approach THIS forum, and offer my own ideas here!! instead I was rebuffed. I had to find this forum purely on my own!

in short, the Leadership Development Group is not well-conceived, with all respect. I would like to gently, respctfully, humbly suggest that someone should please advise the kind folks in that group to please seek out modes of leadership via a different approach, such as joining useful discussion processes such as this one. and please advise them to help us to set up clear and useful resources that will help the community as a whole. that is the way to develop leadership; NOT necesarily through some new group.

in short, telling me to "get lost’ when I tried to join this group, does not bode well for any such group in development. may I kindly suggest that the group be somewhat downgraded, to a WikiProject, or a similar informal group within the community itself? I do see some basic positive potential to any such group; anyone there who still wishes to be a “leader,” will be welcome to do so… by seeking the same avenues as the rest of us, namely through simple hard work.

I truly hope you take my ideas and input above in the manner they are intended. I truly believe in the value of your good intentions, and your efforts. I am simply trying to be helpful here,. actually. I value and welcome your insight. I appreciate all your hard work and effort. seriously, thank you.

EDIT:

I appreciate the efforts of whomever separated this note into its own thread. with that said, I would like to clarify that I did not create this thread; it was split off.

my goal in clarifying that, is simply to note that I am fine with accepting the Leadership Working Group, if they adopt certain steps to increase their transparency and their public profile, in certain key areas, as I suggested above.

I didn’t want anyone to think that I started this thread myself out of any feeling of any opposition to any working group, whether this or any other.

I am sure that whomever split this off into its own thread, was doing so only to be helpful, so I do thank them for their kind efforts. and I wish success to the Leadership Working Group, and every working group and every individual and group in our community who seeks to help improve things, in any way. thanks!

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Olá @Sm8900. Apenas para contextualizar, partilho aqui o comunicado sobre a formação do Grupo de Desenvolvimento de Liderança (LDWG). São 15 integrantes no total. Entendo que o grupo está apenas começando o seu trabalho, mas a colega @BJiang_WMF certamente poderá nos dar uma atualização mais precisa sobre o assunto. Abraços.

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@TCappelletto_WMF hola. muchas gracias por tu respuesta. no hay problema, estoy totalmente abierto a una discusión positiva sobre algunas de las posibles ideas para este esfuerzo. como aclaré anteriormente, no estoy descartando ni descartando este esfuerzo por completo; Veo algunos enfoques que creo que podrían funcionar un poco mejor para esta idea. Doy la bienvenida y agradezco sus comentarios sobre este tema. ¡Gracias!

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Hola de nuevo, @Sm8900 :slight_smile: Me alegro que nos podamos comunicar en español. Como te comentaba, acerca del proceso es mejor que nos lo cuente @BJiang_WMF, que es quien está a cargo del tema desde la Fundación. Estoy segura que ella puede aclarar tus dudas respecto al proceso. De modo informal te comparto que, hasta donde tengo conocimiento, la idea inicial era efectivamente lo que bien comentas arriba; que aunque haya un grupo central (LDWG) liderando el tema (valga redundancia), se buscara una manera de integrar a ese trabajo la contribución de la gente que quiera colaborar de modo informal. Pero mejor que nos lo confirme Beverly. Abrazos.

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I appreciate the efforts of whomever separated this note into its own thread. with that said, I would like to clarify that I did not create this thread; it was split off.

my goal in clarifying that, is simply to note that I am fine with accepting the Leadership Working Group, if they adopt certain steps to increase their transparency and their public profile, in certain key areas, as I suggested above.

I didn’t want anyone to think that I started this thread myself out of any feeling of any opposition to any working group, whether this or any other.

I am sure that whomever split this off into its own thread, was doing so only to be helpful, so I do thank them for their kind efforts. and I wish success to the Leadership Working Group, and every working group and every individual and group in our community who seeks to help improve things, in any way. thanks!

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Thank you @Sm8900 for your honest and well-intended input, and thank you @TCappelletto_WMF for your support in responding. As @TCappelletto_WMF mentioned, the Leadership Development Working Group just formed and began working together earlier this month. You can read more about who the members are on the Meta-wiki page. There are 15 members and they are representing all 8 regions and different roles in the movement, years of experience, gender, languages, cultural backgrounds, and identities. The intention of bringing together a dedicated, relatively small and diverse group was so that they can work towards common goals in a more deliberate and efficient way.

Since the group just began, they are determining how to work together and how to involve community members. From the very beginning, the idea was that this group is not a group of 15 individuals, but a group of people who each represent vibrant communities and facets of the movement. Gathering feedback and collaborating with community members is going to be an important part of the group’s work in the months to come. Your idea to have informal feedback groups is part of the plan. I actually shared this proposal of informal feedback groups with several community members who have shown interest in providing input to the group’s work and began a list of people to contact. I’d like to add you to the list if you are interested. Shall I do that? We can share more information once the group has made some more progress on work that they can receive feedback on. As mentioned, they are still in the phase of getting to know each other, determining how to structure themselves, and aligning on goals, important aspects of setting up a group to work well together.

Finally, to clarify, by creating this group, the intention was not that these are appointed “leaders.” These are community members with interest and experiences in leadership development and capacity building who are endeavouring to support movement leadership, leadership development, and movement health. This is a group working on leadership development, rather than a group of leaders per se (however it’s true that several of the members have held more formal leadership roles like executive director positions in affiliates, or have already shown qualities exemplifying leadership, such as the ones you mentioned in your previous message: communication, collaboration, creativity).

Once again, thank you @Sm8900. Your feedback and thoughts are well received and I appreciate the consideration you are giving to this. I hope that you stay involved and continue asking questions and supporting leadership development. As you alluded to yourself, leadership development isn’t something a group of 15 can solve on their own. Your feedback and that of others will be necessary if we are to move forward on this Movement Strategy goal.

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@BJiang_WMF , that sounds terrific. I apprciate your reply. I am excited and energized by all of your efforts and ideas. I look forward to discussing these ideas and developing these resources, as we move ahead and as time goes on. thanks!!! :slight_smile:

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oh and @BJiang_WMF , after reading your message more thoroughly, I would like to answer your question above. yes, you can absolutely add me to the list for people to join an informal committee, or for those to provide input. yes., I would 100% like to join any such effort or process. I really appreciate your suggestion to do so. thanks!!

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