Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Reports/Movement Strategy Playbook/Tell the story

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“ Create a regular,

predictable cadence

for communication.

”

One of the key challenges for any adaptive, open strategy process is: how do you tell a clear story and consistent narrative, given that the moving pieces and process often shift? How do you do an iterative, adaptive process, without constantly changing your story or sending mixed messages?

East African Strategy Summit 2019 in Kampala, Wikimedia 2030, Movement Strategy

• “I would often hesitate to communicate, wondering: is this going to change? Things changed so often. So we would communicate decisions / next steps, then something would change.”
• “When you're in an adaptive process, you have to decide what you want to communicate, and how much.“

Set the right cadence for updates

Create a communications plan at the start of the process, including a regular cadence and milestones for updates.

• “Create a regular, predictable cadence for communication. Instead of just ad hoc, put out regular monthly updates for example.”
• “We were using one structure to convey two different kinds of communications. Information is always iterative, whereas the decision stream tends to be more tied to milestones. This could have been more structured. Using one way to communicate both these things will lead to doubt and back-tracking.”

Tools and examples for storytelling

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.