Official Strategy for 2017-18

Party Improvement
8

That they have, my brain would probably stop completely if I tried to dump all of my own ideas from over the years at once :slight_smile: So if I assume that is the same situation for others, it tells me we need to be careful and methodical at the outset when discussing the huge question of what we should be doing as a party and where we should be directing our efforts.

As I mentioned briefly last night, and I consider this very important: some of what we need to discuss in the subject area of Party strategy is not well suited to linear discussion formats such as IRC / forums, as the conversation can move on before participants have had the time to finish what they really wanted to say (@Frew replied while I was writing this post :stuck_out_tongue: ) the method by which we discuss topics can be a constraining factor on what outcomes are possible, so we need to consider how we brainstorm ideas and the mediums we are using e.g. use Discuss threads or hold a Mumble voice workshop or meet in person etc.

9

I thought I should throw this into the mix - The Radical Centre Party
Got an email from them - I think it was once a civil liberty group…

10

This is where I think we should start: agreeing on how we are going to conclude a round of strategy development for the Party.

https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/2017-strategy-development-process

I have added two outcomes I think might be good

  • What do you think about them?
  • Should there be more or less outcomes of the strategy development process?
  • Do they need longer definitions to explain the purpose and scope of the outcomes themselves or are they self explanatory?

Personally I don’t know exactly how we should complete this process, as I said above there’s no perfect way to develop organisational strategy, but I hope I am helping by trying to define the process a little first.

11

It’s just a concept at this point, the process we use for it isn’t defined at all yet. It’s basically just the idea that before the Party does something at a top level (since this is a top level strategy discussion) we should do it primarily as a consequence of having a good whole of organisation understanding of the opportunity cost that decision has to efforts we could otherwise undertake in other areas, and how a decision to do a thing is aligned with achieving the goals and values of our Party.

There’s also different ideological ways we can review and brainstorm. The corporate way is: top-down, review / SWOT analysis of the whole party, structures teams/wgs/committees etc. The Swarm way is more: tell teams/wgs/committees to review themselves and report back. We are big enough in some areas to be more swarm-y, and not so much in others areas. It’s a choice though, maybe we need to use a combination of both.

These are great, I’ll add them to the pad I’ve created. Having metrics to measure the outcomes of actions we take from applying decisions made as a consequence of the strategic directions we choose from this process is very important. And now I want to shoot myself for writing that sentence, probably not a good outcome.

12

I’ve just read @adam 's draft strategy document and really liked it. Formatting needs some love but it’s just a draft after all :slight_smile:

I think a big part of our strategy needs to be what Adam calls “Evangelism” which is a combination of values outreach and recruiting.

What channel on IRC will we be using for the meeting tonight?

13

“Adams” LOL! :rofl::joy:

#ppau would be the best channel. We should socmed it. Can someone socmed it? I am cooking dinner and replying while the water comes to a boil. >.>

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Oh I’m sorry dude! Adam linked it and there was no attribution so I assumed it was his. @twisty can we get a twitter and FB shoutout for the strategy meeting at 9 tonight in the #ppau channel?

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It was Edeity, I thought you were subtly trolling him for being such a cry-baby sook. I was enjoying it. :rofl:

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16

Probably best to use #PPAU

17

will do, after dinner

edit: done

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Is it possible to access #ppau in riot.im? I’m hopeless at irc. Is there a link I can paste in?

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Connect to #PPAU via riot here.

For future reference the url format is: https://riot.im/app/#/room/#pirateirc_#YOURCHANNEL:diasp.in

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20

This should really be put up somewhere more visible on the website.

21

Another Strategy Meeting, 8:30PM on Monday 25/9 (Sydney Time)

22

Here’s something for discussion tonight.

First of all, this is more of a suggestion of process than content, but for reference, I identified objectives by grouping and simplifying the values and mission statements from congress and the website. I identified democracy, science, and sustainability as focus areas and then stole some words from the same sources to describe and link each area to create this vision statement:

An honest, accountable, and just Australia (democracy), embracing technology and change for the collective good (science) with one eye on the future (sustainability).

Secondly, I don’t mean distract from strategy by raising tactics, but I think it’s important to have a big picture view so that we agree on the distinction, and don’t end up with tactics that have no strategic purpose.

PPAU-Strategy-Pyramid

My proposal is that we combine our vision, strategy, and tactics into a single artifact. The principles of this approach are:
• Every objective, strategy, and tactic and their inter-relationships are visible and obvious.
• Every tactic is linked to a strategy.
• Every strategy is linked to an objective.
• Every objective is part of our vision.
• Every tactic has an owner and is measurable.
• Every KPI will be reported annually to congress.
• Every numbered item will be a section of the next Annual Report to be presented to congress.
• The artifact can easily be turned into both a one page strategic plan (OPSP) and an Annual Report template.
• Every volunteer task is linked to our strategic plan, so volunteers understand how their efforts contribute to achieving our vision.
• If the words chosen are confusing they can be changed, eg tactics could be tasks or actions, objectives could be purpose or vision.

I’ve had a go at putting this together. This spreadsheet is what I think is our current undocumented strategy. It’s ready to be ripped apart and have new and improved ideas inserted. I don’t have much to add in terms of strategy, but I hope this helps to pull it all together.

PPAU-Strategy-1-0.pdf (76.2 KB)

Excel source file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7aittdt16k9vkua/PPAU-Strategy-1-0.xlsx?dl=0

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23

I like the idea of defining the interlinking of ‘things’ as part of defining the process, as I keep saying, getting everyone on the same page as to the language and meaning of the words we are using when describing ‘strategy’ is the first problem we have not yet solved.

I would like to merge parts of your ideas here into the existing process we’ve been working to define:
https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/2017-strategy-development-process

Though I don’t think we can simplify an overall “objective” or vision statement as much as you have given in the example here, we just have too much ground to cover to do it in a single sentence. We will need to explore that more.

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24

I don’t think we should associate with ‘centrist’ politics. Yes much of our party comes from diverse political backgrounds, but that shouldn’t equate to us getting into bed with centrist parties.

Centrist parties tend to only allow small reforms while maintaining the status quo on the bigger issues. Whether it makes our lives hard or not, our policies are radically different from those of parties which promote a more mainstream agenda. Unless those parties close to the centre make concessions to be more in line with the core policies of our party we should not cooperate with them.

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25

We have been over the Party naming thing ad nauseam in the past. The qualifier of what @pault4 said is “Radical”, not just being in the Centre as you describe of most Centralists.

This is the problem with using established labels is that certain words have connotations which are associated with other parties we are nothing like, even if in the strictest sense what we are describing is technically true (most popular term is “Liberal Left”). In the end the only label which is actually appropriate is Pirate. We are of Pirate political persuasion. Other than that, it’s going to be a long time before we have the mental strength for another name change debate so please don’t go there.

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26

good times …

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Strategy meeting 8.30PM Monday Sydney time. Note: Daylight Savings