2009 05 14-17 Communication Coordinator Report

Communication Coordinator Report to CNVC Board - May 2009

Summary of 2008 Focuses

1. Team Information Tools
   For example, each team has its own storage location for its team's documents and communications.  This supports development of shared team understanding on core issues, and maintenance of permanent/ongoing team memory - which supports tracking of accountabilities and building of within-team trust.
2. Development of Guidelines for Team Minutes
   Including supporting teams in integrating observations and needs connected to decisions into their minutes.  In some cases, this has involved training (both formal and "in-the-moment") on some key NVC differentiations.
3. Mechanism for Feedback from NVC Community to CNVC Governance Teams
   This was the piece of the communication cycle that was not in place.  Feedback forms have been created and modified based on feedback from both CNVC Governance Teams and the NVC Global Network.  All teams have now identified a team member to be responsible for review of feedback and developed guidelines for how decisions will be made about whether and how to respond to feedback received.
4. Translation System
   I consider this a joint Communication - GCC initiative.  By the design of the system, the Communication Coordinator will become the coordinator of the Translation Circle, made up of (eventually) two representatives from each language that is participating in the circle.  You can see the draft material for the system starting at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc5whkcr_109hj3mhbgc
5. Monitoring Report
   Now that all the pieces of a communication "cycle" are in place, it seems an appropriate time to start to monitor the extent to which each CNVC Governance Team is implementing Board Communication Policy.  A first version of this report is at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rTzt3odELrwtEeIfOwaMxOw

   Creation of this report and review of it with various teams has highlighted a key question with which we would appreciate the Board's support (see below).

Recommendations for Future

I am aware that the Board and Admin Team are intending to carefully weigh the needs of the organization and the resources available, to determine what functions will and will not form part of CNVC in future, and which will be funded.  In this examination, I believe the following functions are important to the achievement of my understanding of the vision, mission and aim of CNVC.

1. Translation Circle Coordinator
   If we want CNVC to be a truly global organization, being able to communicate across languages will be important, and this will require coordination, especially in the early stages of implementing the system, and as each new language is added.  It will also be valuable, I believe, to support development of a sense of teamwork and collaboration across languages.  As mentioned above, the current design of the Translation System calls for this to be the Communication Coordinator.
2. Information Treasurer
   Some team information tools are in place.  The technology of these tools may change over time, and I believe there will be ongoing value to having someone (either one person on each team, or one person overall) ensuring that CNVC team information is being tracked and is readily available when, where and to whom it is needed. 

   I believe it may be helpful for this person to have more authority to share information based on their understanding of needs than I have understood in the current role description of the Communication Coordinator - this could result in more connection and shared awareness with less overall work effort.

Request for Board Support

The current Board Communication policy includes

"B. Post decision feedback (to and from NVC Global Network)

1. Whenever there is a decision made by any circle or an individual in
any circle in the CNVC structure, someone from the circle making the
decision communicates this decision to anyone in the community to whom
it is relevant."

Glenda's impression is that most CNVC Governance Teams are working toward honoring this policy to an extent that meets the NVC Global Network's desire for a sense of connection and shared understanding with the team.  The challenges that she and Margo have identified are:

1. As currently stated, this request is not doable.  All teams make decisions all the time that have implications for the NVC Community (e.g., the IT team defining fields on a web page), and it is not possible for all of them to be communicated and/or put out for pre-decision input.
2. Every decision of the Admin Team has implications for the whole network, but that the Admin Team does not see that it has the resources to be able to do this communication, and deal with the volume of needs-not-met communications it has experienced receiving in the past - and at the same time have resources to fulfill the other requests from the Board for core organizational operations.

So our joint request is for the Board to help clarify what subset of all team decisions they are expecting to be communicated to the NVC community, starting with a round to collect input from Board members on this question.

(Prepared by Glenda Mattinson, communication-coordinator@cnvc.org - May 11, 2009)