Innovation/Projects/Leadership-Agreements

Leadership By Design: Shared Agreements

Background: These Agreements were arrived at through multiple iteration with more than 40 volunteers and staff. You can read more about the background and the process on discourse.

For the purpose of this document instead of using the term “leader” we will be referring to “coordinating roles” meaning anytime someone is in a role where they are responsible for coordinating the activities or actions of others.

1. Where people hold coordinating roles, they should be reviewed regularly

 * This creates opportunities for new, diverse leaders to emerge
 * Ensures continuous support from the communities they serve
 * Prevents toxic individuals from maintaining power indefinitely
 * Creates space for individuals to receive feedback and support to better thrive in their role

2. Responsibilities should be clearly communicated and distributed

  * Creates more opportunities for more people
  * Avoids gatekeeping and power accumulation
  * Reduces burnout and over reliance on an individual by sharing accountability
  * Creates leadership pathways for new people
  * Potentially increases diversity
  * An emphasis on responsibility over title avoids unnecessary “authority labels”

3. When people are in a coordinating role, they should abide by standards, and be accountable for fulfilling their responsibilities

 * This builds confidence and support for individuals and these roles from community members and staff
 * Ensures that everyone has shared clarity on expectations and success
 * Creates an environment where the CPG is applied consistently
 * Increases the consistency in roles across the org

4. People in coordinating roles should follow and model Mozilla’s diversity & inclusion values

 * Creates a culture of inclusion that invites participation from new voices
 * Encourages the inclusion of diverse voices and groups
 * Creates an environment where the CPG is applied consistently
 * Enables leadership pathways that explicitly consider inclusion dimensions

5. People with coordinating roles should be supported and recognized in a set of standard ways across Mozilla

  * Enables people to have equal access to training and growth opportunities regardless of what part of the org they contribute to
  * Allows people to follow their passions/skills instead of just reward
  * Roles have clear definitions and avoid labels that create authority feeling.
  * We get shared understandings of the kinds of responsibilities that exist.

Implementation of These Agreements at Mozilla

Understanding how these ideas shape the way communities function at Mozilla is the collective work of Mission Driven Mozillians in 2018. It cannot be the work of one person or even one team.

They are currently being integrated into the The Localization Community and The India Group Registration Pilot as well Reps Council has already started to think about how implementing these shared agreements in their work.

We hope that this will spark multiple discussions about how these shared agreements might be a tool for community health, and we’re asking each of you to take up the challenge in your communities…

Start a conversation about what is and isn’t working in your community. Examine the roles, accountability structures, and renewal systems that are around you.

As always keep following the mission-mozillians tag for updates.

Implementing These Agreements in Your Communities

Here are a series of questions that you can answer collectively with your community to generate descriptions of roles in your communities that conform to the goals and standards of these agreements:

1. What are the responsibilities of this role: (i.e. taking at meetings, posting them online afterwards, moderating posts, reviewing localizations etc.)
2. What are the standards that this role is accountable for: (i.e. that the minutes are accurate, bad posts are removed from chats, good suggestions are accepted in a timely manor)
3. How might a new person get into this role? (i.e. indicating interest to a reviewer)
4. How often will this role be reviewed/renewed? (i.e. annually on 04/20/2019, every quarter)
5. Who will be involved with the review/renewal? (i.e. other reviewers, community leaders, peers)