The coming of a new Policy VP at ICANN
I have nothing but best wishes for the ICANN Policy Group and look forward to meeting David Olive, the new leader of this vital service group. I know no one has asked me, (why would they?) but I have a few recommendations for the new VP:
- Make service within the bottom-up philosophy of multistakeholder organization your guiding light.
- Work with the volunteer corps as if they were instrumental in the work of ICANN instead of treating them like bothersome fringe elements you were stuck coping with.
- Institute seminars within the staff, with external specialists on what it means to serve an enabling role within a multistakeholder organization. This is a relatively new area and you can’t expect people to understand this without capacity building.
- Get to know your staff by reading the last year or so of their internal group email lists. Whenever I have gotten a new job, especially one in a management or a leadership position, I have done this, and found it to be both illuminating and the best way to really know who you will be working with. It doesn’t take as long as you would think.
- Make time to talk not only to your staff, but to many of the volunteer corps. And do it often - not just when the crisis-of-the-day has already erupted.
- Avoid being defensive. Some of us can appear hostile, angry and offensive at times, but for the most part we all just want the best for the Internet, and for ICANN, as we see it and we get frustrated.
Good luck, you have what should be a marvelous job, occupying a critical role in the unfolding of an organization that not only has an important job in this moment of Internet history, but one which is developing a unique example of a multistakeholder regulatory regime.
