The first time I heard about "Working out loud" (WOL) was at the Social Now event in 2015. I found it interesting, as I felt that I was doing some WOL already, but for the rest I didn't promote it in the organization. At that time, I thought there were more urgent issues, but if I continue using social tools and write about what I was doing, maybe I would stimulate others to do the same. It was an indirect "promotion"; had I been manager, I would have called it "lead by example". I'm not sure if I stimulated anybody this way, but I found it worked for me. I had an internal blog that got reactions and I wrote on the status line what I was working on ("micro blogging"). Sometimes I would get a reaction, someone from my network offering help. However, I noticed that WOL takes time, even just a small status update. The more busy the work, the less I worked out loud. I'm sure WOL advocates will tell me I am wrong (that it saves time instead) and that I was applying it in the wrong way, or not at all.
Lately I've seen more interest in WOL, so I decided to find more information, to see how I could better benefit from it. Because I do believe it is useful, in the same way as I think knowledge sharing is useful. Working out loud is not a new method, it was first coined in 2010 by Bryce Williams. John Stepper made it into a movement, by writing this book and giving this TED talk. A lot of information on WOL can be found on this site. From a description (in Dutch), I see that my understanding of working out loud was not far off. It is telling what you work on, to your co-workers in the organization. Call it a method or a mindset (I prefer the latter). Social tools support WOL, but it can be done face-to-face as well. Some of the advantages are amongst others: more transparent collaboration, workplace awareness, knowledge sharing and generation of ideas.
Bosch is a company that applies working out loud. It uses WOL Circles, which is a new concept to me. A circle is a peer support group of 4-5 people. Here is a guide to start with your own WOL circle. WOL is all about observable work and narrating your work (see fundamentals) and can help for examples projects on the progress - where it replaces email updates.
Start with these three questions:
- What am I trying to accomplish?
- Who can help me?
- How can I contribute to people to deepen our relationship?
It's interesting to read about a relatively simple habit that can have such impact. It's an essential skill, I read (in Dutch). There are many sources online, I tried to link to a few. Last year there was an international WOL week, I don't know if it will be repeated this year. No need however to wait till the next WOL week, start working out loud now!
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