Day 2 of International Working Out Loud week is drawing to a close for me, though there is great energy in the western hemisphere to go. Today for me was a day of reflecting on new reach of #wolweek and on the spread of influence.
Today leaves me pondering: How can we influence more widely and more effectively?
Little Things Grow
Wolweek is growing before our eyes like Bamboo. New faces and new voices join in the public conversation. We cannot see the private working out loud inside organisations and closed networks. From all accounts there is activity aplenty there too. You only need to see the growing list of people signing up to lead circles.
Sharing with vulnerability and generosity builds trust. There is no greater force multiplier than growing trust. At the moment #wolweek is on the trust upswing. Will it continue? Will it last?
Reaching More Widely
The big surprises for me today were conversations offline that took a discussion about working out loud into new audiences, new domains and new organisations. The reception was as enthusiastic as that in public social media. I have seen examples of others at work in the same advocacy. We should compare notes. We need more offline advocacy to continue to grow the community, to diversify ideas and learn together of the potential of working out loud.
We must remember that working out loud just has to be sharing. It doesn’t have to involve the whole wide world loud. There are many who can benefit without feeling comfortable enough to go that far. Circles are a great way to start small and start now.
Challenging Work Itself
Ayelet Baron raised a great question tonight that our lack of clarity on what ‘work’ is might just be getting in the way. WOL can become broadcast easily if we are still in our email-driven input/output manufacturing model of work.
How do we help people to consider what really constitutes the work that creates value? How do we better surface and strengthen purpose? How do we focus on helping people to work the obstacles in the system and work in between?
I know that WOL will be part of the answer.
Ongoing Questions
How can we take the conversation to the places where people are at work and would benefit from the practices of more open and more generous approach to their work?
How can we better reinforce the messages that influence others to trial working out loud?
I will keep reflecting on this and I would value your thoughts.
