Next week is International Working Out Loud Week (5-11 June). For the week, a global community of working out loud practitioners, advocates and organizations will share their work, their lessons, and their stories. This WOLWeek the theme is “Contribute and Create Value”.
We created Working Out Loud week to draw attention to working out loud. Importantly, we also wanted to authorize people to share their interest in or passion for working out loud.
In corporate life and in social situations, we can often worry whether we have the authority or the permission to share. Our actions are tightly constrained. Acceptable behaviour is tightly defined. Speaking out in a different way to one’s peers can be hard and discouraged. The goal of WOLWeek is to give people one little period where they have one degree of freedom to change.
Your organization may not support working out loud. Your peers may not understand working out loud. However, each individual can fight for one more bit of freedom to change using WOLWeek. We can do so by announcing that we are joining a global movement, celebrating a recognized event and sharing the stories that will surface over the week. The global community and conversation around WOLWeek is designed to give everyone just a little latitude to do differently for the week, to explore change and to experience the benefits of a different approach.
The transparency, collaboration, and learning of Working Out Loud are all important future of work practices. WOLWeek gives you a chance to take yourself and your organization a small step into this change.
Take it. Work out loud. Show your work to others. Invite others to learn from you and to help you achieve your goals. That small step into change under the umbrella of WOLWeek might just lead you and your organization into an extraordinary transformation.
Working Out Loud Week is from 5-11 June 2017. For more information see WOLWeek.com or WOLWeek on Twitter.
