Update: fellow members of our co-op took issue with this post due to the inclusion of the words “taking a punch” from a list by Austin Kleon. Although I did not intend for this to in any way glorify violence, this was how it was interpreted, and, out of respect for my colleagues, I have removed the opening section. I have also removed another reference to people working openly “punching above [their] weight”. I found listening to Kate Manne’s appearance on Philosophy Bites useful in reflecting on this.
To me, ‘showing your work’ = ‘working openly’ = ‘working out loud’ — so I’ll use them interchangeably. I think showing your work is so important to the future of successful, harmonious, purposeful organisations, that four years ago I help set up a co-op called We Are Open. We’re dedicated to spreading the “culture, processes and benefits of working openly wherever we can”.
I think working openly is vital because it builds trust. It also leads to three things pointed out by Matt Thompson, a former Mozilla colleague of mine, almost a decade ago:
- Participation — more people can get involved!
- Agility — new ideas can be generated!
- Momentum — things progress more quickly!
These benefits are cumulative, meaning smaller organisations can leverage the advantages of working out loud to compete with larger organisations.
My friend and co-op colleague Laura Hilliger acknowledges, as I do, that being open is hard. Nevertheless, she frames open as an attitude that anyone can choose to adopt.
Elsewhere she points out how nerve-wracking it can be for people who are used to working in more traditional ways:
Whenever you’re going to talk about another major player in the industry or a peer or project, it can be risky. People understand the things we say differently, but being open means being willing to clarify your words and understand that your perspective might not be shared.
Laura Hilliger, Working Openly
In other words, you might choose to share your work, and other people might not like it! But that’s OK. You may have to develop a bit of a thick skin to work openly, but the benefits of doing so are enormous.
I’ve come across plenty of objections to working openly over the years, with most them boiling down to confidence. Once people get over that hurdle, though, people seem to then worry about a world where everyone is sharing everything all of the time. Well, at least they used to before everyone was sharing pretty much everything on social media…
Showing your work may be noisy when done well, but it’s ‘noisy’ in the same way that the productive buzz of an office is noisy. In that offline setting, you can’t pay attention to everyone all of the time. Similarly, online you can’t pay attention to every message in every channel you can access.
Instead, as adult human beings we scaffold people’s attention; that comes partly through the features built-in to the tools we use, but also through agreed processes. As I’ve quoted the media theorist Clay Shirky as saying many times, “it’s not information overload, it’s filter failure”.
Finally, I should point out that, in any organisation, there are private conversations. These, of course, should be respected. A private email conversation or chat conversation is no different to having a quiet word with someone in the corner of the office to make sure they’re OK. But conversations squarely about work? They definitely should be open by default, there’ so much upside!
If you’re interested in finding out more about working openly, our co-op has put together a free, short email course entitled What We Talk About When We Talk About Open. I encourage you to check it out!
This post is Day 47 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com
