Infographic: what is working in the open for charities?

An introduction to working in the open.

Working in the open is as simple as sharing your work with others — inside or outside your organisation, usually in real time. It can also include reusing work that’s others have done, to help you with your project.

‘Work’ might be an asset — such as research insights, a roadmap, a set of user personas — or it might be learnings and reflections on your recent activity and thinking. By sharing with each other, we can make more progress, more quickly and help more people. And of course, it saves money and time.

Infographic: welcome to working in the open

Benefits of working in the open

Working in the open has a lot of benefits — and it makes you feel good. By learning how to communicate what you’re doing and learning, you’ll be able to do things like get buy-in from stakeholders internally, put together stronger funding bids or get input from your peers in the community.

By learning from those who have gone before you, you’ll build on existing learning and it could help you to make the right decision for your project.

You should also be able to save time — and money — from re-using work that’s already been done, which will mean you’ll be able to see results more quickly.

Working in the open is reciprocal — just as you benefit from others’ work, so others benefit from you sharing your stories and assets.

How to know your work is ready to share

You’re ready to share when you’re reflecting on your work or notice you’ve learned something. And don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be polished or perfect. Weeknotes are a good way to get started.

This blog was originally written by Christine Cawthorne of Crocstar for the Catalyst network. The infographic is her work too.