Day 5: The 4L’s of open working
One week into my 30 day experiment in open working, I thought I would pause and reflect on how it is going and what I am learning. I have decided to use a tool I often use when running retrospectives (retros). This aim is to help me reflect on what I have liked, learned, lacked and longed for while experimenting with open working.
You can read more about this technique for running retros here, it is called the 4L’s. There is also a great template on Miro for this. Retrospectives are a useful, reflective activity to do with your team mid way through a project. It helps with spotting what is going well and how you can improve.
Liked
There are lots of things I have enjoyed about practicing open working this week. Here are two for now.
Open working is fun!
I enjoy writing about my work. Why? It is creative, it helps me reflect, process, and spot themes. I feel energised and excited about the work I am doing.
It is satisfying to finish something
A lot of my work is iterative. I test, learn, build, re-work, and the cycle continues. This is not how I approach my daily notes and it feels good to have a thing that at the end of the day I can say, that is now done. The fantastic accelerator programmes we plan and deliver at CAST are fast paced, but like many large projects or campaigns, the planning takes place iteratively, with thought and care, over several months. Often it takes a long time before I can say, that is now done.
Learned
Worrying about the credits and kudos
A lot of my work is very collaborative, and I found myself worrying about how to give credit to my team while writing my daily notes. I decided to try and shout out individuals in the team for their work in the notes themselves, but I was conscious too that if I named everyone all the time, it might feel like the credits at the end of a movie and distract from the purpose of the daily note (to build my practice in open sharing).
I decided to acknowledge this tension and wrote a message in our team slack channel to say I was a bit worried about how I credit everyone’s great work in my daily notes, that I might get it wrong sometimes, and that for the record I think they are all fantastic, get-stuff done, wizards. It hasn’t stopped me thinking about the credits and kudos, but if felt good to share my (open!) appreciation with the team.
Behaviour change
I think that openly sharing my work has helped me actually be more open. In one daily note, I found myself writing the words, “Saying I don’t know is powerful. It leaves space for someone else to share what they know.” The next day, I found myself sharing with my colleague that I didn’t know how to set up a new database I needed to set up in Airtable, and asking if he could help me.
I can’t say for sure that these two things are linked. But I can see how getting into the habit of practising open sharing daily, could result in a bigger behaviour change.
Lacked
Feedback. A few people have said they think that a 30 day experiment in open working is a good idea, and I feel encouraged. But I don’t yet have much feedback. Is what I am sharing useful? Is it any good?
While writing this, I decided to do something about this. I asked my team for feedback so I can improve my daily notes next week. My wonderful colleague Jackie replied straight away with lots of good advice. One thing I could action right away (did you notice more visuals in this one?) Other pieces of feedback I will take onboard for next week. Keep an eye out for the Friday special, I love that idea!
Longed for
The pace of change. I wish I could fast-track to the longer term impact goal. I long to see more social impact organisations collaborating on shared missions and openly sharing failure, so that someone else doesn’t make the same mistakes.
I reassure myself by looking for examples where this is already happening. I know that there are lots of really forward thinking, innovative individuals and social impact organisations who are leading the way. Here are two examples:
- CAST and Catalyst have supported 36 non-profits to share step by step Shared Digital Guides on how they use digital tools to run their services and operations. You are free to copy and learn from what they’ve done.
- Chayn is a non-profit who believe in working in the open, and sharing their knowledge and learning around the world. Their code is open-source, and their guides are available under a Creative Commons licence for nonprofit usage. They have supported many organisations to adapt their resources to their own contexts, working with organisations who can help them expand the languages their resources are available in. For example, their platform Your Story Matters, a digital companion for survivors for sexual trauma, has been localised to Mexico. Chayn worked with Recrea Estrategias organisation to support them in creating Tu Historia Importa which is specific to the experience of survivors from Mexico.
I long for open working and re-use of digital technology to be the norm in the sector. My 30 day experiment isn’t going to get us there, so I suppose I long to know what will?
Hello! I am running a 30 day experiment in open working to help me understand the benefits and challenges, so I can get better at supporting social impact organisations to work in the open. I would love to hear your comments, ideas and feedback! Thank you, Ellen
