The less obvious ingredients to Open Working

We’re running an Open Working and Reuse programme. We carefully crafted the main elements of the programme. But as ever, there are intangible bits that will make it as valuable as possible to the people we are teaching.

These are those things.

You’ll get out what you put in

The theory of open working and reuse is lovely. We can show off, we can ask for help, we can learn about ourselves and each other. It’s (relatively) easy to help people understand the concept and get behind it. But then what?

Well my friends, then you need to DO THE THING.

The only way in which we can learn to work in the open is by doing it. It can be scary, because by its very nature, that is public. People will actually read your blog or watch your video, or use your how-to guide. They might have opinions about it. You probably won’t be that good at it straight away.

But that’s the beauty of open working. We love to see people improve. It is all part of the story. And when future you looks back at the first bits of sharing you did, you’ll be proud to see how far you’ve come.

Use the human voice

When we work in the open in a professional capacity it can be easy to slip into ‘corporate’ speak. But open working is all about showing everyone that the organisations are run by humans.

We can do this by remembering to use simple, easy to understand language.

It opens our work up to people outside our network, who don’t necessarily use the same jargon that we do.

Be vulnerable, show your struggles, talk about what you are doing to overcome obstacles. It will help others to see you are learning as you go, and they can learn from your mistakes.

Show off your success too!

When we talk about working in the open we often emphasise the importance of showing the difficult things. The things that, perhaps, were mistakes that we’d rather not put out there. We know it is good to share these things because

a — it keeps you accountable

b — it helps other people learn from your mistakes

BUT — that’s not all we share! Remember to share your success stories too! They will feel all the more rewarding when they have come from demonstrable resilience.

No one has all the answers

Perhaps you are the person in your organisation who has been tasked to ‘do’ the open working. Perhaps your organisation is an expert in its particular field.

BUT

No one person has all the information.

Not one organisation always holds all the cards.

You may need to ask around. Or admit you don’t know something, publicly. This is totally cool. In fact, if you asked your colleagues questions so you can write openly about the work, it will increase mutual understanding within your organisation. If you ask the wider world for advice, your organisation may make connections that weren’t there before, or find some valuable new information.

People love helping out. Let them.

The building blocks are small

Finally, this is a very important thing to remember. you don’t just do working in the open for a bit and then you’re done. It works best if you are consistent and regular with your sharing.

Share little. Share often.

Over time, all those little bits will form a greater whole. It has grown organically, over a long period of time. The same way people do. The same way organisations do. We are not static and change is the only constant. So it would only make sense if our open outputs show just that.