1

WORKINGOUT LOUD

WOL WEEK GROUP CHAT NOV 2016

Art

wo

rk b

y M

arti

n W

hats

on OPENING THE CURTAINS ON

"Change Agents Worldwide is a new type of consultancy, which functions as a transparent cooperative. It includes Solo Change Agents and Enterprise Change Agents who are trying to bring about change in their respective workplaces. This is a network of progressive and passionate professionals, who really want to bring about substantive change in how work gets done." —Harold Jarche

CHANGE AGENTS WORLDWIDE

EST2013

DAVE WINER

NARRATING YOUR WORK

2009

SCRIPTING NEWS

RSS 1997

BRYCEWILLIAMS

WORKING OUT LOUD = __________________________ OBSERVABLE WORK + NARRATING YOUR WORK

WORKING OUT LOUD FORMULA

2010

Working Out Loud = Narrating Your Work + Observable Work

Sample Actions to Take Why Do This

Show colleagues what you are working on while it is still in progress (outside team context)

So colleagues can 1) use your ideas in their work where applicable; 2) add to your work in ways that can improve it.

Respond to colleagues’ requests or questions in an open forum rather than responding one to one

So everyone is aware of your thinking on issues (which don’t have to be repeated endlessly)

Read and respond to what colleagues are doing/posting, helping where you can

1) To maintain the big picture on issues, 2) to help others be more effective, and 3) to reciprocate for help offered

Above-the-flowExtra effort needed outside the normal flow of work.

In-the-flowWhat I am working on right here in the flow.

Hidden-from-flowInvisible information flows hidden away in private channels.

Share activity statusPost to open forum

Ask question openlyNarrate & share work

Write short blog postReceive automatic updates

Filling Out Forms(Harvesting)

Understanding the issues(Clarifying)

Finding Experts & Expertise

Looking for Information(Collecting)

Publishing content (for print)

Publishing articles (on the web)

Information Silos

Hidden email chains

Solving problems one on one

Email/voice communication

Unpublished documents/reports

Fluid Knowledge & Evolving Process

FeedbackLoops

WOLLiving

Document

Frozen Knowledge & Stable Process

ApprovalStopgaps

Dead Document

NOWOL

JOHN STEPPER2016

WORKING OUT LOUD THE MAKING OF A MOVEMENT

WORKING OUT LOUD FOR A BETTER CAREER AND LIFE

Better Career: Build a purposeful networkand access more opportunities.Better Life: Increase contribution, social and skill values.

Bett

er O

rgan

izat

ions

: Mob

ilize expertise.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3773/12079828445_5da0df5584_b.jpg

me/we diagonal UL > LR

SV social connections & networkingCV expression & outputKV competency & domain knowledgeSkV expertise & role-based knowledge

WOL A Little Bit Like Magic

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

StartHere

Know

ledg

e Va

lue

Social Value

Contribution Value

Skill Value

Working out Loud Circles are small groups of people learning to work in an open, generous, connected way so they can each accomplish a personal goal. Over 12 weeks, through actual practice, circle members build a network of relationships with people who can help them with that goal.

By the end of your 12 weeks in a circle, you’ll have developed new habits so you can work out loud towards any goal. That will help you gain access to more knowledge and more possibilities, increasing your chances of finding meaning and fulfillment.

CATHERINE SHINNERS

THE DYNAMICS OF WORKING

OUT LOUD

2014

THE CORE ENGINE OF WOL

❏ TRUST - start with small groups and teams

❏ PURPOSE - create a shared purpose

❏ RECIPROCITY - role model generosity, responsiveness & awareness of others

❏ FLOW - identify a few inefficient activities and transform into WOL activities

15

Content change triggers via streams, alerts, filters, or tags

improve awareness & accessibility

Visibility of work expands knowledge collections and invites diversity of more inputs

Sharing updates and expanding connections using robust profiles, brings richer context and stronger cohesion

Transparent creation and co-creation of content in the flow of work leads to new conversations and feedback loops

WOL DYNAMICSCatherine Shinners, Merced Group

Network-based group cohesion

& connection

More agility & knowledge

flows

Content awareness & accessibility

Transparent conversational

flow of work

THE CORE ENGINEIN ACTION (UPDATED)

ME

ME

WE

WE

(DYN

AM

ICS

OF

WO

L CO

NT’

D)

16

DENNISPEARCE

WORKING OUT LOUD DOCTORAL THESIS

2015

INNOVATION AGILITY

PRODUCTIVITYFRAGILITYNAR

RATI

NG

YO

UR W

ORK

INDI

VIDU

AL I

DEAT

ION

OBSERVABLE WORKGROUP COLLABORATION

EMERGENT ORG STRUCTURES &

PROPERTIES

AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEMS

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

FRACTAL ORGANIZATIONS

WIREARCHIES

...

A MENU OF WOL ACTIVITIES

❏ Seeking an answer to a question / problem

❏ Answering a question directed to you about your area of expertise

❏ Answering a question directed to you unrelated to your area of expertise

❏ Creating a presentation for a team / committee / department / town hall

❏ Collecting team input prior to starting a work deliverable

❏ Creating content for a work deliverable (WIP)

❏ Collecting feedback on an in-progress work deliverable

❏ Creating content for a work deliverable (Finished Product)

19

❏ Achieving awareness of work outside your direct responsibilities

❏ Coaching people outside of your team / department

❏ Discovering external resources about your role / area of expertise

❏ Accumulating links to build topical collection on the fly (social bookmarking)

❏ Contributing to the Corporate Conversation (Engagement, Activities, Facilities, Corporate Policies, etc.)

❏ Forming and collecting a community of experts on a topic

❏ Connecting with fellow employees on personal interests

Mak

ing

Your

Wor

k Vi

sibl

e (O

bser

vabl

e W

ork

/ In

The

Flow

) Making Work Better / Creating

Shared Value by Default /

Leading With Generosity

Building a Social

Network / Making It All Purposeful

✓

✓

✓

✓

A SIMPLE TEMPLATE FOR WOL

❏ Pick an activity❏ List the typical / default behavior

of today❏ List the “Working Out Loud”

behavior of tomorrow❏ Benefits of shifting the behavior❏ Risk considerations / mitigation

❏ At a later stage: Add real life stories / examples of this “new” behavior in action.

Template courtesy of Bryce Williams, who coined the term Working Out Loud

20

TO WOL OR NOT TO WOL

ORGINERTIA

KNOWLEDGE HOARDING

DARK MATTER

ORGCOMMS

FOSUNARROW CHANNELS

#WOLWEEK7-13 Nov 2016

Working & Sharing Purposefully

Learn more at http://wolweek.wordpress.comThe

Fest

ival

of C

olor

s, B

erlin

. Pho

togr

aphe

r Oliv

er L

ang.

NAMEcontact@here.com

NAMEcontact@here.com

NAMEcontact@here.com

JOACHIM STROHjoachim.stroh@gmail.com or google me

THANK YOU!

WOL EXERCISEWHAT ACTIVITY WOULD BE A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR WOL?

Item Description

Title of Activity

Default Behavior

Desired WOL Behavior

Benefits of Change

Ideas to stimulate adoption

24

CONCRETE EXAMPLECOLLECTING TEAM INPUT PRIOR TO STARTING A KNOWLEDGE PRODUCT

Item Description

Default Behavior

Single person is tasked to collect input from all members via phone, email or face-2-face meetings after a set period of time has elapsed.

WOL Behavior

All members agree to Work Out Loud by putting their findings into a shared space and periodically reviewing and commenting on the posts.

Benefits of Change

REVISE ------------------------------- The process is no longer a bottleneck, which reduces time needed to collect input. Furthermore, the findings create a knowledge base that is periodically refreshed and vetted by members.

Risk / Mitigation None.

Real Life Story

Let a team member describe the new WOL process after they’ve done this a few times and post it to a blog and/or newsletter.

25

WOL FOR GLOBAL DEAL ASSESSMENT AT FORTUNE 100 TECH COMPANY

PROBLEM STATEMENTBuilding a knowledge base around insight, experience and understanding of the market dynamics and successful deal structures.

26

SITUATION & CHALLENGESituation❏ The Global Deal Assessment Group’s (GDAG) job is to ensure the

technical quality of service contracts for client organizations. ❏ The GDAG is a small global group with team members in varied

geographies. Each member possesses unique domain knowledge about their regional market, competitive intelligence and deal structures.

Challenge ❏ How to leverage the insight, experience, understanding of market

dynamics, and successful deal structures for group learning ❏ How to leverage learning for future deal assessment

27

WHAT THE TEAM DID❏ A team space in an enterprise social network environment - - members

discussed and reviewed challenges and opportunities in each market, and leveraged that insight into regional deals.

❏ The use of social profiles - - A geographically dispersed team kept track of growing experience and expertise of each other.

❏ A Q&A section - - important questions were answered transparently for the benefit of the group while experts expanded on topics.

❏ A shared workspace - - competitive information and market intelligence artifacts were placed in a common shared workspace.

❏ Alerts and notifications - - group tracked specific areas of content development or change.

❏ Consistent tagging - - increase in searchability, identification of critical content, and discussion was observed.

28

RESULTS

❏ Access to more tacit know-how, enabled the group to leverage all insights, experiences, and understanding

❏ Greater ‘in-context’ understanding of successful deal-structuring was gained;

❏ New team members were onboarded much more quickly;

❏ More questions were answered, and deal project information was transparently available;

29

WOL FOR RFP PROCESSAT FORTUNE 100 TECH COMPANY

PROBLEM STATEMENTMoving a complex RFP process out of fragmented, narrow and above-the-flow practices into open, in-the-flow WOL processes.

30

An RFP response is a complex, cross-functional work process that involves:

❏ technical domain specialists❏ product specialists❏ legal staff

This Fortune 100 Company needed a quick response to multiple requests for proposals from clients but their response was slowed down by:

❏ A workflow driven by email❏ Loss of context because of poor coordination❏ Versioning confusion resulting in poor quality control❏ Time wasted in status update meetings❏ Tacit know how buried in emails

31

SITUATION & CHALLENGE - Fortune 100 Tech Company

❏ sales staff❏ senior management❏ project management staff

WHAT THE TEAM LEARNED

❏ Shorter time to completion of RFPs ❏ Higher overall quality and accuracy❏ Reuse of tacit know-how for continuous improvement ❏ Increased visibility of team members leading to more cohesive response❏ Collectively up-to-date through alerts, notifications

Easier to track versions, contributions to the project ❏ Conversations, comments around issues and problem-solving visible to all

Conversations become valuable artifacts to continuous improvement

32