There’s a lot of conversation lately about working out loud,particularly the benefits it brings to the individual worker. But selling theidea of sharing to organization leaders can be another matter. Narrating workoffers myriad benefits to organizations, from better locating talent andfinding tacit knowledge to increasing efficiencies to improving communication. Butorganizations married to more traditional knowledge management processes mayhave trouble seeing past those.
One of the problems with traditional approaches, for instance,is the temptation to try and oversimplify an unavoidably complex task. Buildinga house takes much more than a blueprint; a schematic of a manufacturingprocess may, from 50,000 feet, look like a series of simple steps, but on theshop floor it may be a very different proposition with many moving parts andfrequent exceptions.
Simple steps don’t tell us the story that the person incharge of the process, on the floor, every day, would tell: what to do when asupplier fails to ship a critical component, or a flu epidemic derailsschedules, or someone creates a custom shim for an ill-fitting part withouttelling anyone about the flaw. Most of us spend most of our days in overlappingconversations, email messages, meetings, and Post-It note reminders. Often whatwe do, how we do it, and how well we do it all depend on relationships withothers. We work in fluid processes that are just not easily mapped.
The problem with documentation? Well … truth is, we aren’tvery good at writing down what we do; the reality is rarely what’s documented. JohnSeely Brown and Paul Duguid have said that we end up detaching knowledgefrom practice, which “distort[s] or obscure[s] intricacies of that practice” (seeReferences). And over-engineered, bureaucratized reports and documentationprocesses are often exercises in futility, as they capture the “what” of workbut not the “how.” Narrating work, showing work, or working out loud (here are some examples) helps us capture not just what getsdone but how things get done.
What are the benefits to the organization of working out loud?
Showing work will require a shift—maybe changing the wayreports have been done and meetings have traditionally been held (and why);maybe, as Virgin Media did, making sure all employees have access to SnagIt; ormaybe just remembering to ask: How did you do that? Can you show me how to dothat? What was the hardest thing about doing that? Who else was involved ingetting that done?
Increased efficiencies
- Reductionin number of meetings
- Fewersilos and a decrease in redundancy
- Savedtime and energy
- Reductionof time spent both in searching for information and for people and relationships
- Reductionin time spent interpreting historical documents and artifacts
- Connectingtalent pools
- Improvementin creating and storing information and artifacts
Preserving institutional knowledge
Oneof the tragic flaws of email is not only that conversation is locked inside aback-and-forth between two people, when in many cases it would be better shared“out loud,” but also that when one of the principals retires or leaves, theaccount is deleted. Anything of value that might have been there would havebeen difficult to extract, and now is gone forever. The person who leavesbehind work—whether narrated via a blog or through shared presentations, or viaimages captured during a tricky repair and posted to the work unit wiki—ishelping to preserve institutional knowledge for those coming after.
Improving public perception and awareness of work and effort
An organizationsuccessful at showing its work not only offers “what we can sell you” information, but presents interesting accounts ofwork that that shows “what we do.”This can be especially useful for nonprofit endeavors, those staffed withvolunteers, and those supported by donations or tax dollars, as it says, “Thisis what we do with that money.” See,for instance, the Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) Twitteraccount: @msf_field.
Reducing space between leaders and others
Richard Edelman, CEO of the world’s largest independent PRagency, Edelman PR, regularly posts to his first-person “6 A.M.” blog. Someposts are about business in general; others share insights gained via a personalexperience; still others offer a frank revelation about decision-making oractivities that affect his organization and its workers. For example, a posttitled “Paid Media — A Change of Heart” describes his reasoning forchanging a long-held position. The post—which invites comment—builds trust,supports an atmosphere of openness, reduces pushback and outcry, and helpseveryone understand how the leader thinks.
Other benefits of showing work
- Supportingrecruitment. Showing work via public channels communicates “real” informationabout the company, the people, the work, and the ways in which workers spendtheir days.
- Disasterprevention—continue the flow. Narrating work answers questions such as:
- Whathappens if _________ resigns or retires?
- Whathappens if _________ is out sick?
- Whathappens if I transfer?
- Connecting with remote or scattered staff. For instance, Lowe’s Companiesbelieves in working out loud. In describing the Lowe’s “Open Leadership”initiative, Sandy Carter of IBM reports that the workers who offered thebest tips turned out to be those located farthest from headquarters (seeReferences).
- Enhancingemployees’morale through connecting them to others in a purposeful way:
- Supportsinformal, social, and peer learning.
- Supportsthe popular organizational talk about “collaboration.”
- (See Tullis & Crumpler citation in Bozarth, Show Your Work. 2014: Wiley.)
Benefits to organizations, summarized
Showing work offersincreased efficiencies, the possibility of innovation, and increased ability toimprovise, and it promises correction of long-standing deficits inorganizational communication. Organizations seeking to leverage the potentialwill find themselves more flexible and agile and will be better positioned torespond to exceptions, turnover, and sudden changes.
Want more?
Many examples of showingwork or working out loud can be found here: https://www.pinterest.com/janebozarth/show-your-work-book-coming-may-2014/
References
Somematerial adapted from: Bozarth, Jane. ShowYour Work: The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud. San Francisco, CA:Wiley, 2014.
Brown, JohnSeely, and Paul Duguid. “Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice:Towards a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation.” Organization Science, Vol. 2, No. 1. 1991.
https://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~duguid/SLOFI/Organizational_Learning.htm
Carter,Sandy. “Social Leadership at Lowe’s.” YouTube video. 27 October 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPkDZNOxLtk
Edelman,Richard. “Paid Media — A Change of Heart.” 6 A.M. (blog). 7 January 2013.
https://www.edelman.com/p/6-a-m/paid-media-a-change-of-heart/
From the editor: DevLearn 16: Speakers sharing their work!
Jane will join a special panel discussion Thursday afternoon, November 17: “Designing Accessible Learning Experiences.” Don’t miss this session, in which seasoneddesigners and developers will share their personal stories and best practicesfor creating universal or inclusive solutions!
In addition, dozensof other designers and developers will be showing you what they have done andhow they did it. Check out the session descriptions on the DevLearn 2016 Conference & Exposite! Register by September 30, 2016, for the Early Registration Discount.
