Working Out Loud practitioners and thought leaders share how they have enlarged & expanded the concept around the world. - A Change Agents Worldwide presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOxN-kM0Ow&t=72s - graphics Joachim Stroh with Catherine Shinners, Simon Terry, John Stepper.

1. 1
WORKING
OUT LOUD
WOL WEEK GROUP CHAT NOV
ArtworkbyMartinWhatson
OPENING THE CURTAINS ON

2. "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

3. DAVE
WINER
NARRATING
YOUR WORK
2009
SCRIPTING
NEWS
RSS
1997

4. BRYCE
WILLIAMS
WORKING OUT LOUD =
__________________________
OBSERVABLE WORK +
NARRATING YOUR WORK
WORKING OUT
LOUD FORMULA
2010

5. 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

6. Above-the-flow
Extra effort needed outside
the normal flow of work.
In-the-flow
What I am working on
right here in the flow.
Hidden-from-flow
Invisible information flows hidden
away in private channels.
Share activity status
Post 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Unpublished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

7. Fluid Knowledge & Evolving Process
Feedback
Loops
WOL
Living
Document
Frozen Knowledge & Stable Process
Approval
Stopgaps
Dead
Document
NO
WOL

8. JOHN
STEPPER
2016
WORKING OUT LOUD
THE MAKING OF A MOVEMENT

9. WORKING OUT LOUD
FOR A BETTER CAREER AND LIFE

10. Better Career: Build a purposeful network
andaccessmoreopportunities.
Better Life: Increase contribution, social and skill values.
BetterOrganizations:Mobilize expertise.

11. WOL
A Little Bit
Like Magic
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Start
Here
KnowledgeValue
Social Value
ContributionValue
Skill Value

12. 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.

13. CATHERINE
SHINNERS
THE DYNAMICS
OF WORKING
OUT LOUD
2014

14. 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. 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 DYNAMICS
Catherine Shinners, Merced Group
Network-based
group cohesion
& connection
More agility &
knowledge
flows
Content
awareness &
accessibility
Transparent
conversational
flow of work
THE CORE ENGINE
IN ACTION (UPDATED)
ME
ME
WE
WE

16. (DYNAMICSOFWOLCONT’D)
16

17. DENNIS
PEARCE
WORKING
OUT LOUD
DOCTORAL
THESIS
2015

18. INNOVATION AGILITY
PRODUCTIVITYFRAGILITY
NARRATINGYOURWORK
INDIVIDUALIDEATION
OBSERVABLE WORK
GROUP COLLABORATION
EMERGENT ORG
STRUCTURES &
PROPERTIES
AUTOPOIETIC
SYSTEMS
COMPLEX
ADAPTIVE
SYSTEMS
FRACTAL
ORGANIZATIONS
WIREARCHIES
...

19. 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
MakingYourWorkVisible
(ObservableWork/InTheFlow)
Making Work
Better /
Creating
Shared Value
by Default /
Leading With
Generosity
Building a
Social
Network /
Making It All
Purposeful
✓
✓
✓
✓

20. 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

21. TO WOL
OR NOT
TO WOL
ORG
INERTIA
KNOWLEDGE
HOARDING
DARK
MATTER
ORG
COMMS
FOSUNARROW
CHANNELS

22. #WOLWEEK
7-13 Nov 2016
Working & Sharing
Purposefully
Learn more at http://wolweek.wordpress.com
TheFestivalofColors,Berlin.PhotographerOliverLang.

23. NAME
contact@here.com
NAME
contact@here.com
NAME
contact@here.com
JOACHIM STROH
joachim.stroh@gmail.com or google me
THANK YOU!

24. WOL EXERCISE
WHAT 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

25. CONCRETE EXAMPLE
COLLECTING 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

26. WOL FOR GLOBAL DEAL ASSESSMENT AT
FORTUNE 100 TECH COMPANY
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Building a knowledge base around insight,
experience and understanding of the market
dynamics and successful deal structures.
26

27. SITUATION & CHALLENGE
Situation
❏ 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. WOL FOR RFP PROCESS
AT FORTUNE 100 TECH COMPANY
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Moving a complex RFP process out of
fragmented, narrow and above-the-flow
practices into open, in-the-flow WOL
processes.
30

31. 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

32. 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