We Started Something
Welcome to the open world of open working. This is the “Hello, World” post.
To quickly explain what all this is, I’m doing the Open Working Programme this summer: eight weekly sessions, every Friday, delivered by Third Sector Lab, all about using online comms as a tool for more open and transparent working.
Maybe the best way to explain open working is to list some reasons why people work in the open (as I dutifully copied down in week one):
To communicate with colleagues about their work
To communicate with funders
To connect with the community
To record progress
To report success stories
To gather data incrementally
To work collaboratively with others in the sector
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This is typically done through ‘weeknotes’: a format for regular communication about work in progress. In this case, notes on what we (the Community InfoSource Service Delivery team) are doing and learning each week. The basic idea is that working in the open brings people in to what you’re working on. (Something else I dutifully copied down in week one.)
Above all and anything else, working in the open like this presents your organisation, your team, and your work in a manner that other people can relate to.
Giles Turnbull, The agile comms handbook
Another thing I jotted down is that weeknotes, to borrow a line from a previous participant on the programme, aren’t about speaking as the organisation, but as a human being who works there. And we’re talking rough end-of-the-week summaries, rather than carefully crafted flowery prose. On the course we have half an hour max to plan, write, edit and publish. Quick to write, quick to read.
So that’s the plan. Updates about the work as it’s being done, rather than just the massive long report at the end of it all.
Hello, World.
