Today is the first day of International Work Out Loud Week.

(Of course, we know that you can actually work out loud any day of the week however, this initiative is something that we can all be part of internationally at the same time). 

What is Working Out Loud?

Bryce Williams back in 2010, defined it with the formula:

Working Out Loud = Observable Work + Narrating Your Work

When you narrate your work openly and publicly, in effect you are sharing, describing, linking, defining, reflecting and connecting the dots on how work gets done.  The public and open nature of you explaining the process of your work, learning and thinking allows people to engage in dialogue in the spirit of shared purpose, trust and reciprocity where they can give each other new, unique and diverse perspectives  of that work.  In so doing, the result is that it supports you to be more productive, improves your performance and surfaces any challenges or bottlenecks.

Day 1: What’s My Purpose

Simon Terry (@simongterry) has created a plan for the week to get us started together.   As it is the first day of International Work Out Loud Week, today, we share a purpose.

My purpose for this week is to share the philosophy and concept of working out loud to a completely new network so that I can solve my own niggling question I have about the value and benefit of working out loud OUTSIDE organisations.  That new network will be my Snapchat community.

Why?

Many of the people who follow me on Snapchat come from a variety of fields, professions, industries – there are engineers, comedians, social media marketers, academics, scientists, psychologists, dentists and so much more.  Much of what I share on Snapchat about personal learning strategies, tools, techniques as well as other reflections about corporate and knowledge work is completely foreign to them as they are not ‘of that world’.

However, all of them are in some way, already working out loud on their business ideas, project work, and explaining what they and how they do it on Snapchat as it’s a fantastic medium that provides audio, video, text, emoji and annotation to express the process of your work and learning across a 24-hour time frame.

In effect, we get a snapshot of someone’s work day across 24 hours (before it disappears into the ether and not before they’ve probably given us an ‘a ha‘ moment that take us on our own exploratory journey).

The issue (well, it’s not really an issue) is that they don’t know they’re already working out loud – to them, it’s just a natural part of using the social medium as a channel to express their thoughts, reflect openly and show their work.

However, I’d love to know more feedback on how THEY are perceived by their PEERS in business – especially peers who may be still thinking in terms of need, risk, reward, pay off, value and benefit to their own business, brand and reputation. 

So my challenge this week is to explore if working out loud is relevant to people outside of the typical knowledge work done within corporations.  

That is:

• How does working out loud help (if at all) to people like me who are independently consulting, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small business owners?
• What value do these people receive from working out loud versus businesses who remain secret?
• What are the opportunities and challenges of working out loud for say, people like young graduates or the younger generation who have the social tools to be able to express their ideas, talents, skills and experiences in different ways to potential employers or build new business?

Introducing Working Out Loud to My Snapchat Community

Yesterday I created a snap story to introduce the week to my Snapchat followers.  I have had some engagement (people screenshot the relevant snaps which provides me data of engagement) and a couple have said that they want to be involved.  Here’s what I shared….

So what is your purpose for this week? Make sure you share it using the hastag #wolweek or #workoutloud and start conversations with people!

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