Richard Martin (@indalogenesis) helps organisations and companies adapt to the digital and networked world and an incredibly thoughtful and insightful writer through Indalogenesis.com.  Richard recently worked out loud on a Pecha Kucha of his reflections on the power of the cycling peloton as a metaphor for future organisational structures.  Richard is also a brilliant editor and the person with whom you need to discuss your unpublished book.

Richard shares how his experience of working out loud has created serendipity and led to a decision to broaden his future career in helping organisations change and adapt by working as a freelance consultant.

1. How should someone start out working out loud?
   
   Give yourself permission. Tolerate the risk of making a fool of yourself. I made a conscious decision to start blogging on a public platform and being an active participant (rather than just a consumer) on social media. The former was a means of sharing raw ideas, then polishing and refining them through interaction with and feedback from others.
2. What are the benefits and risks of working out loud?
   
   The benefits: an ever-growing network of people willing to collaborate, cooperate and co-create. Constructive feedback. Networked knowledge. Validation and/or improvement of ideas. The risks: frustration with the status quo, as your external network helps expose the shortcomings of your current {insert company, community, government, etc}.
3. What surprises you about working out loud?The surprises are constant. Serendipitous encounters. Exposure to ideas (often overlapping) from multiple disciplines. One of the biggest surprises, though, has been the strength and depth of new friendships that have grown from initial online encounters resulting from WOL practices.
4.  How has working out loud changed your work relationships?My strongest ‘work’ relationships are with people who are not on the same payroll as me. That has led me to review how I want to work and who with. The first step is becoming a freelancer in January.
5. Who inspires you to work out loud?John Stepper, Harold Jarche, Jonathan Anthony, Simon Terry, Austin Kleon… Anyone brave enough to put their ideas out there and participate in a conversation, with the aim of it resulting in constructive action.

Image credit: Richard Martin.