The next International Working Out Loud week is coming, but you don’t need to wait.

Start Your Own Working Out Loud Week

If there is any real magic to a Working Out Loud Week, it is that the week gives people an opportunity to practice working out loud with others.  You can start a working out loud week in your organisation or networks, to give you the chance to benefit from the practice of working out loud in a safe way

Here are five simple steps to get you started:

1. Choose Your Collaborators: Working out loud on your own can be lonely and can defeat the purpose. Find a few collaborators who have a shared interest in to help you make the week of activity a success. This may be your work team, a group of work colleagues or a working out loud circle. (If you want you can, work out loud on starting up your working out loud week to get the hang of what’s ahead)  If you want to work out loud on a particular challenge, process or theme who else works or is interested on those topics and might want to join in? Make sure you have volunteers. Working out loud is not comfortable for everyone.
2. Choose A Week:  Committing to a whole week’s activity helps build the new habits of working out loud. Pick some dates and agree them with your collaborators.  Make sure you all have time to be involved. Working out loud doesn’t take much time when you have practice, but it will take a little effort to become comfortable.
3. Choose Your Networks: Working Out Loud means different things depending on what networks you choose. Working out loud can be done using posters or post-its or by working in new ways, with new people or in new locations. If you want to reach a wider network than your physical one, agree with your collaborators which networks you will use: enterprise social networks or external social networks or some other choice. There is no right answer. It all depends on what feels comfortable and what will offer you the benefits of exposure to new ideas and contributions.
4. Announce Your Week: The value of announcing your week is that it helps others make sense of your new and different activity. It will help people to understand that you are not self-promoting and that you might need a little latitude as things won’t be as polished as usual. The announcement should also act as an invitation for others to get engaged. If you intend to make specific contributions by working out loud, share that in your announcements.
5. Start: Nothing valuable happens until you start. Overcome the trembling finger and share your first working out loud activities.
6. Enjoy the benefits of Working Out Loud for a Week. Learn. Repeat.

There’s no more to a working out loud week than working out loud, networks and time.  Make it happen for your networks.

PS: This list of steps is exactly what happened when the first International Working Out Loud Week was founded. The results surprised us then. There is nothing simpler than giving it a try.