One recurring feature of the Social Age is the nature of working out loud: developing our ideas within our communities, sharing them before they are fully formed and getting the benefit from the wisdom of the tribe. That’s the approach i’ve taken around Social Leadership recently, iterating from the first ideas around ‘traits‘, through to ‘behaviours‘ and, finally, ‘curriculum‘, although that too is just a first draft.
Working out loud is at the heart of how i learn. It’s a Social Age trait
Yesterday was a good day: i met Bala-Murali, talking about social learning, John, talking about innovation and creativity, and Thomas, thinking about the evolution of publishing and engagement with digital media. All three conversations in different locations, but all three referring to and drawing upon ideas that i’ve developed over time through my communities and that i’ve narrated out loud through the blog.
The blog is not incidental to my work: it’s at the heart of it, and it when i go to meetings, i take my community with me.
Jane is one of ten people who are kindly reviewing the first chapter of the new book, all through our global community: i’ve only met two of those ten in person, but i’m trusting them with the first draft. Why? Because we have built Social Age relationships through our community spaces. Indeed, both Bala-Murali and John were people i originally met through community spaces and our shared interests bought us together. Jane and i have been talking about this idea of ‘Bring your own community‘, it’s more than just turning up with your laptop!
Working out loud involves getting things wrong sometimes, but that’s ok, but equally often you get things right, and sometimes the things you get right are the things you thought were wrong…
There’s also something very pleasing about charting your progress with ideas, looking back and seeing how they develop, seeing what thrives and what you leave behind. I find it gives me a better perspective on my own personal and professional development.
julianstodd
Julian Stodd's Learning Blog 
“Working out loud involves getting things wrong sometimes, but that’s ok, but equally often you get things right, and sometimes the things you get right are the things you thought were wrong” One has to be very confortable with self as well as have a stable and healthy “self-awareness” for this to take place. My fear of some in the younger generation is that this is not always a healthy state of mind.
Yes, makes total sense to me: discussing it with peers to end up with a solution “vetted” by the group, instead of just one that then needs to go thru the “ringer”… 🙂
Maybe we can say that this is brainstorming “at large”, in a less formal format than sceduling brainstorming session?…
I do this a lot. I like to talk things through with my colleagues… But I have to say that too often, I get resistance, even negativism, right off the bat: it’s not given to everyone to discuss things as they get figured out. I guess it’s part of the change we’re all going through in the way we work, the way we actually “need” to work to be agile and competitive…
Hi Julian!
Do you think that ‘social enterprise’ (networking, learning, etc) is company size dependent? For example Yammer, Chatter and Jive, which are standard in Fortune 1000, are totally useless in the small busines environment (where Bitrix24 and Asana rule supreme)? And the other way around, as awesome as Bitrix24 and Asana are, I am yet to find a 5000+ employee company who uses them for knowledge management, collaboration and communications.
Hey Gina, i think the technology is pretty fluid: whilst organisations may choose a ‘formal’ technology that they own, in reality, semi formal groups use whatever is to hand. You’re right that larger organisations like to reduce their risk (or perception of risk) by going with ‘safe’ options and eschew smaller offerings, but you often see agile groups of learners adopting their own spaces.
I believe that agile organisations in the future will use more, lighweight and highly communicative technology, systems that speak to each other and have a lower barrier to uptake (and migration to new systems)
Thanks for sharing your experiences, best wishes, Julian
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