Wide Open (Working) Space
How I think the Open Working ethos will fit with me.
I’ve written before about how I’m working with Power to Change and Third Sector Lab on their Open Working programme, but now that we’ve reached the end of that I wanted to take stock of my experiences with working in the open.
In short I’ve found it really illuminating. I had forgotten how much I love writing. I do a lot of it in my work, but I very rarely do it *from* me, in my own voice. It’s been nice to find my own voice again, rather than an organisational voice. That’s important, as I think it exercises different brain muscles.
I also think the program has been great, and I’ve seen a lot of people pump out some really thought provoking and interesting work, but to assess its value to me I felt like the best way of summing up my feelings was to employ a cliched SWOT analysis. It feels like the most honest way to critically assess the value of it, at least to me.
Strengths
I like this sort of thing, I’m not generally someone who struggles to vocalise or put down on pages what I’m thinking. I’m also a bit competitive, and if I get given an abstract task I’m usually very down to clown.
It was also nice to get some compliments from people who I really respect, and it feels good to reach people and feel seen/heard. Looking back on what I’ve written so far it feels like I’ve also found a theme, a style and a voice, which I’m not sure was there at the start.
As Solidaritech grows, and we’re set to grow, I think it could also be really useful from the point of view of having a way to look back at where we were and what was occupying my mind at any given moment. I remain a bit sceptical about who would actually read my ramblings though.
Weaknesses
I form good habits badly and bad habits well. This feels like a good habit, but how do I keep that sort of hygiene around this? Put simply I probably need to exercise some self-discipline here.
My mental health isn’t the most robust — I manage a couple of types of depression and that in itself takes time and energy — and exposure is one of the things I find triggers both highs and lows, both of which I try to avoid. Too much exposure, too much ‘people time’ might see me pop off, so that needs to be controlled and managed just like everything else does.
The ‘Me, Me, Me’ of it. There’s a lot of ‘Me’ in the world already, and I do wonder if it’s necessary for there to be more. Is there really a demand? And, like I mentioned above, that’s one thing that I need to manage. But given Twitter is such a bin-fire maybe this is a good thing.
I also worry that the content simply isn’t there. Life is quite often a grind, so putting on a happy or thoughtful face might be a stretch at points.
Opportunities
I was struck by what Ed said “If every one did this funders would find it easier”. I do wonder though, I dont think all funders are as committed to openness as Power to Change are.
It reminds me of the blogging craze of the late zeroes, where I had a fairly well followed blog that drove loads of traffic to my site. I think it might make sense in the longer term to keep this one a little bit separate from Solidaritech though. I think linking to Solidaritech from the blog is fine, but I think this place should be stand-alone. Hopefully this keeps me free of the organisational voice creeping into things and keeps me me.
There’s a part of me that feels like I should put this up on LinkedIn, or link these posts periodically. That feels like the natural place for it, but I also find LinkedIn is like a horrible breakfast networking meeting where you’re stuck with a Fleet Sales Rep from Colne who won’t accept I don’t want to lease six Vauxhall Astras. So that’s a consideration.
Threats
Me. My kvetching. I can self-sabotage and if I’m feeling particularly raw I could say “publish and be damned’ on something that I later come to regret.
I’m worried I will revert back to the old habit of not finding the time. Again though, this is something I need to build a habit on, so maybe I can work it into a routine.
How will this eat into the social channel stuff that I also run for Solidaritech? If I’m being brutally honest I don’t do enough on Solidaritech’s socials as it is.
Time, finding the time is always a big thing for me. Some urgent work stuff happened in the middle of writing this which illustrates the potential for the less urgent things to be put on one of the many back burners.
I also worry that I’ve taken on the Open Working mantle myself, on behalf of the whole team, and I’m not sure it has the legs among team members. Maybe with new people we might see more embracing of these ideas, but the current team are really more behind-the-scenes types, and I feel like I’m the one best placed to be dragged out into the open.
Theme Finding and Conclusion
It’s quite hard to draw threads out of this, to organise my thoughts or feelings coherently. Perhaps I need some distance from it, to revisit it when things are calmer. That said, with distance comes the loss of muscle memory, so that points back to the ease I find when dropping good habits and hold on to the bad ones.
On reflection, and having now taken that time, I think the programme has been really useful. Having organised my thoughts a bit more on the subject I’ve resolved to keep my eye in, as it were, and I’ll try and do weekly, if not fortnightly, blogs from now on.
Some will be weeknotes, sure, but some will also be ‘hot takes’, or ideas that need exploring more. I do feel some slight pressure to be entertaining, controversial or revolutionary, but I want to stick to the themes of finding balance, making things sustainable and working on things alongside their natural, evolutionary way.
