Learn Constantly. Be Future-Proof.

No.70

Company as School • Working Out Loud
 

At e180, we’ve always been passionate about and inspired by all forms of learning. Through the years, our interests have shifted to also include more and more topics not only about learning, but also about how we can keep learning, as we try to embody our own We Seek motto; Learn Constantly. Become Future-Proof. In that spirit, we’re adapting this very newsletter to bring you more of what inspires, delights, and challenges us (and you), rooted in what we’ve learned both about ourselves and about you over the past two and a half years.

We’ve been sharing our discoveries with you about how to read more and better, remain curious, how the brain works, and more. In the end, what always draws the most attention from our readers is what feels directly and personally impactful: what helps you in your work? How can you remain adaptive and agile? All this in both your personal work or for your organization as a whole.

As the company evolves and grows, this is also the kind of topic we are always interested in. How can we make our own transformative learning journey accessible and personal, to our own employees, and to our audiences? As you’ll read in our featured article by CEO Christine Renaud, we are even setting bold goals for ourselves around learning, by taking steps to turn the company into a school. “What if we prioritized learning in everything we do? How do we transform our workplace into a learnplace?“

Although we are still reading and collecting many interesting resources and articles as we’ve always been, we are now changing how we share them. Since those ideas are of our time but rarely very time sensitive, we are collecting them week to week but will share here around thematic lines. For example this week, as we publish some of our thinking on being learning centred—one component of which will be Working & Learning Out Loud—we include below some readings around that concept. In upcoming issues, you’ll still find some great links and resources, now inspired by a question we are researching instead of through a medley of recent articles.

How We’re Turning Our Workplace Into a Learnplace

e180 • 3 min read

“What if we prioritized learning in everything we do at e180? What if productivity was a side-benefit of learning, and not the other way around? What if learning became such an important pillar of our workplace that we began to think of e180 as a school for its team members, instead of a company? What if, instead of going to work, we were going to learn?”

Further Reading

The 5 Elements of Working Out Loud (Revisited)

In our project, we’ll be concentrating on the practice within an organization, to dive deeper into the personal practice of WOL in a transparent and public manner, start here with John Stepper’s 5 elements.
 

Working Out Loud as a freelancer

The author uses Stepper’s definition and five key elements of WOL; “Making work visible, Making work better, Leading with generosity, Building a social network, and Making it all purposeful.” With the added tweak of doing so as a freelancer, with contract and sharing restrictions the entails.
 

The Practitioner Benefits of Working Out Loud

How to convince team members of the benefits of this practice. “People need to feel it is safe to take interpersonal risk to learn, collaborate and experiment together. It is challenging asking people to Work Out Loud if the leadership, performance or other aspects of the culture make that personally difficult or disadvantageous.”

Also from Terry; Working Out Loud is the Lean Start-up of Knowledge.
 

Why Your Remote Team Needs to Work Out Loud

Makes the case for the practice being especially useful with a remote team; “Everybody knows what’s going on,” accountability, motivation, inclusive culture, and collaboration. Also includes a good section on various tips and recommendations.