Why do we work in the open?
By: Ross Pitbladdo
Tags: Digital Transformation, Charity, Nonprofit, Digital, Service Design

Working in the open has become quite a buzzword across organisations over the past few years. At its heart, it’s about transparency. How many times have you been presented with a slide deck which makes assertions that you don’t agree with, or worse, feel you are unable to challenge? Not everyone can be consulted on every piece of work happening across the organisation, but that doesn’t mean we should hide our work and hope for acceptance at the end.

Coronavirus has also changed the way many of us work. Most of our staff team have shifted to home working and don’t have the opportunity to bump into each other in the kitchen or grab a quick catch up. This gives us opportunity to think of new ways to work in the open. That said, even before coronavirus hit us, our teams were spread across more than 200 locations in the UK and so there are learnings which I hope we carry forward into future working.

Why is it important?

Being open is about much more than posting a blog or two, or even holding a show and tell. It’s a mindset change. It’s about saying “hey, I would love to share with you what we are doing and hearing your reflections” throughout every stage of our work. There is no polishing a shiny slide deck ready to present at the end.

It allows us to validate our insights and ultimately improve the quality of the work we deliver. By gaining fresh views, better feedback, we can make sure that when our work concludes it resonates with people and doesn’t include any surprises.

We know that people consume and digest information in different ways and at their own pace. By making the information available in a variety of channels, and more regularly, we can accommodate the needs that our various stakeholders may have.

How do we “work in the open”?

Here is a snapshot of what we are doing to “work in the open”. We set out from the beginning wanting to be as open as possible because we recognised the value of collaboration and ongoing constructive feedback. We are always open to any suggestions of how we can improve our practice and I would be interested to hear your reflections.

Show and tells

We hold a weekly show and tell which shares exactly what we are working on, the insights we have gained so far and then we open it out for discussion. We ask questions. We listen. We engage.

Tom explaining insights at a show and tell

Every week we ask for feedback as we want to make sure that the show and tell is for for the purpose for the people who join us. The team were delighted when we got this feedback from a front line colleague.

HUGE THANK YOU GUYS I must admit when I received the information on this call I did think “oh no not another zoom meeting” and also thought “what on earth is ER mapping?” “Why another change?” and all those other thoughts you can think of. HOWEVER This zoom meeting was not just another zoom meeting. It’s exactly what is needed in the service and has been a long time coming. I’m so excited to see where it goes and it’s exactly the thing we need. Santa sure has come early 😊 😊 lol - Hayley, ER Officer

We also held an evening show and tell which was tailored for the volunteer audience. This also provided an opportunity for us to hear their views and to validate some of our views as well as getting new insights.

Open Documentation

If you haven’t already, I would recommend taking a look at the current live document we are working on. This project is all about mapping our services as users see them. As you will see, there are quite a few.

A link to our live service map.

A screenshot of our online live document which shows our insights so far.

We send this out every week to both leadership and frontline teams. The reason for that isn’t to bombard them, but to show that it is an ever-evolving piece of research. There are no versions, no word documents. We host it online so that everyone will see the latest version of our working draft. There is nothing to hide here.

We already have had lots of feedback about this where front-line teams have shared details that we maybe haven’t captured right the first time. Our intended outcome is the production of a finalised item which everyone can feel a sense of shared ownership as well as resonating with their own experiences.

What are we doing next?

Next up us our volunteer engagement. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organisation and whilst they may not have time to join the show and tells in the middle of the day, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about other ways of getting their views and insights.

Somethings we have planned include articles in one of the volunteer emails which go out regularly, posts on to the volunteer Facebook pages and interviewing some emergency response volunteers.

As always, we would love to hear any reflections you have on our approach to working in the open or any of the other work we are doing.