Working Out Loud
This has been the theme for me of late, whilst being on lockdown here in The Netherlands. What is Working out Loud I hear you ask?
Working out loud is the practice of consciously sharing your learning with others, to invite participation and contribution, thus enlarging the learning experience. I talk more about it here in my blog ‘What is Working Out Loud’, where I reveal one of my key ways of sharing my learning is through my writing.
I always wanted to write, and when I started appreciating other people’s well-written blogs, I thought, hmmm, maybe I could do that. And so it started, one blog post at a time, the practice of building a new skill. I started my personal blog around 6 years ago, and had a great time experimenting and learning my craft. It led to new doors being opened, I met people through my blog that shared the same interests. It even – don’t laugh – led to the opportunity to do some fashion blogging. This was a win-win, as yes, you get to keep the clothes. Of course, blogging for fun led to more confidence in this style of writing for professional purposes. Firstly in-house – pushing communications through corporate intranets, helping leaders to show their authenticity and own personal take on business issues. I blogged at work, ran blogging workshops and mentored senior leaders that wanted to create their own voice. Then when I started my own business, writing business blogs came naturally to me. Check out my blog ‘Why blogging is good for business’.
Interested in blogging for business or personal interest? I’m running an Introduction to Blogging webinar on the 2nd June.
My current ‘Working Out Loud’ projects:
I ran a session recently entitled ‘Learning and Unlearning in a Changing World’. I’ve run several workshops around the theme of learning and personal development to a range of audiences. The workshops always get a good response, and delivering online hasn’t made a difference to the impact of the message. The video for the session is here.
In another blog post I have shared my current ‘big’ project to write a book about my late Father. He was a great leadership role model for me, and committing (to myself) to write this has felt scary and daunting at times, and I have no idea what the end product will look like exactly, but I know there are things I want to say and the book will be a vehicle for that. I’m currently still in the opening chapter, my Dad’s family history – his parents and grandparents, and I have loved perusing old diaries and letters to fill in the rich narrative.
The last few weeks have been a strange time for many of us, myself included. I’m happy to have the extra hours at home, there are plenty of projects to work through, however having more family members around makes it interesting! I thought I’d be able to make lots of progress on a couple of my current learning goals, but keeping a balance for the family has been the biggest priority. I have picked up my Dutch text-books after putting them down for a few weeks, I was missing the mental stimulation that learning a new language brings. To help with this goal, I thought I’d start sharing a new segment on these posts, I’m going to call it ‘The Dutch Have a Saying for that…’ – as the Dutch really do have a huge number of quirky sayings, and there’s perhaps no better way of summing up the Dutch culture.
The Dutch have a Saying for That…
‘Praatjes vullen geen gaatjes’
This has a nice rhyming sound to it, and literally translates to ‘chatting doesn’t fill the holes’, the inference being that if you visit the dentist and talk non-stop, your teeth won’t get filled, so stop talking so the job can get done! An English equivalent would be to say someone is ‘all talk and no action’.
So, in the spirit of ‘Working Out Loud’ – what will you commit to this week to doing rather than talking about?
Why not book a Personal Development session to get you started?
That’s all for now folks – until the next time!!
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