In Tip No. 5, I talked about the importance of gathering a crowd to foster your own development.
One concrete idea to do this is by joining a Working Out Loud Circle, a peer group of 4-5 people who support each other’s development for 1 hour each week for 12 consecutive weeks. The Working Out Loud (WOL) method was established in business a couple of years ago by John Stepper to leverage the idea of Social Learning through building trustful relationships.
For those who are not familiar with the approach, here are the quick basics and principles of WOL:
Growth mindset: Start off your circle with the mindset and attitude that everyone, no matter where and when in their life, can develop further.
Purposeful discovery: Select your own development goal which you want to discover in the next weeks.
Relationships: While working in the circle, start building relationships with people outside your circle that are connected to your development goal.
Generosity: Make contributions to these other people through appreciation and recognition of the work they do and by letting them participate in your development through sending them inspirational information around your development topic.
Visible work: Share your contributions through Social Media channels to make your development is more transparent.
Each week's meeting is structured by the so-called WOL circle guides which include information and exercises to help you build relationships.
Start now: If you do not already have a WOL initiative in your company, you can either join a cross-company WOL circle or even start it as a grassroot initiative in your company.
