At KBC they started working out loud as an experiment. What are the results? KBC shares his lessons learned.

4. • You constantly reflect upon what you have
learnt, what you know.
• You turn thoughts into language
(spoken or written).
• You share this knowledge via social
technologies (Yammer, Slack, IBM Connect, You
Tube, MS SharePoint, Newsfeed, LinkedIn,
Facebook).
KBC uses MS SharePoint.
By sharing knowledge and reacting to other
people’s posts you build up a powerful
network.

5. “Working Out Loud is more
than just about using technology.
It’s about helping people feel better:
empowered, generous, connected.”
John Stepper

6. More time.
Increased productivity
and social cohesion
Knowledge sharing
occurs more naturally.
Team limits fade out,
cross-silo communication.

7. More time
• Team meetings have become more efficient and
discussions are about real content. Background
information is now shared before the meeting.
• Knowledge flows faster,
so there is less ‘reinventing the wheel’.
• Know-how is exchanged more efficiently.

8. Increased productivity and social cohesion
• People get their questions answered faster.
• Sharing draft versions prompts good feedback, so the
final version is always better than that of a
‘one-man-band’ = co-creation.
• Employees grow in their jobs: they receive feedback
from more colleagues, and can appear from the most
unexpected corners of the organisation.
• It creates virtual proximity for home workers.

9. Knowledge sharing
occurs more naturally
Sounds like a paradox but by posting an addressee-less
message (an email needs an addressee to make it get some
where), your question will get to the right person sooner, and
not necessarily to the one you expected it to.

10. Team limits fade out,
cross-silo communication.
• People can easily find out what’s cooking in
different teams.
• Employees can interact with people they didn’t know
before.
“We are growing towards a more
network-based organisation.”

11. They prefer MS SharePoint to e-mail to
communicate with team members. They use
short messages (microblogging).
Everyone communicates and checks out
these messages at their own pace: begin-
ning or end of the day, or after a meeting.
Teams communicate more often with other teams.

12. It’s not the messenger who filters now,
but the recipient.
The messenger doesn’t know who is going to read the
messages.

13. Create a safe environment, a safe setting
Teach them how to master micro-blogging
specific language
Give them ideas about topics they
can write about
Teach them how to avoid information overload
Spell out what the expected behavior is
Experiment started as a bottom up initiative

14. Create a safe environment,
a safe setting
At a first stage people will only share knowledge
within their own teams, as well as with trusted
colleagues.

15. Teach them how to master
micro-blogging specific language
Sharing knowledge through enterprise social networks
requires a specific language. People were shown how to
master this “new” language. They were given recommen-
dations on the elements for a successful post.
In the beginning, people were asked to provide feedback
on each other’s posts (too long, too complex...).

16. Give them ideas about topics they
can write about
It isn’t always obvious for people to know what to write
about. “Who could find my knowledge interesting?”
A good starting point is:
• What are you doing now?
• What was the conclusion of the meetings you
participated in?
• Ask for feedback on a document not finished yet
(drafts, storylines, minimum viable products etc…).
• Share a link to an interesting blogpost, an article …
• Announce a delivery.

17. Teach them how to avoid
information overload
People were taught they should be cautious
about which people and what topics they want
to follow.

18. Spell out what the expected behaviour
is, even for (senior) management,
they should set the example.
Only this way can the expected
behaviour be made clear.

19. Some examples of the expected behaviour
as spelled out by KBC in their experiment.

20. Be brief
Be authentic
Be positive
Be present
Microblogs are short.
Use hyper links to elaborate on a subject.
When you are promoting a project
offline, don’t forget to mention it online.
Post about topics you want to be known
for.
Encourage people to respond postitively
on a post.
For less positive feedback, use other chan-
nels.
React quickly. Being present on social me-
dia is not ‘a to do’ to save up until the end
of the week.

21. Experiment started as a bottom up
initiative.
It’s a grassroots (bottom up) initiative whereby people are
inspired by seeing/knowing what other, teams are up to.
This is how the approach is spread across the organisation,
with no “pressure”, no “musts”.

22. Was this an easy thing to do?
Certainly not!
Even after 6 months, Working out Loud is not
self-evident. Filtering relevant information is
still difficult and e-mailing stays a persistant
habit. It remains an on-going experiment.