The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love-letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on you life. Source: “Love after love” from Sea grapes by Derek Walcott. (1976)
Working out loud…..opportunities for an introvert in social media? (Nowhere to hide in the COVID induced online work spaces)
My present enthusiasms include doing (again, it is simply that good) the Harold Jarche course on personal knowledge management, PKM in 40 days , and reconnecting the concept of working out loud.
This is challenging, as the introvert in me screams for this process to be internalised, and screams for a completing of the work before it is shared. Small talk stresses me out, so the thought of working out load is scary. It’s easier for me to talk about the complete picture, not the work in progress. Working with people and in groups drains the energy from me. I sense a loss of control over my thoughts…I am just not good at thinking out load. And this is really challenging in the digitally-connected, online work environment that COVID-19 has imposed on us – you can’t really take time out and hope to keep up – you either engage in every moment or you lose the sense of things (and you don’t know who is actually looking at you!) The introvert in me didn’t anticipate that.
So, working out loud in the social media might offer some great opportunities…I can put my ideas out in the hope that others can help improve them without…well, without having to be social. Really? Well, it is really a different way to been social than the (team meeting, or face-to-face, or the social gathering) online meetings.
With social media, I can control the level of interaction and the pace of engagement. I can create the space I need to recharge the batteries.
I guess I can still be social…work out load…and not raise my anxiety too much. Thus create some time and space for ideas to develop.
This will be (fun) (interesting) (scary) …..sort of like throwing caution to the wind….being vulnerable….learning….
Learning? ……… Acceptable risk