Blog: Beginning with open working

In my role, I do a lot of writing. Sometimes it's not obvious how much I write, because it rarely gets published under my name. But now - with Third Sector Lab - I'm committing to a programme of open working. This blog is about my personal work responsibilities, and I'm writing it as a worker in The Poverty Alliance, not as a spokesperson for the organisation.

This week, I attended the first session of the Open Working programme, and set some goals as part of my Open Working commitment:

1. I want to become a champion for this approach in our organisation.
2. I want to make what I do more visible for colleagues and others, so that they're better informed about how our communications function works, more willing to get involved in communications, and so that I can be more accountable to them for my work.
3. I want to show how The Poverty Alliance is a champion of a Values First approach to communications, and how that could help other organisations achieve the change they want to see.

Here are some of the things what I did this week to further those goals.

1. I read a background reading on Open Working that Robyn Barclay sent out to the programme participants before the New Year. I set some Open Working goals and worked on how I could structure and write my Weeknotes going forward. I
2. I created this week's social media schedule and shared it with colleagues. Annie McCormack, from our Taking Action on Rural Poverty programme, came back to me with three different ideas for communications content, and - after running it by my manager Ruth - I did some edits and created the first bit of content, a great blog from Annie that you can read here. I think that's a great example of how just being a bit more open about what I'm doing can prompt colleagues to get involved in communications work. I updated the Teams section of our website to welcome our newest member of staff - Dr Lauren Wilks, our Senior Research Officer, and we scheduled an hour-long session to introduce her to a Values First approach to communications. I did some research into BuddyPress and BuddyBoss. That's because I think we can make our training offering more visible to our members and others, and use our website as a place where members can communicate and co-operate.
3. I re-read a bit of new research that has been prepared for the Scottish Government around framing communications on a Minimum Income Guarantee. I did some early work on that topic as part of our series of Drawing A Line seminars, funded by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, and it's great to have seen Progressive Partnership take it so much further and in so much more detail. I'm looking forward to it being published.

Finally, I'm a great believer in communications being a team effort. Every bit of content I produce relies on the knowledge and expertise of others, in my own organisation and far beyond. So if you have thoughts or comments about my work, I'd be really happy to hear them!