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Show Your Work

The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud

Jane Bozarth

Wiley, 2014

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Learning and development practitioner Jane Bozarth “shows her work” in this beautifully illustrated manual. Most people agree that in general the journey is as worthwhile as the destination. But when it comes to your work, other people generally see only your destination – your final product. People largely ignore the journey you took to produce the report, close the deal or complete the assignment. Today, online sharing tools enable you to display your processes as well as your final product. Showing your work’s progress facilitates learning for yourself and others, provides a platform for feedback and advice, speeds up communication, and improves productivity and collaboration. Bozarth provides case studies and examples buoyed by impressive graphics that make this a pleasure to read. getAbstract finds that learning officers, managers and employees in many roles will find substantial value in her argument for narrating your work.

Summary

“Show Your Work”

As a child, you probably had math teachers who admonished you to “show your work.” They wanted to see how you formulated your answers, and what mistakes or innovations you made along the way. Showing your work at the office, in effect, does the same thing. It allows others to see your process instead of only your final product. Organizations value documentation that codifies steps and processes. Yet people spend as much as two-thirds of their time at work on “exception handling” – dealing with problems, extenuating circumstances or information gaps.

Showing your work illustrates to others what you do, how you do it and how you react to challenges along the way. You can use spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and top-down reports to document your processes or provide information. You don’t have to share everything. Some knowledge and processes are proprietary and should remain so. Some work will interest only a select few of your colleagues; inundating others with information they don’t find relevant accomplishes little. A number of resources that are designed to serve specific purposes can help you decide what to show and where.

These easy...

About the Author

Jane Bozarth, e-learning coordinator for North Carolina state government, wrote E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring and Creating Engaging E-Learning with PowerPoint.

Show Your Work

The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud

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“Show Your Work”

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