12 Ways to Work Open

Working open is about increasing our impact and getting more done — by making our work more transparent, agile and connected to the communities we serve. Here’s a dozen principles to get started. 

1. Think big. Have a mission, not just a bottom line. Tell a story about it that inspires others to help.
2. Start small. Iterate. Take small steps daily. Start with the Minimum Lovable Product; what’s the least amount of work you can do quickly to prove the concept and build momentum?
3. Embrace transparency.  Think, plan and communicate in public. Increase transparency to cut collaboration cost, simplify communication and build trust. Work in open platforms like collaborative documents, wikis, blog posts and issue trackers. Minimize email, never-ending meetings and back-channel.
4. Test early and often. Share early drafts, prototypes and works in progress. If you’re not a little embarrassed by it, you’re probably waiting too long.
5. Share. Set big ideas free. Make it easy for others to remix, localize and improve your work. Empower them to do things you can’t even imagine yet. Give something away to get something larger back.
6. Serve communities. Instead of “markets” or masses. Engage them as active collaborators, not just passive consumers. Go deep with small numbers of real people, instead of prematurely chasing scale.
7. Focus. Do less. Have the courage to say no to good ideas so you can focus on great ones. Find the sweet spot where your passions, skills and resources all overlap. Ruthlessly eliminate clutter.
8. Be agile. Don’t try to plan too far in advance. Embrace continuous learning and ritualized reflection. Design a little, build a little, test a little; rinse and repeat. Stay open to what works.
9. Hack dumb obstacles to collaboration. Route around gatekeepers, bullies and bottlenecks. Don’t ask permission. Embrace joyful insurrection.
10. Beware the bikeshed. Don’t get stuck in never-ending feedback loops. Not all opinions are useful. There’s no magic in “crowdsourcing” — crowds aren’t smart, communities of peers are.
11. Lead together. Push decision-making to the edges. Foster leadership everywhere. Strive for Minimum Viable Bureaucracy, permissionless innovation and Benevolent Do-ocracy.
12. Do good. Live and work our values. Take on Goliaths and gatekeepers. Use openness as a force multiplier for the forces of good. Build the world we want.