<aside> ❌ big reveals
</aside>
<aside> ❌ PR-style spin
</aside>
<aside> ✅ short, frequent updates
</aside>
<aside> ✅ accepting things don't always go to plan… and being comfortable about acknowledging that
</aside>
Working in the open is about communicating in short, frequent updates. One part of the story at a time, as the story/the work happens and unfolds.
It's not about the PR-style spin and searching for ways to make something sound better, more impressive, or shinier than it is. Instead, it’s about accepting that things will not always go to plan, and being comfortable about acknowledging that.
It’s important to have control over telling our own story because if we don't tell it, we run the risk of other people filling in the gaps in our narrative.
Think about the assumptions people may have about technology, digital, data, public services in the Welsh public sector. It's important we keep on working in the open and showing people the changes that we are driving and supporting.
Working in the open – blog posts, social media, weeknotes, show and tells – has helped us build trust between ourselves and our colleagues, stakeholders and communities.
It gives us the opportunity to show our work while it’s in progress, including the things we’re finding difficult and the things that haven’t gone to plan. This sort of authenticity can go a long way towards building trust because people tend to respect those who are humble, who show they are thinking, admit they don’t know everything, but are committed to learning.
Working in the open gives us the chance to get our work under the noses of people with expertise in other parts of the public sector, outside of CDPS. And this helps massively with governance because:
Step 1: Set up your profile
Sign up to LinkedIn, you don’t need a username for a LinkedIn account – just your name and email address.
You will be asked for a ‘headline’ which appears under your name on your profile, this can be something as simple as your job title e.g. ‘User researcher at CDPS’.
Make sure to include CDPS as your current place of work in the ‘experience’ section and to include a profile picture (a clear, full colour headshot or selfie works best). If you have one, you might want to use your CDPS headshot.
If you’d like to include a banner image, we have one you can use here:
Step 2: Create your own ‘About’ section
Keep this section short and sweet. It could be a simple introduction of yourself, with some of your skills, some details of your current role and how to get in touch.
For example:
“Hi I’m Elise!
I’m a Communications Officer embedded in the Learn Digital Skills and Connect with other Digital Professionals services at the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS).
I support with creating bilingual content for our training courses and the promotion and running of our knowledge-sharing events.
DM me to get in touch!’
Step 3: Start posting!
LinkedIn is a great place to connect and share with other professionals. Repost content from the CDPS company account with your own thoughts, or follow our guide to support you to create your own content.
<aside> <img src="/icons/feed_purple.svg" alt="/icons/feed_purple.svg" width="40px" />
Take a look at Liam’s post about the Designing Digital Experiences Community of Practice:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7139901657349267456-GVuA?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
This post created a HUGE spike in sign ups for the community of practice, a lot of which were new to our events and communities.
Ruth shared a video on her experiences so far as a UCD apprentice:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ruth-garner-84b870209_i-am-so-grateful-to-have-this-experience-activity-7137426985030475776-5fMR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Gabi shared an article reflecting on a year at CDPS:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7151577682487517184?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A(V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7151577682487517184)
</aside>
In our show and tell, we were asked about when and how many times is good to post to LinkedIn. Our answer is: whenever, and however often suits you! We don’t want anyone to feel pressured to post more than they have time for and at times that don’t work for them. Generally, it’s best to post on a weekday as that’s when most people are active on LinkedIn.
Stuck for what to post? Here’s a list of some ideas of what you could share:
Summary posts perform well on LinkedIn. This is when you collect all your thoughts into one post and publish around 4pm when the event closes. Or you post a throwback post a few days later (#ThrowbackThursday is a personal favourite!)
You should include:
CDPS example: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7172984848242974722
TikTok style videos also create a very high number of engagements. If this is something you’d love to do but unsure on how to go about it, I’d be more than happy to help.
CDPS example: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/centre-for-digital-public-services_throwbackthursday-defnyddiwrgymraeg-cynwysoldeb-activity-7191768424597880832-Vptq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Usually, presenters mention the event’s hashtag at the beginning of the day, be sure to include this within your posts.
Hashtags help your posts gain more visibility. You don’t have to use them, but if you’d like to we’ve put together a list of some general, frequently-used hashtags below. We recommend choosing around 3 to use per post. Always use ‘CAPITAL’ letter to differentiate words in your hashtag.
Internal show and tells can be set up by yourself or your team. We suggest using MS Teams and inviting staff by using the ‘CDPS Staff’ tag / list when sending the calendar invite.
Internal show and tell presentation decks do not need to be bilingual.
If you would like to record the show and tell to share with anyone that missed it internally, please hit record on the session and share with a member of the comms team to be uploaded as privately to YouTube. If you would like to share the recording externally, slides must be bilingual.
To set up an external show and tell, please put a request in the #commssupport Slack channel, with as much notice as possible, ideally at least 3-4 weeks to allow plenty of time for promotion, translation and design support.
The team will set up a Teams or Zoom meeting and open registrations from the website, as well as promote to our events subscribers and social media platforms. To help with this, it’s important to share a few bullet points on what you’ll be covering in the session.
Sessions can be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel to share with anyone that signed up and might have missed the session.
Because we don’t know the language preference of those attending our show and tells, all of our external show and tell presentations should be fully bilingual, with the Welsh appearing before the English. Slides must also receive a design 2i from the Comms team. Meeting and event attendees should be given the option to contribute in their language of choice
Where possible aim to provide a Welsh interpreter for our external events, to give Welsh speakers the opportunity to contribute in their language of choice.
It's also important not to separate Welsh and English when it comes to questions at show and tells.
Making show and tells interactive means people aren't being talked at, people will be engaged for longer and you're more likely to get feedback and questions.
Think about:
This could be anything from feedback on project work, taking part in a poll or running a quiz.
Online tools
You can use free online tools such as Slido, Miro, Mentimeter or HubSpot surveys to create activities your audience can get involved with.
We have CDPS accounts with all of these.
A simpler option to keep the audience engaged can be to use reactions within Teams or Zoom.
