Making the Case for Sharing

Solving a problem at a level different than where it originated

The Brief Case 📚→ 💼 → 📊 →📈

Sometimes we like to imagine a social media feature that would help to govern the kinds of sharing that happens on various platforms. You have seen it and we have all added to it: the new job announcement, the humble brag, the not so humble brag. . .

Too often, social media posts are mere status games that fall short of what they could be — true professional sharing benefitting both the sharer (as an aid to reflection and an invitation to feedback) and the one shared with (as an aid to seeing a new angle, option, or possibility).

The feature we are dreaming about above would stop users from posting mere updates and, instead, ask them to list the three most important steps they took to achieve the update, to build the thing, to design the project, to land the job, to implement the program. Or, better yet, users would have to share the most important missteps and subsequent learning. Only then, when they had exposed some of the struggle, some of the creativity, some of the tests and iterations, some of the sawdust, would their post go live.

What we are after, on or off social media, internally and externally, is the sharing of good work and practice — not celebrating achievements, solutions, or conquests, but rather the work that led to those achievements, solutions, or conquests.

Sharing of this kind happens naturally in the lofty, academic corners of schools where attending conferences may be common and professional sharing flows somewhat freely. However, it should happen across the entirety of your school, too. In our own spheres, we have seen the benefits of sharing for people in roles as wide-ranging as