Considerations when Recruiting for a Working Out Loud Circle

The following query from a lady called Clare was posted in the Working Out Loud Facebook group today:

“I'm keen to start a WOL Circle at work, which will be my first. Any suggestions on who/how I should invite to join? Advice very gratefully received.”

To which I responded as follows (it is fair to say I got into the zone addressing the question and it was good to write this stuff down from my WOL circle experiences this year hence now blogging/republishing the content here publicly):

 

Hi, Clare, welcome to this group. Channeling Poirot, I have found you on LinkedIn and Twitter. Looks like you are working for a global organisation. This may influence your approach to circle recruitment.

Some questions/responses to your question and I have gone wider - not a novelty. Hopefully this will help you.

I have tried and been successful twice in recruiting 2 global/virtual WOL circles which have been with people from outside my own organisation. My 1st was in Q1 and I am now in week 9 of my 2nd. Both were recruited via posts in this group and in public tweets.

I love the standard questions to ask about anything per capitalised headings that follow as a framework for discussion.

WHERE

Are you looking to do your circle as a physical in real life one or a virtual one? Or does that depend on who expresses an interest and where they are?

If virtual, do you have tools you can use at work? If not, I can recommend Zoom for video calls and Slack for communicating within the circle. Both have free options and are easy to use. Tools are not mandatory but does help with organisation (I am a type A project manager!).

WHO

Are there specific people you want to target re your peers, your peers and "above" or happy to ask company-wide all levels?

From my point of view, there is no issue having a range of levels of staff in a circle but I have never been in an in-company circle so culture should be taken into account. But the 2 circles I have been in have had a wide range of ages. experience and so on.

If you plan to do your circle in real life rather than virtually, this would focus your targeting to a specific office or offices.

A key challenge is getting people who will commit to doing all 12 weeks, doing the exercises and supporting each other over that period.

If you get to the point of having more people who want to do it than you can do in a single circle - you might be very persuasive! - what would you do then - say yes/no to people, or do more than 1 circle? - getting ahead of myself - may be ...

## 6 February 2021 update start for Justin ##

The ideal number for a circle is 5, 6 is a stretch. In the weekly meetings, 60 minutes goes very rapidly and it is usually a challenge to get the agenda covered in the time.

At time of writing I have just completed my 8th WOL circle. The recruitment for each of these has been as follows:-

• 6 were recruited by me via public invitations on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
• 1 was for John Stepper’s pilot Working Out Loud Self-Care Circles 2+ years ago. He recruited interested people and assigned people to specific circles.
• my 8th was via the Circle Finder service on the Working Out Loud web site: https://www.circlefinder.workingoutloud.com/ 

If I was recruiting for my next circle, I would do public invitations as well as creating a circle finder circle. I would also, potentially, invite specific people that I would love to do a circle with. For these invitations, I would include this WOL info page link: https://workingoutloud.com/en/for-you.

When I used circle finder I was amazed that the 4 places were taken in 48 hours after setup. I put this down to me being clear about what I wanted in my circle:

“I am looking to do a circle with others who are … . Ideally, I am looking for people who are … . I have done 6 circles and 1 of John Stepper's pilot WOL Self-Care Circles between 2017 Q1 and 2020 Q1. I love having diverse people in circles and it would be great to have other multi-potentialites in the circle. I would be happy for another member to facilitate the circle but would be happy to coach that person if that would encourage them to do so or even do the role myself. Another reason for me doing a circle is to work through the new version of the circle guides. I love learning online. For more on me, see my latest 50 Facts About Me (http://srjf.blogspot.com/2020/11/50-facts-about-me-q4-2020-edition.html). Whilst Monday evenings 19:30 to 21:30 GMT are my ideal slots, I am happy to review in the light of other people's availability.”

John has now started offering a WOL Circle Guided Experience. For pricing and details see https://community.workingoutloud.com/all-courses.

## 6 February 2021 update end ##

HOW

I assume you will facilitate? The circle guides are easy to use and anyone who is used to running any form of meeting can run a circle.

When I did this the first time, I simply went week by week through the guides, sending out a briefing note each week prior to the call with enough time for everyone to do the exercises.

My personal view is that each call/meeting is at the end of the week in question so people will come to it having read that week's guide and done the exercises.

WHEN

If you do this globally, a key challenge is to get a slot that works for everyone across the time zones. This is the WORST (!) part of recruiting a circle! I issue an xls with every half hour slot across a whole week in UTC time asking for people to mark in Green all slots they can do, Red when they can't (e.g. they are sleeping!) and Amber when they could do but not ideal. I have learned that I should not assume when people can make slots. I got some amazing availability slots from some people (you know who you are!).

I am torn as to whether to recruit people for a specific slot that you ideally want or recruit people first and then agree a slot. I have done both. The first worked better for me for my 1st circle but I had to cave in on my personal ideal timing for the 2nd.

Will you be running the circle in or outside of "normal" working hours?

WHY

Why are you wanting to do a circle and why should your colleagues want to do one with you? This is the key part of any communication to recruit people. It is definitely a sales pitch.

Is this the start of a corporate initiative if/when successful?

There are an increasing number of resources that you can use to inform people of circles e.g.

• John Stepper's TED Talk (video: 9m 49s)

• ZF Group interview with John (video: 2m 4s)

• ZF Group keynote by John (video: 57m 31s)

• podcast interview of John by Sebastian Hollmann and Ingo Stoll (audio: 1h 1m 53s - starts briefly in German but the rest is in English!)
• Working Out Loud web site

If looking to setup WOL Circles in your organisation, this doc may provide useful input to a “business case”.

I also did a "call to action" to “do" a circle as a comment on someone else's blog post that may also help.

WHAT

Just follow the circle guides. The latest versions are available via the “SIGN ME UP TO RECEIVE 12 EMAILS” button @ https://workingoutloud.com/en/for-youcircle guides. For a first circle or for circles with 1st-time circlers in I strongly advocate sticking to the guides so people get a "pure" untailored experience.

You will find that an hour goes rapidly. For this reason, I also personally advocate not doing exercises in the circle meeting but go through people's outputs, issues, queries from the exercises in the calls/meetings.
I hope some of this has been helpful. I do go on …

Happy to take further questions now or later any time here or private message.

I have a number of templates for some of the circle exercises, video on how to set up Zoom/Slack for running circles in etc that I can point you at if that would be helpful later.

Best wishes for recruiting and facilitating an amazing 1st circle!
…

 

There was then an additional response a few hours later …

 

Clare ... spooky timing ... on my 3 mile walk round the block at lunchtime today the random podcast playing on my iPod was the 2nd half of the 1st week's call of my current 2nd circle and some of the content was relevant and additional to my earlier response today ...

# the 12 weeks of a circle can be a challenge for some to block out the same weekly slot in their diaries over that time period - but this is a good duration to form habits

# flexibility to move the call/meeting week by week or stick to a firm date each week - just need to agree this up front collectively. I would advise holding the line for a fixed time each week for continuity. Even a 1:1 call can be helpful. Clearly, it would not be ideal if someone misses a majority of meetings!

# pros and cons of doing circles with friends and those you know well or know of versus circling with complete strangers where there is no history

# mentioned to you in a LinkedIn message earlier, I encourage people to publicise their WOL circle goal, if that is appropriate, ideally this would be completely public, as you will reach more people who may offer their help

When you record calls with Zoom it outputs a video file and an audio file automatically that you can then post anywhere appropriate. When I have used Slack for circles and virtual book clubs, it is great posting the video files of the calls in Slack so people can watch later if they were not present or replay as a reminder. Ditto with the audio files that are easier/safer to play on a driving commute!

I am always amazed at how much I miss in the live calls (a particular challenge for facilitators).