Open up at Inception Part of working in the open is accepting that we don’t know what others may be able to contribute to or when they would be able to jump in to help. By making your documents open at their inception, you put yourself from the get go in a mental state where you expect others to read and possibly participate whenever it makes sense for them, not just when you plan a formal review. In a way, you change how you perceive your own work. It’s a normal reaction to think that we can do better before getting feedback, which is why you may be tempted to wait until “it’s good enough to share”. But doing so may lead you to wait until very late in the creation process and you may actually never end up opening up for a variety of reasons. For example, you may have to go back and review the document to ensure you haven’t unconsciously added sensitive or classified information, which adds work and delays. Or, you may feel less receptive to feedback as you get closer to a final version of a document since you spent so much time aligning your ideas together and wordsmithing. As explained in our previous post, working in the open is a participatory approach which includes public reflection and documentation. The process itself is as important as the final document.