If nobody knows about your project, it’s your fault

Part of doing great work is letting people know how you did it.

It’s not enough to ship the final product, you also have to showcase it.

Especially internally on your team, department organization. Actively campaigning for your projects, plans and progress is equally as important as executing the work itself. Without doing so, you leave too much leverage on the table.

As the founder of my old startup used to say, people should’t have to ask what you’ve been up to. You are the chief internal marketer of your ideas. If nobody knows about them, it’s your fault.

Titanic comes to mind, the ship not the film. This boat was an extraordinary vessel that ran on coal energy. Crew members shoveled more than eight hundred tons of coal every day. That’s over a million and a half pounds. Every single day.

It’s no surprise, then, that the memorial of the crew members who perished in the crash had the following epitaph:

The work is vital, the labor is invisible and the work is an endless cycle.

Does that describe your daily labors? Does nobody seem to know what your worthwhile contributions have been because those efforts take place behind the scenes?

You’re not alone in that regard. Many of us are shoveling coal in the dark while most of the world only sees ten percent of our work.

As such, part of our responsibility as a creators, and more importantly a communicators, is to visually substantiate that remaining ninety percent. To enshrine our labors in three dimensions to amplify the intangible effort behind it.

Doing so accomplishes many objectives.

First, we reassure any skeptics that there was a steady hand directing things behind the scenes. This builds a timeline of credibility for our next project, and the project after that, and the one after that. Now that people have seen proof, they’re more willing to give you resources in the future to do it again. They’ll back your decisions about what to do next.

Second, by memorializing your process, you help people understand how your brain works. When your team sees how you got from point a to point z, they gain perspective on your unique creative process. Ultimately inviting them to collaborate with you more effectively in the future. Who knows? They might uncover a gap in your process where they can step in and improve it with their talents.

Third, when you visually substantiate where a given idea is along its development journey, people are more inspired to contribute to it. With every new dimension of your work that you share, you give people more permission to become part of it. Think of your showcasing the work as staining a beautiful piece of oak furniture. The finish magnifies the quality of the wood, and when people see themselves in the reflection, they’re inspired to use it.

Fourth, when you make the intangible effort behind the project visible, it’s an opportunity to acknowledge other people’s contributions. You can give them props for doing great work, without which the new thing wouldn’t exist. This brand of acknowledgement is a simple, free and easy way to be kind and thankful to your collaborators.

Look, shoveling coal in the dark is honorable labor. But without facilitating a visual understanding of what you do all day, you’re under leveraging your value. If nobody knows about your project, it’s your fault.

Ultimately, in a world where most organizational objectives are to minimize risk, taking the initiative to showcase your ideas and the process that led to them, not only makes you feel good, but it contributes to a culture of innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit of innovation.

Which makes everyone look and feel good.

How will you visually substantiate the invisible ninety percent of your work?