In this article author is explaining the benefits of the learning with lunch.
In every organizations there is enough work for their employees as work is a not ending process, so we all are getting busy with our work/deliverables after entering into the office, doesn't matter where do we work. We may not be overloaded but enough amount of work is always there, as long as we are not in a transition phase or on bench.
The way technologies are getting advanced doesn't matter from which domain you are, you should be always ready to learn and adopt these new technologies to be more productive and valuable. I have seen people who are simply struggling for their job's survival, it's not because they are getting panic with new cool stuff, but after routine office work they are not able to manage their time to learn these new things. I agree that there are plenty of trainings happen in every organizations time to time, but it's really impractical that while you have enough deliverables in your plate with some strict time-line, you will be allowed to attend these trainings. So how to fill the knowledge gap of an associate, and the answer is Learn At Lunch.
Learn at Lunch has several advantages.
- to keep updated the team/associates with knowledge exchange
- to motivate the team with nice lunch
- Networking within the team/organizations to refresh/boost the team
- Speaker from one of them, will polish their interpersonal skill
We all have heard a very famous saying that - "Reaching a person's heart is through his stomach" and same applies with employees as well!
Nice lunch actually motivates people to join the 'Learn at Lunch' program, and sometimes can be implemented as 'share your lunch-box', where employees are asked to bring their favorite food and share across the team. As an organizer please ensure that food should not be something which feel them tired, sluggish, and unable to get work done after eating. It should be a healthy and nice meal. It's an investment which every companies should do on their employees as employees skill-set is the core strength of any good company.
It is very important to understand that it's a 'Learn at Lunch' program so ensure that it should not exceed the lunch time as there might be employees who have high deliverables and can't continue beyond lunch time. Poll to the audience about topics which they want to learn, apart from the upcoming/new technologies/tools which should be part of this program by default. The topic in this program could be anything but should be delivered in an interesting way as enjoyment of lunch should not get away.
For any new/upcoming technologies there could be an expert within the organization who can take the call as a speaker, but employees should be motivated enough to take the call as a speaker. This kind of culture will produce more confident and interactive employees.
Even I encourage that team meetings (if not a scrum team) should be placed at coffee-time and should be named as 'Meeting@Coffee', as most of the time people get bored during meeting. Almost all companies are providing the tea/coffee so it could be a nice idea.
Last but not least, Team manager should motivate their team to participate in this kind of program and would be good if they will take the leadership to start one.
Adopting this culture will definitely energized the team with advance skill-set.