HI
Several of the L&D Partners at Boots are looking to hold an inspiring Learning at Work Week in line with this campaign:
Why? Well to maximise the opportunity to help shift people's thinking on when and how learning can take place. Yes, I am talking about the view that you can't tick that 'I have developed myself' mental box, unless you have been on a course, or succeeded in completing and e-learning.
This is about sharing, connecting and inspiring each other.
To be open to the many ways we all learn and think about we ourselves learn.
I was wondering if any of you are doing something similar and/or whether you have any experienced something similar and would like to share!
Our theme for each day pretty much looks like this:
Day | Theme |
Monday | What makes you great? |
Tuesday | What makes you tick? |
Wednesday | Make it happen (taking ownership) |
Thursday | Push yourself more (move out of your comfort zone) |
Friday | Make a development promise |
We have many ideas, that fit into these categories from videos from senior stakeholders sharing what has been their best learning experience? and what is their best learning tip?... to a learning station that acts a signpost to all the activity.
Games which we use to explore many types of learning requirements e.g. Leonardoes Bridge
Plus the opportunity to use some basic models for self exploration i.e. Learning preferences, and we know our people love 'speed dating' techniques so we will use this to help connect and share.
I am just wondering if you creative genius' have any other inspiring ideas.
Greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Sarah
Replies
Hi Duncan, that sounds great. I especially like the idea of your drop in sessions. I hadn't thought of offering that but I think it's a brilliant idea and I'm going to see if I can do that as well! (Just need to check my diary.)
Ours is going to be low key compared to yours as I work in a manufacturing environment. Staff only get breaks off the line, so don't have long to spare. We have two competitions for them to enter, for which they will have to think about their learning experiences. One will build into a poster. They have to add a post-it describing a learning experience that fits under one of a number of headings - each heading is a different style of learning opportunity eg team learning, self learning, formal learning, informal learning. The other comp is to fill a short questionnaire describing their best learning at work experience - top prize to be judged by a panel.
There are posters about the brain and how we learn, also about famous psychologists and people who have helped us discover what we know and their work. There will be a lap top with a video loop on, and another with some brain teasers on. More posters about the training we have provided or can provide. A whole load of info about our new feedback loop and what we will be doing with the results. (VFM, FFP, ROE, ROI). A handout with info on our L&D process. A survey for our OTJ trainers and assessors. A number of other handouts about adult learning, accelerated learning and various other things that they might find interesting.
We are manning the stand at lunchtimes with various willing volunteers...and of course we have the giveaway branded biros....and now hopefully lots of drop in sessions in case anyone wants more info or personal advice. (I'm not in the office this morning so will need to check my diary when I get there later.)
As you can see it was good fun.
We have learnt a lot about our staff from doing this event. I am putting together a little bit of feedback to present to our SLT. I'll put the key points here when I have finished analysing all the info.
Ah, forgot I can only add one photo when using the iPad, never mind, it'll do for now.
ok so we're in Learning @ Work week for most people. How's it going Sarah and Duncan? Hope all your planning has paid off and you are having a successful event.
Ours starts next Tuesday (after the Bank Holiday) and runs for a fortnight! There were too many other things going on to start "on time" and if we don't run it for at least a fortnight, we don't give all our shifts the opportunity to participate. I had to make a decision on the timing and this one felt right for us.
We have been running off posters, ordering pens to give away (all the official L@W ones were sold out), buying balloons to draw attention to the stand which will be in the canteen and planning the logistics. The event is now well advertised with posters in all the main corridors (put up today) and also a slide on the plasma screens.
Two more days left to compile all the resources before the weekend. I've managed to get plenty of buy in so I'm looking forward to a useful event. I'll take some photos to share with you :)
HI Alison
We have postponed ours to the 9th June, so it fits in nicely within current context of the business. However, I am really looking forward to it. I have been looking at what has been happening across the nation and there has been some fantastic pieces.
I like the National Numeracy challenge that De Monfort University were signing posting. That is great for life long learning. They also have signposted access to a Management toolkit through a consortium.
I also like the fact that they were also doing many activities from a talk on the 'unconscious bias' to a 'Creative Project exploration' http://www.dmu.ac.uk/dmu-staff/people-and-organisational-developmen...
The numeracy and management toolkit were on offer on the national L@W website. Sadly they are only available for this week. We have sent the management toolkit link out with a note to our whole site, so if anyone is keen they can have a go.
Funny - you told me about the event and we'll be doing ours before you now. I am quite pleased I'm not the only one who has changed the running dates though. I can make it sound like it's a fine thing to do on the basis that "I know of others" who have also done that!
De Montford's timetable of events is impressive! Thanks for the link. :)
Hi both, nice to hear your news!
Learning @ Work Week is now half way through for me and it's going well. We have had top billing on the intranet site and a daily story is running with a learning related theme each time. We are running drop in sessions throughout the week (one around PDPs and ensuring these don't just rely on forma learning, one around our new learning model which launched in Jan and one around the tools and resources available across the business that support learning)
We have had a stand in each site, in a prominent area with high traffic and man this at lunch times. Learn Direct are also helping out, promoting vocational qualifications.
Attendance levels to the drop in sessions have been mixed, but we do have a good proportion of people managers attending and I feel that if we can engage them then they in turn can help get their teams on board.
We've received some really positive feedback, some less so - the latter highlight that people are still very hung up on the idea that you need to spend a day in a classroom to develop. But, the longest journey starts with a single step as they say...
All the best with final planning and prep for your events, I look forward to further updates!
Hi Duncan
I agree some mindsets taking longer to change than others. Sounds like you have had a great week. I would love to hear about your learning model - if you are every up for a chat!
All the best for the rest of the week.
Sarah
I wonder as Learning at Work Day has become Learning at Work Week it will ever become Learning at Work Year and then Learning at Work Everyday All day ;)
Great thread, we'll use this discussion in the lead up to the event and try and get some more ideas shared about what people are doing - we'll use it a headline on the Community update in the next few weeks :)
That's the plan... right?
We are saying - we don't have that culture currently, aren't we?. We may have small pockets of people, teams - may be even departments. But a learning culture? No we don't have that.
The dream is to change that. Start a movement, start somewhere, start with one, start with many - but start to change it.
I think personally our people are probably the most receptive to this concept, than they have ever been. We just need to take the opportunity and push them further.
Great idea Mike, the more ideas the better.
Love this. Count. Me. In
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