We were chatting about a creating a series of bite size content that the wonderful Ady Howes and Lucy Bolton will be putting together over the next few weeks and coming months.
We were trying to think of a catchy name (which will be revealed shortly) and the conversation went on to discuss the length of time it would be etc
It reminded me of something I had read a while ago from Julie Wedgwood on an initiative called Find15. The premise is very simple - she provided her team with 15 minutes per day to dedicate to learning. That's 75 minutes per week.
Julie explains
"In large corporates, I’ve run Find 15 marketing campaigns to raise awareness of Find 15 and to encourage staff (and their line managers) to participate. However, one of the best ways of getting this adopted is simply to talk about it. After all, look at the numbers:
15 minutes per day = 75 minutes per week
Assuming 200 working days per year: 15 x 200 = 3,000 minutes
3000 minutes / 60 minutes = 50 hours
50 hours / 7.5 hour working day = 6.66 days
What employee wouldn’t want over six full working days-worth of personal development every year? Many managers would not really notice if 15 minutes were deducted from the working day: if you think about how long staff can spend making drinks for each other or having corridor conversations, time is often frittered away without anyone noticing."
It seems simple and of course 15 minutes doesn't seem like much but actually you can use 15 mins really productively when it comes to learning. Julie has plenty of hints and tips to share on how to use Find15 in your organisation - or even just you individually.
Check out the resource here for more info JulieWedgwood - Finding Time For Learning
How could you use 15 minutes a day to develop your knowledge and skills?
Post your ideas in comments below
PS. Watch out for some great content coming soon to help you with your 15 minutes of learning per day :)
Replies
Love the idea of 15 minutes a day. Recently I've been lucky enough to capture a few short ignite sessions, many lasting just five minutes. You can fit three of these into 15! Check me with the maths!
This link has one that's a bit longer, a poem, and there's links to others on there too. By the way, if anyone is up for creating one of these, do let me know!
http://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/creating-amazing-workplaces
I ran a series of 60 min sessions for Somerfield supermarkets just before the Co-Op take over in 2009. they were called "Lunch and Learn". a 60 min session half in company time and half over lunch. we ran two sessions back to back with the organisation providing a light lunch. They were well subscribed ever time and were on a series of general business issues, difficult conversations, giving feedback etc.
How could we use this approach over 15 mins. 7.5 mins either way is not practice but demonstrating some employer commitment will undoubtedly increase engagement. so providing space, material, and a spot of lunch would be good. And of course the conversations with line managers post training to support new learning.
P.S Hi Blake hope all is well and business is good.
We have a similar programme for one of our clients. They have limited budget and resource so they are running monthly 45 minute sessions introducing them to personal development and management topics. It's not the end of the learning but the start and sparks further thinking.
It's a great concept and its so achievable. The key thing is to make it a habit so that it's done on a daily basis.
Definitely - reminded me of this post as well by someone you may know :)
It sounds simple of of course the reality is quite different!
http://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/make-time-for-15-minutes-of-lear...
Some good info here on habits for anyone interested
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/18-tricks-to-make-new-hab...