People in your rapidly growing company are working at a hectic pace. They love the brand and are proud to give it their all. But they'll run out of energy (and the company will flounder) if you don't keep feeding their passion and purpose.
Don't let them starve!
Everyone's in a time crunch. But they still have to eat, right? Here are three reasons to bring back the lunch-and-learn—and how to get a bunch out of lunch.
1. Make your training investment go further: it will be the best thing since sliced bread
Many companies invest heavily in training. But often, when employees return to the fast pace of daily work, the lessons learned and resolutions made can quickly grow stale.
Gather colleagues together a month after a seminar and have the attendees present what they learned. It's an efficient way to refresh and reinforce their past training—and it's a surefire way to spread these new ideas to others inside the company.
2. Like chicken soup: knowledge sharing heals a lot of ills.
A bring-your-own sack lunch with a flexible agenda for guidance will feed more than hungry stomachs. A chance to inform and discuss across departments can break down silos and warm up some frosty relationships.
If you plan well, your lunch-and-learns will become a forum that breaks up logjams and uncovers new ways to serve customers better.
Happy is as happy does.
3. Don't forget the dessert: sharing successes is a sweet reward
In the rush to meet production demands, satisfy service needs and get things "done," it's easy to put off celebrations for a more convenient time. A lunch-and-learn is a terrific opportunity to step back and relish the results of your labor.
If you have multiple locations or departments serving different vertical markets, this is especially important. You must find ways to help everyone throughout the company hear about the wins and cheer together. It's the chocolatey goodness at the center of your brand.
A few parting thoughts
- Don't let distance stop you. You might need virtual lunch-and-learns. Consider using Skype or a Google Hangout. Can you post them on your intranet? Even better.
- Don't just do an hour a month. Take it even further. One fast-growing company I know has developed an annual 3-day internal conference that serves these needs and more. It's impressive.
- Whether it's PB&J or prime rib, getting employees together regularly for bonding and training delivers employee engagement and ROI that sticks.
Make mine crunchy! If you need help creating a good internal training program that fuels your brand, call Martha at 785.969.6203.
Tags: purpose, internal brand, training, silos
