Innovation Days
Do you bookmark webinars with the best of intentions, only to forget them in a long list in your toolbar? How cool is it that my team reserves two days per quarter to allow for professional growth!
My current organization invests in its L&D people by doing just that. Our Innovation Days on the Customer Education Services team can be used for professional development, team initiatives, or any priorities.
I keep a list of learning experiences I want to pursue. For example, my list includes catching up on some coding courses, studying agile methodologies, building my captioning skills, and contributing to branding templates for my group.
Most meetings are cancelled during these two back-to-back days, but we do a kickoff before and a debrief after where we share what we learned. The activities must relate to our roles in some way; I wouldn’t work on a new scuba certification during that time, for example (although I do want to pursue my drysuit specialty next!).
Taking uninterrupted time off to engage in professional development has been so helpful for my career growth. This is why I’ve enjoyed trade conferences so much; getting to focus entirely on learning new skills provides the space for deep engagement.
Setting aside time for innovation has been a great way to grow not only as individuals, but also as a team.
