Work is a never-ending real-time game. Do we ever stop ourselves to think of ways to enhance our skills through deliberate practice? Why not?
Because that takes you away from your day-to-day responsibilities?
Because that will stop you from hitting that sprint goal? That revenue goal? That deadline?
Everyone knows that people are unable to be fully engaged in what we label as ‘work’ for 40 hours a week. Instead of a YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram break, I recommend bringing in activities that help your team practice.
Growth explorations are one-way our team does this.
Every Friday from 4:00 pm-5:00 pm ET we have a meeting called “Growth Exploration”. The meeting facilitator rotates between the team every week. That facilitator is responsible for choosing a topic and bringing in 2 guests from outside of our team.
Topics do not need to be Jobber specific, and it’s entirely up to the facilitator. Once a topic is chosen, there is always homework that is assigned to the team. The homework for guests is optional.
An example of our description:
Hey all!! We are all getting together for our weekly growth exploration on Friday, tomorrow! Welcome to our guests GUEST 1 & GUEST 2
Growth explorations are a way for the growth team to get out of our daily work headspace and wrap up the week by talking about... anything. No really, anything. Sometimes we find action items, sometimes we don’t. The point is to learn and practice thinking with a growth mindset while adding the skillsets required to succeed in a variety of different positions. It’s also just a fun way to wrap up the week. We have homework that is required for the growth team to get done and optional for our guests. Simply fill in or create slides.
This weeks topic: INSERT TOPIC
Examples of topics we’ve done:
Good & Bad Sales Scripts
Business Pivots That Worked & Ones That Didn’t
Software You Can’t Live Without
What Are the Products\Services That People Pay For, Without Even Thinking About It?
What Game Would You Compare Jobber With?
Add One Feature to Any Product
Your Favorite Gmail Plugins
Typically, we run through the homework in the first 30 min. No discussion is allowed until everyone has presented their slides. Once done, we have a discussion. There is no right or wrong thing to discuss, even if our minds end up veering away from the homework. We allow the conversation to flow.
We look forward to this meeting every week. The meeting gives us a mental break from the work that is right in front of us and allows us the opportunity to practice a growth mindset.
Our team has run this meeting over 50 times, it never gets old.
Why invite guests?
Getting to know our colleagues
In many cases, we will never have the opportunity to meet some of our colleagues. Our paths simply don’t cross in our day-to-day. This is a great way to establish a relationship with colleagues from all departments.
They get to know us
Guests are introduced to the growth team, we state our mission and go through our homework. This allows our colleagues to get a feel for how we think & work. Having a better understanding of this allows for stronger relationships when our paths do end up crossing.
How do you practice work with your team?