15-Minute Fridays
It's common for leaders to spend over 15 hours a week in meetings, and when you add their other responsibilities, project commitments, and administrative duties, they find very little time for professional development. Both leaders and individual contributors often express frustration over not having enough time to enhance their skills and capabilities. Ironically, they recognize the necessity of dedicating part of their work week to learning. To address this need, we launched "15-Minute Fridays." As the name suggests, these were brief, virtual learning sessions held every Friday. The organization’s Learning & Development team facilitated these sessions, and volunteer facilitators from different business areas helped out. Some were experienced presenters, while others took advantage of this chance to improve their public speaking and presentation skills. The facilitators chose their own topics, and we provided them with a PowerPoint template, constructive feedback, and technical support during the sessions. The communications team promoted the upcoming month's topics and presenters through the L&D electronic bulletin sent to all employees, allowing plenty of time for them to schedule attendance at the sessions that interested them. To increase engagement with the organization's Learning Management System, facilitators shared links to additional relevant resources at the end of each session.