The New Corner Office: DIY lunch and learn

Learn new skills on your lunch break

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work, where location and hours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to have
do it yourself lunch and learns. Lots of workplaces have

(00:26):
lunch and learned series for employees who want informal development opportunities.
The usual format is that people grab lunch from the
cafeteria or gathered for catered sandwiches and here from an expert.
I imagine in the future a lot more of these
lunche and learns will be virtual. My husband's employer actually
sent lunch to our house the other day for one

(00:47):
such webinar, but not everyone has explored that possibility yet.
In any case, if you're working from home, you can
replicate the lunch and learned format and make these learning
opportunities even more tailored to your taste then your employer would.
If you're working at home alone, do it yourself Lunch
and learn can be a great way to switch the
day up a bit too. In a recent podcast, I

(01:10):
suggested taking advantage of the many webinars that are being
offered follow interesting people on Twitter or Instagram, and many
will mention what they're offering to their followers. You can
watch webinars as they're happening, and you can often find
archived recordings of webinars too. TED talks can be another
great option for lunch and learns. They're fairly short, so

(01:33):
you can fit one or two into even the shortest
of lunch breaks. They are driven by ideas, so they
can be great for broadening your perspective on your work
and your daily life. Search to see if there's a
talk by one of your favorite thought leaders, or use
playlists to direct you to sets of talks on topics
like finding common ground, working from home, or avoiding burnout.

(01:55):
You can also sign up for TED recommends to get
personalized suggestions. See if a colleague wants to join you
in watching one, and then you can trade thoughts afterwards.
Lots of people say they'd like to read more and
do it yourself. Lunch and learns are a great opportunity
for reading books or articles that relate to your work.
Audio books can be attractive if you're concerned about getting

(02:17):
pasta sauce on the pages. Your public library may allow
you to check out audio books and listen to them
on your phone or other devices. If you'd like more
structured to your learning, you might enjoy enrolling in a mook,
a massive open online course. You can find free courses
on topics ranging from unconscious bias to public speaking. Carve

(02:39):
out a break in your schedule, like from noon to
one pm to watch the instructional videos and do your homework.
With all the great options available for do it yourself
lunch and learns, you might find it helpful to keep
a document on your computer with ideas, links to ted
talks or webinars to view books and articles, to read
mookes to take a topics you'd like to explore, even

(03:02):
if you don't know exactly how yet, then when you
sit down for lunch, you've got choices ready to go.
In any case, it's wise to step away from your
work for a little bit and think about something besides
what you've been working on since nine am. Creating structure
for downtime increases the chances that we do something besides

(03:23):
panic reading headlines or scrolling through social media. People take
breaks anyway, so it's best to do it consciously in
the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's
the succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New Corner

(03:45):
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