How to Run Successful Lunch & Learn Events? Complete Guide

“Lunch & Learn” events are training sessions, voluntary for people, or presentations that take place during lunchtime and where food is provided by the employer or by the organisation. So, They bring people together from companies or organisations to collaborate to learn, improve skills, and develop leadership. 

WHAT’S IN IT?

What is a lunch & learn event?

Lunch & learn are also known as “Brown bag” Brown bag means when a person packs his lunch for work. Also, Brown bag originally referred to employees who bring their lunch in brown bags. Hence, It’s an informal opportunity for employees to learn something and improve their skills. 

If you attend the launch and learn event then you probably learn, improve or believe something.

Here are some essential things you should know about it.

Each session lasts for 30 and 45 minutes. People call it lunch and learn because it takes place during lunch. During this session, employees learn and improve their skills, which is very useful for their growth. Like, Fitness skills, drawing, reading skills, and many other things. 

If you’re thinking about how you could do that during your lunchtime, it’s simple. So, Most of the companies give 30-45min. For lunch to them and if you eat your lunch in 15-20min. You still have 15-20min. To improve your skills, you can eat your lunch after the sessions or before it.

Also, People bring together people from across their organization. Hence, By getting more people in it, the more healthy or problem-solving environment it can be. So, More ideas will come; more discussion will happen. 

How it happens and the Purpose of lunch & learn.

If you watch movies and shows, you may understand what it is because of that picture. Also, I must tell you; It’s not about a bunch of junkies (drug users) that they show most of the time. 

Sometimes people come because they want to talk or want to tell their problems, and sometimes people come with the ideas they are trying to do while other people support them. 

A lunch and learn program is a 30-45 minute training or presentation session facilitated by an organisation to employees during a lunch hour, and acquiring an easy way to develop and motivate employees while creating a workplace of communication, collaboration, and learning. 

Why do employees do that?

So, The organization provides an amicable, collaborative choice to traditional “top-down” or classroom-based learning. In this way, it encourages learning and prepares them to be knowledgeable.

Also, They start to feel confident and begin to trust themselves. This can help or improve teamwork and provide a relaxed atmosphere. Lunch & learn sessions offer flexible time, which means it doesn’t take their work time. 

So, employees come, share their ideas or even problems, and talk about what they are best at, and others tell them to do what they are best.

Use Light topics.

So, Always Try to cover light topics between lunch hours. You should know that it’s their lunchtime and want to have fun and not want to work. Because of that, always try to cover light topics, don’t let them feel that their time is wasting. 

Here are some examples of light topics- 

a) Bookclub: Ask everyone to read the same book for months and then meet and discuss their direct messages and what they think. 

b) Informative talks and lunch: It’s an excellent idea for lunch and learns sessions. Also, many opinions on the internet could be helpful if you use them in your lunch

c) Cross-training: Invite staff members to train other staff members on day-to-day lunch timing; Hence, it’s an idea for people working in the same company but in different departments. 

Energetic in Afternoon time:

They all know that eating right is Good, but most don’t eat healthily in day-to-day work and find themselves lazy. But still, how to be energetic is a question to them. So, To be honest, It’s not rocket science, and it just depends on what you eat. Eat healthily and do exercise 3-4 days a week, and you will find yourself more energetic. 

Teach time management and deadline management.

People are bad at managing time; whether within their personal or professional lives, managing time and meeting deadlines are essential for employees to learn. Planning out a workday and successfully achieving that goal on-time helps to reduce stress. If employees do their work on-time, they secure their job and have more time to develop professionally or personally. 

Effective time management is also beneficial to yourself and your boss, or you have a business because when service reps meet a daily quota and you do more work. By that, you will observe immediate success and happiness. 

Know how many people are coming.

The first thing you should do is decide whether it’s for targeted people (especially if you invite them) or open to everyone. 

You ask people to respond quickly in both cases to know how much people will be coming and plan accordingly. 

Choose an appropriate venue for it.

Try those areas with eating facilities, Café, breakout spaces, canteens are more popular venues for lunch and learn events. 

Sometimes, you may choose to go off-site. If so, research and know if that place is noisy or not and double-check your Venue and book it in advance. 

How many times in a month?

In most of the organisation, lunch and learn program are conducted regularly. For example, weekends or weekly Friday are more popular for light topics. 

But if your sessions are more about improving skills or business-oriented, Monthly meetings will reduce the learning. 

Is it beneficial?

Most of the people or say employees don’t even know about lunch & learn events. They are missing the most important and unique thing to improve their skills. 

Lunch and learn is an easy way to develop and motivate employees while creating a workplace for employees, collaboration, and learning. The session may also cover important topics or issues and promote an open, informative platform for employees. 

How to make lunch and learn more engaging?

 It is all about people who have or may haven’t even met before, and they talk about their ideas, improve their skills and talk about problems, but the question is how to make it more engaging? 

At lunch n learn, ask people to tell jokes about the funniest jokes they have ever heard or have a drawing Competition or give them colour books or offer them to make themselves a meal. 

Ask them to dance with strange people. It’s more fun and mind relaxing. 

What should we serve for lunch and learn, or what should we order something for them?

It’s tough to decide what we should serve to people if you make a meal for them. You don’t know what they like, what they are allergic to. Here are some ideas or snacks that you can always serve. 

You can always go for healthy food by telling how much it benefits them or giving a little bit detail of that food why you are serving that one, especially today. 

Surprise them: I said it because people love surprises. Offer the meal that they never expected from the organisation. Like- Servings wine, with a loaf of toasted bread and chicken or anything. 

Order pizza sometimes, and we know everybody loves pizza. 

Go for sushi sometimes, order burgers and Sandwiches. 

But mostly try to cook for them or tell them to prepare for people. It’s the best way to create a healthy atmosphere. If you still sometimes don’t know what to cook or serve, just ask them. By this, they feel at home and see that you care about them. 

Conclusion

Lunch & learn is an easy way to improve your skills and learning process. You develop yourself in this period. An organisation for employees holds it. Employees volunteer in it to grow and talk about the ideas they have. The organisation provides a very healthy and friendly atmosphere for the employees to enjoy their lunchtime and learn something. 

If you are going to an organisation Lunch and learn, make sure you use Light issues. They don’t want to stress out, and they want to enjoy their lunchtime. So, always choose light topics. 

Give them tasks with a deadline. This way, they learn to know how to utilise time; in day-to-day work, time management is essential. Don’t manage your time or yourself and see how much messed up you will be. 

If you’re going to organise lunch and learn, always know how many people are coming. Prepare meals for them or tell them to cook for people and bring them. It’s vital, so you don’t miss things. 

The first thing you need to do is understand why you are doing this and organise it accordingly. 

Also, you can read our blog on How to Start a Day -Manage Morning When You’re Not a “Morning Person”

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