Team Lunch and Learns

Here at Perception Engineering, we are constantly expanding our knowledge to become professionals in everything that we do. However, in the engineering field, there are thousands of different types of manufacturing processes, design tactics, software, and techniques that can be utilized. Lunch and learns are a great way to dig into numerous new processes and ideas. A teammate chooses or is given a topic of study for an upcoming lunch and learn and is given the next few weeks to dive into that subject. The teammate then puts together a quick slideshow and presents this information to the rest of the team over lunch, hence the term lunch and learn. Lunch and learns are a great way to give some quick and knowledgeable insight on previously unknown topics in the field! This blog will be giving a quick overview of what lunch and learn consists of and how easy it can be for you to create one for your team!  

Lunch and Learn Break Down

The first step towards any lunch and learn is picking a topic. This can be a wide array of things, ranging from team training/improvement to new business processes. The list of topics is endless for the engineering field, but typically the topic chosen is one of interest to the individual personally or the company professionally. For this blog we will use the topic of my latest lunch and learn, importing to Solid Works.

What Information to Find

Lunch and learns are meant to be a quick, informative lesson held on a topic over lunch, so you don’t have all day to teach this newly found info. The type of information you want to find is a crucial concept, for lunch and learns you want to hit the important points of the topic. These are things such as the most common procedures, the most asked questions and their answers, or things commonly missed. For the example of importing to Solid Works, the information I found informative is what are the most common file types imported to Solid Works, what are the best practices of importing these files, ways to convert files to be Solid Works compatible, and new updates to Solid Works that allow you to import and work on non-native files.  

Presenting

Presentation of the topic is almost more important than the information itself. It is important to portray all the information clearly and effectively to give the best learning experience. Creating a quick PowerPoint presentation is a great way of getting the information across. Having some quick demonstrations of the processes that have been found on the topic can be extremely helpful. Demos are a great way to drive the point across on some hard to explain information. For example, on the topic of importing to Solid Works, I would have a demo on how to import a non-native file and then edit it quickly within Solid Works without having to recognize any features. This demo would help explain this process much more effectively than words ever could. 

Final Thoughts

Lunch and learns are a great way to dive into new topics.  With a little time and research during the week, new ideas and processes can be brought to life that can lead to many positive benefits for both an individual and the company. Also, lunch and learns are a great team building exercise. It gives an individual the time to share information with their team and teach them something they might not have known before. Overall, the decision to take part in lunch and learns can be very beneficial with expanding the knowledge of both an individual and the company.

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