The Learning & Development team is rolling out learning programs to enable a culture of curiosity and continual learning. The learning initiatives are intended to provide a forum for team members to come together to learn about all of the activities taking place in the learning space, as well as hear from leaders internally and externally on various leadership topics.
Check out our monthly announcements for upcoming programs for team members.
We record our past initiatives so that we can share and revisit our programs over time.
Live Learning sessions will be conducted on a monthly basis. There will be a Zoom video conference set up for each session. Official dates and topics will be added to the schedule below as confirmed. If you were unable to attend a live learning session but still want to learn, check out our past live learning sessions below. At GitLab we give agency, but if you are attending Live Learning sessions, you will be asked to be engaged and participate with your full attention.
Social Learning is the cornerstone for how L&D designs, develops, and delivers live learning sessions. Social learning focuses on how team members interact with peers for just-in-time learning and skill acquisition through knowledge retention. Live learnings serve as an opportunity for team members to build relationships and a sense of community with team members. Social Learning occurs when team members come together in a virtual forum synchronously to learn from others through networking, breakout groups, storytelling, lessons learned reflection, and collaboration on solving scenarios with role playing. The live learnings enables learners to pull knowledge fro experts and peers within the organization instead of having knowledge pushed to them.
Example of a Social Learning Live Learning Session on Building High Performing Teams
Social Learning can also occur in GitLab's Learning Experience Platform - GitLab Learn and asynchronous forums using GitLab. (i.e. Manager Challenge)
The L&D team also hosts and develops a quarterly newsletter for the community.
Focus Friday's are a great benefit at GitLab. We try to schedule minimal meetings on Fridays to catch up on work and grow our skills professionally. Use Focus Fridays to take time out to learn. Team members can work with their manager through a career development conversation to determine what skills that want to grow in the future. Aspirations can be documented in an individual growth plan.
From there, identify what will be needed to attain the new skills and consider using the Growth and Development Benefit or expensing professional development opportunities such as coaching, worskshops, conferencces, self-service learning, etc.. Another option you can utilize to learn more is LinkedIn Learning. GitLab has a number of LinkedIn Learning licenses for team members. Block time off your calendar every week or month to devote to learning new skills. Share what you are learning with team members and in the #learninganddevelopment slack channel.
In a discussion with Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab, about his career development, Darren called out the importance of taking time out to learn, reminding the team that career development is "not something that comes around the fringes of work - it is work". The Take Time out to Learn initiative leans into this idea.
Consider documenting the steps you are going to take learn new skills in the individual growth plan. Check in with your manager and ask for accountablity from them to help you stay aligned with goals.
Learning campaigns at GitLab have an asynchronous focus and are used to raise awareness around a specific topic or set of resources. These campaigns are inspired by the structure of a learning challenge but without the required engagement or tracking. For example, the L&D team is using a learning campaign structure to host a mental health awareness week
Learning campaigns use a combination of GitLab issues and Slack announcements to raise awareness and spark discussion. Following the campaign, the L&D team will aggregate comments and resources that have surfaced and document in the handbook. Learning campaigns can be used to build buzz around a live speaker series or to start conversation about a common question or issue that GitLab team members are facing.
GitLab's Handbook pages grow every day. Each page serves as GitLab's primary source of learning and development material. Throughout FY22, the L&D team and the CEO will hold recorded interactive learning sessions to analyze Handbook pages. The goal of the sessions will be to incorporate more video-based learning into the handbook.
Three types of CEO handbook learning sessions:
The video below from Sid and L&D further explains the concepts:
Steps for L&D Team when setting up a CEO Handbook Learning Session:
Preparing for the Call:
During the Call:
After the Call:
The L&D team outlines a skill of the month for team members to learn more about a particular topic. This provides team members with direction about what topics to learn more about and where to find information on these topics. This initiative begins in April 2021.
This is the list of topics that were covered in FY22. Each skill of the month can be found in the Skill of the Month (FY22) channel on GitLab Learn.
This is the list of topics that will be focused on in FY23. Each Skill of the Month can be found in the Skill of the Month (FY23) channel on GitLab Learn.
The following process outlines steps for the L&D team to take when planning and implementing the Skill of the Month.
Anyone or any team can recommend a topic for the future! If interested, please fill out a Learning & Development Request template to begin the process.
Planning Issue Template: Open a skill-of-the-month issue template in the L&D General Project. Steps are outlined in the issue template.
This optional call occurs weekly on Wednesday and is a space for the People Group to check-in weekly on our own self-care practices. This initiative is currently in a pilot state and we're iterating on the best format. Other teams at GitLab should feel encouraged to adpot a similar call format if they are interested. Calm offers great blogs and articles about self-care strategies, and a webinar they hosted in March 2021 inspired the start of these weekly social self-care calls.
This call does not have an agenda because the intention is to hold a safe space where peole can speak openly without focusing on documenting discussions.
Call Structure:
