What is a skill development marathon?
Traditionally this is a program delivered in crash course or intensive training format over a certain period of time, often as a “30 days to success event ". Participants may select topics that they find relevant – from programming and design to life coaching and time management.
Marathon advantages:
- A structured approach: marathons offer a systematic syllabus that makes it easier for participants to follow the heading set, and not to lose their focus.
- Community support: taking part in a marathon often involves interaction with other participants thus creating an atmosphere of mutual support and motivation.
- A tight schedule: marathons are usually designed for brief timelines thus promoting fast mastering of skills.
- Diverse topics: participants may brush up or extend their knowledge in various areas making marathons attractive to a wide range of people.
How does it work in our case?
Colvir marathons differ from the canonical ones in that we have only adopted certain aspects thereof and have tried to implement them in our daily routine.
It is for the first time ever that this year we are trying out this approach.
What a Colvir skill development marathon is all about?
This is a program for developing different kinds of skills whereby one month is the timeline assigned for each new skill to be mastered.
How do we know what needs developing?
We are leveraging the outcomes of a large-scale poll to track engagement and job satisfaction levels, as well as their EVP (Employment Value Proposition, or basic conditions that are perceived as values), and to manage interaction among teams based on the poll outcomes.
What does usually happen during a month?
We always inform in advance of our event schedule, and of what skills will be developed in the coming month.
We usually share useful materials on our corporate channel, hold round tables involving a lot of hands-on practice, invite external experts in order to achieve greater immersion in the topic.
Thus, for example in April we held a meeting with an expert in learning foreign languages. We dedicated May to feedback culture development, and held a round table where everyone had a chance to test various tools in real-life scenarios. In June we were taking care of our interiority and our health in general, invited a whole food expert to a staff meeting, and conducted bioginnastica classes.
In July we worked on stress resilience development, learned what vital intelligence is all about, as well as tried out a new bioginnastica version that besides acting on the body also touches upon internal harmony (participants noted changes in their internal state which became calmer after the session).
We are not however going to rest on our oars, as our goal is permanent development that involves innovational practice implementation and mastering of new skills. This is exactly the way on top of adapting to the changing environment of our world one can stay ahead of one’s time. By perfecting oneself each one of us makes his or her contribution to the common cause, and together we are creating a future full of opportunities and success.