Our Web3 Day Taught Us That Learning at Work Is Important.

Often, companies and employees alike see learning as something extra to be done outside of work hours. This may include going to an expensive conference, forgoing time with family and loved ones for a chance at learning something new, or simply checking off a mandatory box.

But what if this learning happened right at work?

What if teams used a day per month, or even per week, to learn something, and share that knowledge with their team?

Imagine: you’re back in school, and you have to read a book that looks pretty boring. Your task is to write a (probably equally as boring) 3-page analytical essay on it. Sure, you’re “learning,” but you aren’t engaged. You aren’t excited. You didn’t pick this topic, and you have no external motivation to learn about the topic if your grades weren’t relying on this assignment.

Sure, you might end up liking the topic after getting out of your comfort zone, reading the book, and embracing the topic, but 90% of the time, it’s the former.

If you hate math, but love science fiction, and you have a choice between a math test and a fun new book with wizards and aliens — you’d be crazy to choose the math test.

Now, think back to another project where you chose the topic yourself, and picked out something you’re genuinely interested in — perhaps for a senior thesis or some other project outside of class.

Our chosen projects are often infinitely more interesting and engaging when we’re talking about a topic we are passionate about — this is human nature.

Now, back to this. How can we spark excitement about learning at work?

It’s simple, choose a broad topic — our topic of choice is Web3, since our company’s mission is to build a crypto-wallet-based messaging app!

Everyone on the team takes the day to learn about a topic related to Web3 with no exclusions, as an open-ended task.

For example, a backend engineer could explain what they do in a day to the other team members, giving them more clarity and understanding of their day-to-day, inviting collaboration and understanding, or, the same engineer could research into the effects of memes and virality in token and NFT sales.

The key here is flexibility. In giving people a space to research and explore a concept they’re interested about, and allowing them to explain it to an audience of their coworkers, it’s a net positive for all ends.

The chosen individual gets to learn more and research something they’re interested in — all during work hours, and on the work end of things, it can help them gain more industry knowledge that will allow them to do their jobs better, and also learn some things they may not have otherwise learned.

By teaching others, it helps everyone else cement in the topics, after having to teach others. And finally, the rest of the team reaps the rewards of learning something new, taught by a coworker, related to their industry, and which may spark a new interest or understanding.

It’s important to embrace the differences between teams when learning. For example, your social media lead may give off an animated presentation, but you shouldn’t expect the same from your introverted web dev. That’s the beauty of allowing people with different expertise and background to teach others!

It’s important to let everyone teach in a way that comes naturally to them. So many of us on the team had no engineering, coding, or general tech experience, yet we were captivated learning about these topics when explained by our coworkers.

The no-pressure presentation style really helps with it all, especially for the visual learners out there. Being able to see coding, app development, and smart contracts in action to create something visually is super cool, even to us newbies!

Being part of a tech company in the extra fast-moving world of Web3 makes this learning even more of a priority for us. The best part of it all? We have an extra reason to look forward to Fridays since that’s when we have our Web3 learning day!

Together, we let each team member present their topic of choice, giving a demo with visuals and any accompanying content, and then we allow time for any questions after each presentation. This really allows us to soak in what we’ve learned and see it in action.

Even though this is something relatively new that’s only recently been implemented, our team has already started to see a huge difference. We’re sending more links throughout the day and exploring even deeper into these subjects even after work hours.

By diving into topics that we’re passionate about and interested in, nothing feels like a chore — just fun research that happens to occur at work. We’ve covered many fun topics, like how to read (and actually understand) a smart contract, how DAOs function as decentralized entities, and how to mint NFTs with dynamic SVG images (with customizable backgrounds!!) attached to them on-chain!

Our team has really enjoyed this practice, and we encourage anyone else to join in on the fun, and let us know your thoughts!

Being humble enough to consider yourself a lifelong learner is a valuable skill that shouldn’t be put on pause during your 9–5.

Encouraging your team to learn more and share that newfound knowledge with others (while on the clock) is one of the best ways to spark passion and excitement in any team or workplace.

Our Web3 Day Taught Us That Learning at Work Is Important.

Often, companies and employees alike see learning as something extra to be done outside of work hours. This may include going to an expensive conference, forgoing time with family and loved ones for a chance at learning something new, or simply checking off a mandatory box.

But what if this learning happened right at work?

What if teams used a day per month, or even per week, to learn something, and share that knowledge with their team?

Imagine: you’re back in school, and you have to read a book that looks pretty boring. Your task is to write a (probably equally as boring) 3-page analytical essay on it. Sure, you’re “learning,” but you aren’t engaged. You aren’t excited. You didn’t pick this topic, and you have no external motivation to learn about the topic if your grades weren’t relying on this assignment.

Sure, you might end up liking the topic after getting out of your comfort zone, reading the book, and embracing the topic, but 90% of the time, it’s the former.

If you hate math, but love science fiction, and you have a choice between a math test and a fun new book with wizards and aliens — you’d be crazy to choose the math test.

Now, think back to another project where you chose the topic yourself, and picked out something you’re genuinely interested in — perhaps for a senior thesis or some other project outside of class.

Our chosen projects are often infinitely more interesting and engaging when we’re talking about a topic we are passionate about — this is human nature.

Now, back to this. How can we spark excitement about learning at work?

It’s simple, choose a broad topic — our topic of choice is Web3, since our company’s mission is to build a crypto-wallet-based messaging app!

Everyone on the team takes the day to learn about a topic related to Web3 with no exclusions, as an open-ended task.

For example, a backend engineer could explain what they do in a day to the other team members, giving them more clarity and understanding of their day-to-day, inviting collaboration and understanding, or, the same engineer could research into the effects of memes and virality in token and NFT sales.

The key here is flexibility. In giving people a space to research and explore a concept they’re interested about, and allowing them to explain it to an audience of their coworkers, it’s a net positive for all ends.

The chosen individual gets to learn more and research something they’re interested in — all during work hours, and on the work end of things, it can help them gain more industry knowledge that will allow them to do their jobs better, and also learn some things they may not have otherwise learned.

By teaching others, it helps everyone else cement in the topics, after having to teach others. And finally, the rest of the team reaps the rewards of learning something new, taught by a coworker, related to their industry, and which may spark a new interest or understanding.

It’s important to embrace the differences between teams when learning. For example, your social media lead may give off an animated presentation, but you shouldn’t expect the same from your introverted web dev. That’s the beauty of allowing people with different expertise and background to teach others!

It’s important to let everyone teach in a way that comes naturally to them. So many of us on the team had no engineering, coding, or general tech experience, yet we were captivated learning about these topics when explained by our coworkers.

The no-pressure presentation style really helps with it all, especially for the visual learners out there. Being able to see coding, app development, and smart contracts in action to create something visually is super cool, even to us newbies!

Being part of a tech company in the extra fast-moving world of Web3 makes this learning even more of a priority for us. The best part of it all? We have an extra reason to look forward to Fridays since that’s when we have our Web3 learning day!

Together, we let each team member present their topic of choice, giving a demo with visuals and any accompanying content, and then we allow time for any questions after each presentation. This really allows us to soak in what we’ve learned and see it in action.

Even though this is something relatively new that’s only recently been implemented, our team has already started to see a huge difference. We’re sending more links throughout the day and exploring even deeper into these subjects even after work hours.

By diving into topics that we’re passionate about and interested in, nothing feels like a chore — just fun research that happens to occur at work. We’ve covered many fun topics, like how to read (and actually understand) a smart contract, how DAOs function as decentralized entities, and how to mint NFTs with dynamic SVG images (with customizable backgrounds!!) attached to them on-chain!

Our team has really enjoyed this practice, and we encourage anyone else to join in on the fun, and let us know your thoughts!

Being humble enough to consider yourself a lifelong learner is a valuable skill that shouldn’t be put on pause during your 9–5.

Encouraging your team to learn more and share that newfound knowledge with others (while on the clock) is one of the best ways to spark passion and excitement in any team or workplace.