As well as spreading organically by colleagues working together, learning spreads by organized events. Not every event is a great fit for every organization. Below, we'll explore some different types of events, and then plan one that might work for your organization.
Workshops are hands-on, GitHub focused gatherings accessible to people of all experience levels. The timing of a workshop may range from 45 minutes to several hours. Workshops can include presentations from those already using GitHub about their experiences, but almost always include Learning Lab.
You may choose to have a workshop that focuses only on Learning Lab, so that participants can go entirely at their own pace. You also might choose to format a workshop in a way that everyone would be following along at the same time. Either format can work, but each will thrive differently in different situations.
We recommend having a brief presentation at the beginning of the workshop, along with ways to build excitement (like GitHub stickers and cheat sheets!). It's important to introduce enough other organizers at the beginning to help if participants get stuck.
Since this requires a lot of hardware to be successful, make sure you consider the technical limitations of the space (Wi-Fi, power outlets, tables, etc.).
Office hours can serve as a drop-in way for anyone within your organization to ask their burning Git and GitHub questions. Office hours can be in person, physically at a particular office, but they can also be remote.
Remote office hours allow people from any location to call in and ask their questions in a low-pressure environment. We find remote office hours to be most successful when they're scheduled in advance, in a time that is amiable to all employees, and communicated thoroughly.
A "lunch & learn," or sometimes called a "brown bag" event focuses around a presentation at mealtime. Lunch & learns can have an interactive element, but since they normally occur while eating lunch, they're most commonly presentations.
"Lunch & learn" presentations can range from very specific technical topics to broad, highly approachable topics. Depending on the culture (and lunchroom layout) of your organization, you may find that the broader presentations work better. As with the workshops, lunch & learns are a place to grow excitement and enthusiasm, and to introduce GitHub to those who may not already be familiar.
Formal training is an immersive way to learn and practice Git and GitHub. However, formal training requires a large investment from all parties involved. We typically recommend a two-day training, which can be too much time away from a desk for some teams.
If you think that formal training would be a good option for some teams within your organization, you may want to reach out to us for help on delivering the training or helping you learn how to deliver training.
The Question and Answer session is one of the easier events to plan as it can be provided as a regularly scheduled event where members across the organization can "call in" and ask Git and GitHub questions. Additionally, the Q&A session brings awareness within the organization on whom to go to when there is a question relating to Git and GitHub.
Your facilitator will partner with you to lead a Q&A session. The question and answer session should be available as both an in-person and remote engagement. An invitation to the event should be forwarded to individuals within the organization to provide them an opportunity to ask any Git and GitHub-related questions they have. The following text can be used in the event invitation:
Organization just moving to Git and GitHub:
Our organization is moving to Git and GitHub as a way to collaboratively work on projects. Join members of the team who can help answer any questions you may have on how to collaborate and use Git and GitHub.
Organization has had GitHub:
Our organization has been using Git and GitHub for a while now, but we want to mature our development operations and want to provide you resources on how to effectively use GitHub within your team and the organization as a whole. Join us for a question and answer session led by our internal GitHub experts.
During times when no one is asking questions, use the following:
- What is the best way to keep a feature branch up to date with other changes made to the project?
- Should I be using naming conventions for branches?
- Who should merge a pull request?
- What branch protections should we be running at a minimum? If the organization has an official stance, just share the official stance.
- What's the difference between Git and GitHub?
- How do we create a repo?
- How do we request access to a given organization?
- Should I create my own organization?
- How do I connect [X] tool to GitHub?