Brown Bag

One of the engineers stopped by my cubicle the other day. “You’ve had such great success with <the innovation>—I wonder if you would help me. I have an idea but I don’t know how to get started.” I told him that I got things going by announcing a Brown Bag and talking to people who showed up. It was a small beginning, but the people who came were interested in the topic and were willing to help me take the next steps.

Use the time when people normally eat lunch to provide a convenient and relaxed setting for hearing about the new idea.

You are an Evangelist(144) or Dedicated Champion(129) who would like to call a meeting to introduce a new idea. Members of the user community are free to attend or not.

People can be too busy to attend optional meetings held during work hours.

There is always other, more important work to be done. Even though most people have a natural curiosity to hear about new ideas, it can be hard to take time during the workday to sit and learn. This makes it difficult to find a time when people can attend discretionary meetings. But since almost everyone eats in the middle of the day, a meeting over lunch will often find more people with time available. Lunchtime meetings are not as likely to be viewed as wasting time that could be spent doing “real” work, since the time would be spent eating anyway.

Therefore:

Hold the meeting in the middle of the day and invite attendees to bring their own lunches.

You can increase attendance if you find The Right Time(207). Consider spending a little of your own money to Do Food(132) to make the event special. Advertise the event in an e-Forum(135) or In Your Space(167). Talk it up with Connectors(119) or a friendly guru.

Use Next Steps(195) near the end of the event to help keep interest alive, and don’t hesitate to Ask for Help(104). Tell people where they can find more information and who is using the innovation in the organization.

Hand out a Token(243) to help people remember the new idea that was discussed during the session.

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This pattern creates more awareness for the innovation. When the participants take time and bring their own food, it shows a willingness to invest a little of themselves that can grow over time.

While a noontime meeting can attract more people than a meeting at mid-morning or mid-afternoon, there will be others who won’t attend because they view lunchtime as their break time. You will need to arrange other events for these people. Also, some cultures are not open to having meetings over lunch. Make sure that people will accept the idea of a Brown Bag before you begin your plans.

Brown Bag lunch discussions started in Brian’s organization so testers could network, share ideas, and learn more about testing topics. The events are held bi-weekly from noon until 1:00 p.m. The meetings range from free-form discussions to formal presentations. Topics have included demonstrations of products they test and how they test them, conference experiences, software testing certifications, what kind of testers they are, and the organization’s testing process.

Initially Brian came up with a few topics, but he soon began asking for feedback from peers. At the year mark, he formed a committee to request topic ideas from peers, set up agendas, find speakers, and bring in snacks and supplementary materials. In the beginning, most attendees were testers. Information about upcoming Brown Bags was sent to everyone in the company, in addition to those who received a notice of the meeting. The events have attracted a variety of people—managers, developers, and others who are interested in software testing.

David organizes Brown Bag conferences. His recommendations:

• Have a presentation every day at lunchtime for one to two weeks.
• Ask for help to create a program committee to organize the event.
• Invite attendees to bring their own lunches.
• Draw presenters primarily from inside the organization.
• Invite corporate executives to host a session and introduce the speaker.
• Advertise the conference so it is perceived as an event.
• Track who signs up and attends each session.
• Send reminders to participants who registered.
• Have tokens or door prizes and snacks at each session.
• Take time to reflect and ask attendees to evaluate each session.