In all areas, professionals have different needs and concerns which we want to be resolved over time or during the course of our professional development. Who hasn't thought of traveling around the world, writing a book, learning another language or setting up your own business at some point in your life? This is how Google does it. Side Project is a post that tries to explain that little personal corner within the work day where you can do things your way and without being accountable to anyone, other than yourself since you are your own boss, this analysis will be twofold from the perspective of those who are beginning their professional journey and from which he knows through experience the reality of various productive sectors.
Under the premises of experimentation, development and innovation, the side project It was created so that company employees could spend a certain amount of time during the work day carrying out their own personal projects; The clearest example is the well-known case of the all-powerful dotcom industry Google and its 80/20 philosophy.
But well, now let's look at the company's side, is it profitable for the employer and the organization for workers to dedicate time during the workday to this? The answer is yes; What's more, in fact it is recommended that they be promoted by them, given that they can benefit from their results. Following the previous example, Google's Gmail was the result of this practice. To carry out these projects, it is necessary to have a committed workforce and leave behind the obsession with efficiency to be able to understand them as possible business ideas and ride on continuous change. We should not be afraid of failure, since it should not put any pressure on performance or time. Side projects can be understood as a “learning by doing” training model for the simple reason that we find ourselves undertaking and willing to learn.
In my short, but increasingly intense and enriching, professional experience I think that side projects could have a place. With the passage of time, work stress and repetition of the same tasks becomes tiresome, so escaping and disconnecting from something you like can be a good method to regain the necessary strength that we lose during the course of our routine. Why not be able to experiment with some medium or resource that you consider interesting to add to an elearning course? It would be an important way to vindicate myself and be able to learn autonomously; It could even make me climb a hierarchical level in the business organization chart. For me, the side project is the perfect opportunity to show my qualities and demonstrate how passionate I am about my work.
Personally, my first side project, on a very small scale, began by writing the posts for this blog; Who knows if the next ones will be to do something by and for the world of training; Only the time, ideas and business support you receive will answer these questions.
This is what Google does, Side Project aims to generate in our readers a healthy debate about Productivity versus creativity, which from our point of view does not have to be at odds.
