Something to doGetting ahead
Teach something you know
A simple exercise to sharpen what you know by teaching it, and let your team see it
Why it’s worth your time
Explaining something to other people shows you exactly where your understanding is solid and where it's thin. A short session also puts what you know where your team can use it, and lets people see a skill they may not have known you had. Most teams have more to learn from each other than they ever make time for.
How to run a lunch and learn at work
You’ll come away with a short session taught, and a clearer sense of what you really know.
We’ll send you a calendar invite.
- Pick something people already ask you about.
A tool you're fast in, a process you understand end to end, a kind of analysis, a customer you know well. If people keep asking you the same question, that's the topic.
Tip: It doesn't need to be impressive. Useful beats impressive.
- Offer it in terms of what they need.
Frame it around a problem the team has, not around you. Keep it short, 30 minutes is plenty, and make it optional.
To: your teamI've noticed the thing people ask about comes up a lot, so I thought a short session on it might help. I'd cover the one idea with a real example, and you'd leave with something to try.
About 30 minutes, on a day that works. Totally optional. Let me know if you'd like to come, or if there's something specific you'd want covered.
Swap the highlighted parts for your thing. Works on Slack, in email, or said out loud. - Prepare to teach, not to present.
Choose the one idea that matters most, one real example, and one thing people can try before they leave. Explain it out loud to yourself first; you'll hear the parts you can't explain yet.
- Run it short, and save time for questions.
The questions are where you'll learn the most. When you don't know an answer, say so and follow up. It's more credible than bluffing.
You“Good question. I don't know yet, and I'd like to find out. Can I come back to you by Friday?” - Write down what teaching it taught you.
A few lines: what people asked, what you struggled to explain, what you'd change. Share your notes or example with the group so the session keeps being useful.
Good moments for this: when the same question keeps coming uponce a quarterafter you've learned something the team could use
We’ll send you a calendar invite.
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- Kept with the thing it was aboutSave what comes back in your Vault, next to the work it was about.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Explaining something out loud exposes the steps you skip without thinking. Finding them is part of the value, not a sign you shouldn't teach.
What might make this harder
You don't need to be the world's expert, just a step ahead of the people in the room. Say that plainly at the start; it makes questions easier for everyone.
Questions people ask
What is the protégé effect?
The tendency for people to put more effort into learning something when they're responsible for teaching it. Preparing to explain forces you to organize what you know and notice what's missing.
How do I run a lunch and learn at work?
Pick a topic people already ask you about, keep it to about 30 minutes, focus on one idea with a real example, and leave time for questions. Keep it optional and small.
What should I teach my team?
Something you know well that others keep asking about, or a skill the team needs and hasn't had time to learn. Useful matters more than impressive.
Why this works, and where it comes from
You can probably do things you've never had to explain. You know how, but you've never had to say why each step matters or what to do when it goes wrong. Teaching it is how you find out what you really know. The parts you can't explain are usually the parts you only half understood.
There's a name for this, the protégé effect. The name comes from research at Stanford by Catherine Chase, Daniel Schwartz and colleagues, who found that school students put more effort into learning when they were teaching a computer character than when they were learning for themselves. The idea itself is old; the Roman writer Seneca observed that people learn while they teach. Preparing to explain something makes you organize it, and the questions you get show you what you missed.
There's a second benefit people underrate. Teams rarely make time to learn from each other on their own. A short session puts what you know where your team can use it. It also lets people see a skill they may not have known you had. That tends to change who they come to, and who gets thought of when a related project comes up.
Done well, it's generous rather than self-promoting, because it solves something the team needs. That's why the offer starts from their problem. The time to skip it is when you'd be teaching something nobody needs just to be seen. People tend to notice the difference.
Other simple things to consider
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Written by Truest, similar to Teachable Agents and the Protégé Effect: Increasing the Effort Towards Learning (Catherine C. Chase, Doris B. Chin, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz) and Letters to Lucilius (Seneca). Last updated October 2, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.