At Shipt, we’re focused on fostering a culture of continuous learning and development, and one way that comes to life for our team is through our annual Development Week activities! 

Set to inspire the team on the importance of dedicating time and effort toward personal and professional growth; we devote one whole week to the topic through a series of events and seminars on the tools and resources available throughout Shipt. In the end, our goal is to make learning and development easier, more enticing and further rewarding.

“At Shipt, we believe in the power of belonging and growth, which is why we continue to invest in our programs that help meet the needs of our team members’ professional goals and achieve Shipt’s business goals,” said Amy Benson, chief people & community officer at Shipt. “Development Week is an exciting time where we all come together and encourage one another while exploring motivational development offerings and soaking up inspiring learning.” 

The milestone moment of this year’s Development Week featured powerhouse speaker Caroline A. Wanga, president and CEO of Essence Ventures. In a dynamic fireside chat with Shipt CEO Kamau Witherspoon, a friend and former colleague, Caroline spoke about the importance of bringing your most authentic self to work. 

“Sixty percent of my energy every day was going towards wondering how people feel about me, how I feel about myself, and what I thought needed to happen,” shared Caroline. “All of this mimicking I was doing was taking up so much brain capacity, so I was really operating on fifty percent brain capacity. The more I started to show up as myself,  my production increased by 10x.” 

Following the impactful fireside chat, Caroline continued the conversation with the leaders of Shipt’s employee resource groups (ERGs). In a smaller forum roundtable conversation open to all constituents and allies active in ERGs, Caroline shared how to embrace failure as a catalyst for growth and how to allow yourself five fails a day as a metric for measurement. 

“Life will throw challenges at you each and every day, and being an expert at failure recovery is what will set you apart,” said Caroline. I allow myself five fails a day, big or small; it doesn’t matter. What matters is how you bounce back and keep going when one of those fails happens. You have to be an expert in failure recovery.” 

Throughout Development Week, a different activity was held each day, helping team members delve into topics such as goal setting, building engagement plans, understanding the importance of recognition, and more. On Day 3, Shipt’s VP of Innovation, Jon F, moderated a conversation between team members across the organization on Active Engagement and Continuous Growth. Emma L., senior director of strategic initiatives, shared how learning something new can sometimes be uncomfortable, and that’s ok!

“One thing I always try to inspire in my team is finding comfort in the uncomfortable," says Emma L. "When they’re looking at a project that may be big and scary, I try and remind them that we will start small, chip away at it together, and more often than not, team members will rise above the fear and truly excel”

Team member spotlights went out each day of the week, providing tangible examples of how team members across the company have leveraged the existing development programs to achieve new career growth. One of these spotlights, from Shipt engineer and pivot graduate Bianca J., highlighted her journey to where she is today. 

“The tools provided have always been the catalyst for my professional development. For instance, a Google Sheets course from Percipio allowed me to discover my love for data-driven tasks,” said Bianca. “That pushed me to partake in the Pivot Program Shipt provided, which pushed me into my new career in engineering. Being able to personally decide my path has been a huge game changer for me.”

And this is just the beginning. In 2024, Development Week kicks off a year of further investment in Shipt’s learning and development offerings, as plans are underway to refresh programs to make things even easier and more engaging. 

We’ll share more throughout the year, as we’re really proud to expand our team opportunities. By supporting team members and their personal growth, we’re strengthening our business and in turn, our communities.