“Everyone needs to know some things
like products, tech, and who is Veeam;
Dan, can you whip up something fun
to teach it to our entire team?”
“Umm,” I said. I had some doubts:
700 plus had to learn a lot
With schedules booked and deadlines near-
“Sure, game on, I’ll give it a shot.”
First the plan of what this meant:
A Powerpoint, a classroom jam?
Who would watch a day of slides
and still be a Training fan?
“Ah!” my colleague, Jackson, said,
“They won’t want to waste time here.
Who would, when all our deadlines loom,
and the office fridge is full of beer?
It could be done so one could learn
the things they want and skip the rest,
assuming they knew some basic things
like passing a Datto Knowledge Test.”
But, I thought, that’s status quo.
There’s so much more that I would teach
If everyone is clamoring
for knowledge that is out of reach.
I agree that folks are busy bees
and lectures sure are mega lame.
It all should be somewhat useful, too,
and contribute to a large-scale game…
I’d include with whom do we compete,
and all about Backupify,
Datto Drive, Datto NAS,
all wrapped up and gamified.
So thus begat the Graduate School
the plan to teach those high and low
the basics, the products, the market too;
Stuff that everyone should know.
And so it went, with much ado
all of Datto raced to learn.
Broken up into three teams
Bragging rights for those to earn.
Along the way I heard a lot
from folks who’ve worked here many years,
that straying from the day-to-day
ignited a few sheepish fears:
“This is COOL! We do this too?”
a joyous phrase that echoed much.
The general vibe from old and new
was that the Grad School was pretty clutch.
And of course, the game, the challenge set:
which team would win and which would fold:
The techs? The devs? The Fighting Sales?
Learners rushed to claim the gold.
The time the clock reached 10 of five,
the game was down to a paltry few
between Team Robert & Team Brooks,
Not even I could guess who.
Throughout the weekend, scores were tallied
to double, triple check every name
The dawn of Monday an answer be:
Team Robert won eternal fame.
The game gave all my peers a chance
to set aside an hour or two,
enmeshed in products, markets, facts,
Broadening a communal view.
The program goes until Q4
is buttoned up on New Year’s Eve.
None escape the Training Team,
Not even “I’m Too Busy” Steve.
If getting 700 folks
to learn from all their Datto friends,
is as much fun as Graduate School,
Well, hot damn, sign me up again!