Post by account_disabled on Apr 29, 2024 5:37:54 GMT -6
Well, it’s a new year and we’re right in that special, special part of January where you—well, if you’re me—have a growing pile of already-abandoned resolutions you tell yourself didn’t matter anyway, right alongside a smaller pile of resolutions you’ve managed to keep so far. What? Oh, I’m the only one like that? Fine. One of the most common resolutions among communications pros is to learn more, learn more effectively, or both. The proliferation of new channels and new client demands means staying on top of new skills. And this is more than just a good idea in our business; it’s a key to career or entrepreneurial survival. Still, all of that leaves open the really big question: how do you actually plan to keep yourself trained up? That’s what we asked the smarties in the Spin Sucks community, and they had a lot of wisdom to share. Formal Folks: Working Their Systems Some people are more comfortable with a system than without one; heck, some people are absolutely adrift without a task-and-subtask list. For these well-organized souls, professional development is a matter of planning the work and working the plan.
Consider Caitlin Copple Masingill’s take: Our agency’s budget is $1,500 per person every other year. And sometimes, they’ll invest more in leaders or split the cost of tuition for more spendy programs. We also do “lunch-n-learns” as an office every other week. So if you pick up a new skill or go to a conference, you can expect to share your learnings with the team. Lisa Potter takes a similar approach, aided by the Diabetes Email List Chartered Institute of Public Relations‘ CPD process: …I use the annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) process to structure my learning. I set broad goals at the start of the year and tag each element of CPD to one of these. For 2018 I also undertook the CIPR Professional PR Diploma, which I self-funded. My employer did contribute towards it later in the year which was a bonus. In my team, budget for training is limited, but every month we get together for dedicated shared-learning time. Each member of the team takes a turn to take the lead, either basing it on their own experience, or sharing learning if we were able to send them on a formal training opportunity.
Sara Hawthorn concurs on the value of formal programs like CPD, but leaves room around the edges for ad hoc professional development with her team: I do CPD with the CIPR and make a plan for what I want to focus on each year. Doing CPD means I need to achieve a certain amount. But beyond that it’s as-and-when for catching up on podcasts and blogs to new knowledge. For my team, I allocate a couple of hours a week to industry knowledge. And I encourage them to send me details of courses they feel would be beneficial to them. And you don’t have to be part of a big operation to have a formal professional-development mindset. Melissa Wallace simply makes it part of her schedule: As someone working for myself, I schedule at least one two-hour block per week for education. I usually exceed that as I include listening to podcasts and seem to do that more than once a week. Professional Development with Less Structure Of course, not everyone has the resources or the personality for all that structure. Tersia Landsberg makes no apologies for her flexible approach: Most learning takes place on the fly through all the other work.