This is a reworking of a post that I originally wrote for the AIIM blog. Because of its length, I'm breaking it into two parts. This first post presents a professional development framework. In Part 2, I'll present a matrix that can be used to turn the framework into an individual professional development plan.
Once you stop learning, you start dying.
-- Albert Einstein
If you're active in the industry at all, you’ve probably heard dozens of presentations about how much information we create, how much faster we create it, and how much harder it is to manage. While these statistics are all true, we as information professionals can help organizations to clean up their digital landfills, start treating information as a valued asset, and improve business outcomes.
But where do you begin?
What Information Professionals Need to Know
Part of the challenge associated with effective information management is that it’s just so big. There are so many different disciplines, processes, and a seemingly limitless variety of software and hardware solutions. With so many options, how do you determine where to focus your learning?
There are a lot of different information management / information governance / records management / etc. bodies of knowledge out there, and obviously that angle depends on what you want to be when you grow up. (I still don't know.) It's not reasonable to expect to be a deep dive subject matter expert at everything, but I think it's helpful to have at least have some familiarity with the various different information-focused disciplines.
But these are only one piece of the puzzle. I believe that to remain effective, information professionals need to keep learning in several different areas of competency.
- Domain competencies. These are specific to a particular sector or industry, or to a particular horizontal work process. For example, individuals who work for an HR consulting firm could work to improve their domain skills in employee onboarding or compensation, while those who work in upstream oil & gas could deepen their understanding of the exploration & development processes.
- Information role-related processes. These are specific to your job function, and as noted above, really depend on what you're doing and what you want to be doing. As a records manager, this would include things like conducting a records inventory or updating the retention schedule. For a privacy manager, this might include how to conduct a privacy impact assessment or respond to a data subject access request.
- Information-related technologies. These are the tools you need to do your job. These could be very specific to a particular role, like understanding HR information management systems for the HR consultant. They could also be broader-based, such as Visio for anyone who needs to create or consume flowcharts, or SharePoint as a content repository. These skills will need regular practice and periodic refreshing as the tools, and the processes that use them, change or are updated over time.
- Professional skills, or soft skills, or whatever you choose to call them. These focus on skills that make for a more effective employee, no matter the role. These include but are not limited to things like project management, change management, communication, and budgeting.
- Organizational competencies. These focus on the nuances of doing your job at your current organization. If you change organizations, or even departments within the larger organization, you may need to relearn these. These might include things like an understanding of the organization's risk tolerance, the terminology and acronyms regularly used, how a tool or template is configured or used, etc.
Different Paths to Professional Development
Now that you've started to identify WHAT you want to learn, you must choose HOW you would like to learn it. There are a variety of options to suit any budget, learning style, and time frame.
Academic degrees. I'm not a fan of focusing on degrees for a number of reasons:
- They are the most expensive and time-consuming option by far
- They are often significantly more abstract and theoretical compared to other options
- The industry is moving so fast, a degree program is outdated before its first student graduates
In my mind, a degree is generally proof that you were able to put up with a bureaucracy for 4 years or however long it took you. In terms of practical application, I just don't see the value; my degree is in Political Science and it's been and will be completely irrelevant to my past, present, or future success.
Conferences are a much different proposition than what they were just two years ago. For many even producers, the conference format has been translated to a virtual structure. For me these are a mixed bag - it opens an event up to a broader audience, and is generally cheaper because there is no travel involved, but I think many struggle with engagement.
I believe that the best learning doesn't always take place in breakout sessions or keynotes. Often, it’s the networking, hallway conversations, meetups, and "birds of a feather" sessions, where you get to learn from your peers. I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues at the hotel bar or while waiting for my turn at karaoke!
Webinars and podcasts can be a great alternative when you’re short on time and money, but still desire great content on timely topics. There are a lot of them out there - vendors, associations, thought leaders, it seems like everyone has something to say on a regular basis. That said, time is the one thing you can't get back - so if the ostensibly educational webinar becomes a product pitch, vote with your attention and leave.
The market offers numerous sources of research on market trends, developments in information management, and benchmarking against your peers. Great sources include industry associations like AIIM, ARMA, and IAPP; analysts and analyst firms like Gartner and MER; and even solution providers. While these last need to be taken with a grain of salt sometimes, they are often written or ghost-written by industry experts and can provide significant value.
Training courses can provide you with a deep dive into a specific topic in a fairly short period of time. Instructor-led courses are always a good option because they offer that same peer-to-peer dialogue and learning as a conference. As a trainer myself, I learn from my students at every class I teach.
If you don’t have the time – or the travel budget – online learning can be an effective way to learn or reinforce skills on your own schedule. There are a lot of different options for training in the market - associations, independent consultants and training firms, and vendors all offer quality educational assets.
There are a number of free- to low-cost microlearning offerings to consider as well. These tend to be significantly shorter, often focusing on just one topic or even one facet of a topic, and are mobile-friendly so they can be consumed whenever you find yourself with a few minutes.
Certifications are a bit of a different beast. Certifications are designed to demonstrate a candidate’s knowledge and understanding of a topic. This means that there are many different routes to get that knowledge and understanding, including but not limited to the ones I’ve outlined above. Getting a certification puts you in some pretty rarefied company, depending on the specific certification; it also serves as shorthand to an organization or a hiring professional that you know your stuff, and you can hit the ground running.
Self-study. We've been learning from the written word for eons. There are some very, very good books in the marketplace - and of course some bad, terrible, awful, not very good ones as well. This is a cheap way to get a deep dive on a particular topic, but it only works if you read the book - simply having it on your desk or bookshelf is not enough! And it's not just printed books - digital ones count too, as do things like standards, guidelines and checklists, templates, case studies, etc.
With all these options, what’s the best choice for you? I say, “Yes.” It depends on where you are in your career, what you’re trying to accomplish, your budget (including time and travel), and your interests. For me, it’s always been a combination of all the above.
Social learning. There are some really, REALLY smart people out there blogging, and Tweeting, and Instagramming, etc. I follow several amazing learning management system vendors who regularly post awesome stuff on adult learning, I also participate in collective social events like Tweetjams, chat forums, and meetups (in-person when possible, online when not).
Coaching and mentoring. These are closely related terms that refer to working with someone else to improve your job performance. Coaching is more structured and designed to elicit specific performance improvements and results within a specific timeframe, while mentoring tends to be less structured and more holistic and with more focus on overall development. Kent State offers a good comparison here: https://www.kent.edu/yourtrainingpartner/know-difference-between-coaching-and-mentoring
On-the-job training. This last option is ideal to ensure that you are learning exactly what you need to in order to do, or improve how you do, your actual job. But it takes a very mature organization to offer this; most organizations don't want you unless you can hit the ground running. I think that's short-sighted, because it overlooks the potential for an employee to move over or move up into new responsibilities.
Up next: How to combine what you want to learn with how you want to learn it and create your own professional development plan.
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