Author: Ceri Hughes, Head of Knowledge
Centre of Excellence at KPMG in the UK
(Please note this post contains the personal views
of the author)
Recently, I’ve
had the opportunity to review my role and responsibilities at work. We’ve
aligned our Learning and Knowledge functions into one group with the aim of
protecting and enhancing quality, improving the retention of our knowledge and
enabling the continuous process of acquiring knowledge, skills and confidence
to improve current and future business performance. Our new Learning
function reflects the traditional elements of a learning value chain: we have
Business Learning Partners; a Learning Design team; we deploy Learning Programmes
and measure success through our Analytics team. But our structure is
underpinned by three centres of excellence: a centre for professional
qualifications and accreditation; a Coaching centre of excellence; and one for
Knowledge, which includes all activities in support of knowledge management,
research, competitive intelligence and collaborative working. We’ve
ramped up the focus of our knowledge strategy on how we assist with
accelerating time to competence – learning on the job - and providing immediacy
of knowledge, such as access to the latest insights and intelligence to ensure
our colleagues have the most informed conversations with our clients.
It’s been a
timely reminder for me to review my own learning and development needs and
think about the technical and enabling skills that will benefit me in my role
and in my new organisational home. I am guilty of neglecting my personal
development somewhat. It’s ironic that I diligently review personal development
plans for my team members and try to help them find the time and space to be
able to learn on the job and accommodate more formal learning interventions,
but I don’t prioritise this for myself at all! Stopping to take stock of this
has been an eye-opener. It’s been a few years since I last attended a formal
training course. Making time for networking events – which I eagerly fitted
into my schedule earlier in my career – has now fallen way down my to-do list;
and even though I keep a close eye on the professional press and blogosphere,
and bookmark all of the articles and posts that I think sound interesting,
relevant or thought-provoking, my reading pile (virtual and that teetering on
the side of my desk) isn’t getting any smaller.
So, inspired
by an increased workplace focus on the world of learning and professional
development, I am actively seeking opportunities to learn. Signing up for a few
well-chosen networking events has been an easy way to find out what issues are
on the radar of other organisations and learn how they are approaching
challenges that we share. It’s also been really rewarding to reconnect with old
friends and colleagues. I find myself inspired and motivated on hearing how
they are thinking about the challenge and opportunity of increased automation
and AI; thinking about the importance of legitimacy and authenticity of
information and knowledge in a world of fake news; ensuring robust information
protection and governance; and the most tactical issue on my mind at the moment
– a SharePoint upgrade.
Interestingly,
as I’ve chatted to peers in the information industry, it seems that my neglect
of my development resonated with others too! Perhaps it’s true that the longer
we stay in our profession the less time we spend on developing ourselves. The
real truth is, of course, that since we are constantly bombarded by
technological advancements, new legislation and regulation, an increasingly
sophisticated and demanding customer base and other external and internal
influences or pressures (such as the need to stay ahead of the competition or
constantly reduce cost and increase efficiency) developing ourselves as
individuals is critical for our own success. It’s also vital for the
development of the disciplines of the information profession to which we
belong. We can learn from each other, sharing innovations and ideas. If
you’re in the same place that I found myself recently, please see this as a
call to action to consider your personal learning and development plan. I’d
love to inspire each other with ideas on how to do this, so please share your
experiences in your comments.
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