Can you afford not to learn?

This week has been national Learning at Work Week. Usually held in May, this year has been a bit different (it certainly has!)

The more I've learned throughout my life, the more I've learned about learning. At school I was, it's fair to say, quite academically average. I wasn't an A* student and I had to try really hard in subjects that didn't come naturally.

When I started my career in PR I found something I enjoyed doing, and that made learning about it so much easier. I've also found that what I thought learning was and wasn't was wrong. Learning wasn't just about classrooms, courses or someone standing at the front of a room telling you about models and theories, it was so much more. With the rise of digital communication the way we can learn has exploded and there are so many more ways we can educate ourselves and expand our knowledge. The brilliant thing about this is no matter what your budget, you can really develop your skills and understanding.

To help encourage our Comms and Engagement Team at GMCA to think this way I did a session with them on the various types of learning. This isn't secret, so I thought it would be worth sharing my thoughts on it.

I started out with a list of different ways of learning and surprised myself with nine different types. Here we go:

1. 'Charity begins at home': You only have to look inside your own organisation to find loads of ways of learning. Signing up to be a lead for something (First Aid, Information Governance), gives you a great window into a different area of practice that can broaden your horizons. There's shadowing more senior members of your team, other leaders in your organisation, and other departments. You'll work along partners, suppliers and other organisations who can be a great help in shadowing opportunities too. There's your own learning management systems too - HR will usually be able to point you towards your internal system if you work in an organisation.
2. 'On the go': There are hundreds of podcasts, blogs, vlogs, audio books and actual books that you can plug into, pick up, subscribe to and immerse yourself in on all sorts of academic, industry specific and strategic subjects. You can usually listen to these while you're in transit. There's also TED talks on You Tube and other lecture series. Libraries have a wealth of books and audio books on a all manner of subjects too.
3. 'Open University': Coursera, Edxorg, Udemy, Linked In Learning and iTunes University all offer free and inexpensive modules on subjects ranging from leadership, marketing, finance, coaching, using spreadsheets, interpreting data - all sorts.
4. 'The power of networks': These are all around us. Across Linked In there are loads of groups, companies and interests you can follow where people share some brilliant bits of content including case studies and examples of good practice. There's also Facebook groups and Twitter chats (follow #s of themes you're interested in). Volunteering is a great way to learn from others and organisations such as Media Trust match make professionals working in PR and Marketing with charities needing their support. Then there's volunteering for your professional body; something I've done for quite a while through CIPR and gained a huge amount from learning wise.
5. 'Steal with pride': Agencies, professional bodies, thought leaders in your profession will all publish reports, white papers and thought pieces which provide insight and ideas on what you do. These are great sources of learning and are usually free to access. Many industry awards will publish case studies of winners and some will even share the winning entries; these offer really practical ideas to help you back in the 'office'.
6. 'Sign me up': There are hundreds of mailing lists from professional groups, agencies, industry publications, content curators and thought leaders in a range of fields that offer great insight. In PR I really like Stephen Waddington's Monday emails and Comms 2.0 does some brilliant work in this area. Stuart Bruce is another great person to follow in Linked In and sign up to his blogs. Future PRoof is another.
7. 'You've been framed': Again, working in PR there are a number of frameworks that have been developed by professional bodies and academics that can help you navigate your career and learning path. The Global Body of Knowledge, the IOIC framework, AMEC measurement model and Government Communication Service all have published frameworks and models that give structure to your learning goals and sign post to resources.
8. 'To me, to you': Mentoring and coaching have both featured in my learning and have made a massive difference to how I think. I've had the benefit of learning from some great leaders and experts in PR and away from PR and these have all helped me challenge myself and adapt my thinking. I've made some great friends as well.
9. 'Old school': And of course, there are courses, webinars, workshops and undertaking qualifications. I've benefitted from these, plus professional assessments and while these are usually where the costs come in to learning, there's usually a business case to be made to your employer if there's a genuine need for these and you can make a strong case. Your learning belongs to you, and sometimes funding your own learning may be the option - if you decide to do this see what non-financial support your employer such as time off for study leave.

These are all methods of learning I've taken advantage of during my career and all of them have increased my interest in learning; the more I've learned the more I want to.

The biggest investment any of us can make in learning is really our time. Even 10 minutes a week, with a bit of planning, can make a huge difference and money doesn't need to be a barrier - just your imagination and creativity.