Make Learning a Goal–and a Requirement–Why Traditional PD Is Not Enough

It’s January! The New Year is well underway. You’ve committed to several ambitious work-related goals. You’ve chosen a few focus areas for your personal life. You might even have flagged “learning” for one arena or another.?

For those of us in the professional services fields like accounting, engineering, or law, professional development (or “PD”) is an industry requirement. PD is designed to ensure continuous learning for professionals to keep them relevant, fresh, useful, and marketable, and to avoid “going out to pasture,” as we like to say.

But has traditional professional development lost its relevance? In practice, it is often meaningless— a money-grab or race to complete requirements by cramming them in at the end of the year.?

This legacy approach to learning is illustrated in the scandal at EY in October of 2024 where dozens of employees double-booked training courses and were fired for “multitasking.” On the one hand, I agree that EY needs to maintain its reputation of ethical behavior and trustworthiness. But on the other hand, I’m sympathetic.?

As a CPA, I understand the tremendous workload these staff members were under, likely juggling multiple clients, internal projects, administrative demands, managerial responsibilities, and then training on top. I have also taught a lot of PD and training for professionals over the years. Whether it's virtual or in-person, attendees are often not fully engaged. And I am by no means offended! Most professionals (whether they admit it or not) have attended training while it runs in the background as they get other things done. This is not new news.

Challenging the Status Quo–Learning By Creating and Doing

This story brings up the need to challenge the status quo. Does training with minimal engagement still work in a world where content is abundant, but attention is scarce?

I personally learn (and retain) a lot more from writing, researching, and recording content than I do from listening to someone else speak. Instead of attending passive training sessions, what if all professionals (not just some of them) needed to create content or make meaningful contributions to their profession? What if this requirement were mandatory? Maybe this wouldn’t be required every year but every few years at least.

This requirement would have a ripple effect by pushing more professionals to think deeply and critically about their work, learning, and industry. It would give a voice to more professionals at all levels and ages and not just content-creators and large-scale firms.

What might this mean more broadly as a way to learn, grow, and stay relevant? What if your PD entailed:?

• Reflection and take-aways from work and projects — reflecting and writing about what you learned at work, on projects, or in your business that year?

• Sharing your insights and learning — writing or presenting or writing for your coworkers, peers, leaders, and other teams in your organization, your industry, or field?
• Community involvement — delivering presentations or videos, executive board work, or volunteering?
• Competency standards — making all professionals complete a competency test each year? (Just don’t test me on my tax knowledge.)

While these options are on the table, making them required and more prevalent would reap bigger rewards for the professions overall and also bigger benefits to the members and the broader community.

Learning Isn’t Optional: A Simple 4-Step Model

If someone asked you if you are in good physical shape and you said, “Yes! I ran a 10KM race 20 years ago,” they would laugh.

The same applies for learning. Learning is for your future self, not a culmination of your past self. In today’s world of knowledge work, your professional designations and where you went to school matter less and less.

Let me be blunt. In today’s business environment, there’s a lot of pressure to have people who are engaged learners. I am feeling a lot of this pressure now in the consulting industry. I can’t work with consultants who are not continual learners. The world is changing too fast.?

One approach to learning I love and recommend is the concept of personal knowledge management (PKM). I have written other articles about it which you can check out (The Power of "PKM"* for Managers (*Personal Knowledge Management and Getting “Smarter”: 10 Questions to Get Started with Personal Knowledge Management).

I have taken some of its central concepts to help you build a mini learning plan for this year – and beyond:

1. What topics do you care about — at the intersection of what you love, are good at, and make money at?

It can be tempting just to follow what’s “trendy.” If DEI or ESG are hot, you run out and take courses. I would avoid this as your primary strategy. Focus on the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, and how you make money. This is the Japanese concept of “Ikigai.”

Topics that I have followed and written about for years are documentation, personal productivity, information management, and internal controls. I have followed them for a long time to become a deep expert in how I make money and also what I love.

Think about…

• What are the top themes you want to follow for the long-term?
• What are topics you make money from or would like to make money from?
• What are topics that light you up?

2. What is trendy or is urgent this year — what is your focus this year?

Next, you can look out for what’s trendy or urgent at that intersection of your areas of passion and focus for the year ahead. If you really want to advance in one or two areas of learning, it takes focus and dedication for a period of time.

My focus for 2025 is learning and better incorporating AI into my business. AI is a game changer in the consulting market and soon to be the corporate world. I’ve made some modest strides, but still have a ways to go. (I will share more over the next months!)

Think about…

• What is the key topic or learning area that you want to focus on this year?
• What topics are most relevant to your industry or work goals?
• What specific outcomes do you want out of this learning area by the end of the year?

3. What are your sources of content — what do you gravitate towards and what can you experiment with?

In today’s knowledge-based world, content is abundant. A lot of it is bad. But a lot of it, even free content, is very good (even awesome).

Most of us are not strategic enough about our sources and what we capture. Books, online courses, podcasts, conferences, webinars, magazines, social media (if that’s your thing), newspapers – think about the sources of information that give you the best insights and focus there.

Be selective but open-minded about your content. Admittedly, I have always focused on books, but I have recently watched a lot of YouTube tutorials on AI. WOW, I’ve learned that there is excellent free video content that is topical, timely, and easy to consume.

Think about…

• What sources do you gravitate towards – books, articles, podcasts?
• What events, conferences, webinars do you want to attend or courses do you want to take this year?
• What is one new source of content that you want to experiment with this year?

4. When will you “ship” or share with others — what is your community?

We learn exponentially better when sharing with others. We make others better and, selfishly, ourselves better too.

Only 1% of LinkedIn active users post anything at all. (And the percentage for professionals like accountants, auditors, lawyers, and engineers is even lower.) This is a missed opportunity. Sharing your knowledge changes your relationship with learning.?

I know that most professionals do not think of themselves as content creators. You might not be a writer or enjoy sharing on social media. But you can find a small way to share or “ship” your work. It could be as simple as sharing something you learned at your next team meeting.

Think about…

• How are the ways you want to share your knowledge with others this year – articles, video, presenting?
• What circles do you want to get involved in?
• What is one way you can get your voice heard with others and help others with what you know?

Enhancing the way you learn–and the way you share what you know–will enhance your career and the opportunities around you. You’ll become more active, visible, and recognized in your company and field, you’ll widen your connections, and become even more attuned to the issues and developments in your industry and the larger world. Here’s to making 2025 your best learning year yet!

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Thank you for catching the latest edition of my Leverage Your Knowledge newsletter. This article is from my “New World of Knowledge Work” series. For the full list of articles, see here:

New Rules for the New World of Knowledge Work: 5 Must-Have Skills

The Myth of Self-Promotion for Professionals: Why It's a New Requirement for Success

The Art of Selling for Knowledge Workers: 3 Lessons from the Frontlines

Do You Want to 10X (or 2X) Your Growth? Applying the Marshmallow Principle

Embracing Rejection and Failure: My Hard-Won Lessons (and Strategies We All Need)

Putting “Intimacy” Into Your Professional Plan: How to Grow and Deepen Connections in 2025