The personal is professional:The individual revolution in professional development

What it means to be a professional is changing.

The core professions which originally formed the bedrock of advanced economies are as important to the functioning of society as ever. But these roles – and the vital skillsets they embody – are changing faster now than at any point in history.

Doctors, lawyers and scientists are being joined by a new generation of professionals – from digital architects to technical programmers. They are learning new skills in new ways.

Today’s professional profile

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The sheer speed and mass of information travelling through the digital networks tying our lives together has changed everything. The knowledge systems underpinning our work are no different.

Growth in the amount of scientific research published every year since 1980 has been literally exponential.

We’ve reached a point of overload where the greatest challenge is not obtaining data, but managing and deploying it.

Digital impact

p

Num

ber

of p

ublic

atio

ns [1

000]

19800

500

1000

1500

2000

raw valuespredicted values yp = 702,880 e0.029 (year-1980)

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Publication year2010

Source: Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references, Bornmann & Mutz 2014

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The professions through the ages

356 years

103 years

59 years

10 y

ears

36 years

2016

Chartered Institute of

Personnel and Development

Royal Society

British Computer

Society

Association of Corporate Treasurers

International Society of

Sustainability Professionals

foun

ded

1660

foun

ded

1913

foun

ded

1957

foun

ded

1979

foun

ded

2006

The first learned societies were founded in the fifteenth century to promote academic and professional advancement.

Sitting at the top of their disciplines, they have remained largely unchanged in the intervening years…

…But they have multiplied!It’s hard to even be sure how many professional organisations, learned societies or membership associations there are in the UK today...

professional organisations and learned societies in the UK1

professional bodies, institutes and membership associations2

1. Source: HM Revenue and Customs, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/professional-bodies-approved-for-tax-relief-list-3/approved-professional-organisations-and-learned-societies

2. Source: CPD Standards Office, https://www.cpdstandards.com/what-is-cpd/who-needs-cpd/5

4063 1400...It’s hard to know what to even call them.

Professional pressure Administration of standards and excellence has traditionally been the preserve of professional bodies.

But responsibility for innovation and knowledge develoment has always ultimately been shared between professional individuals – and their employers.

This is truer than ever when individual skills and organisational knowledge are vital to sustained business success.

31% of employers invest in training as a direct result of competitive pressure.

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Source: UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2013: UK Results

The big benefit People everywhere benefit from the way professional skills enrich the world.

But the other big beneficiaries are the businesses and organisations that employ them. Organisational edge depends on the skills of working professionals being up to date and frequently refreshed.

They take it seriously, and it represents a major external cost.

7Source: UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2013: UK Results

invested annually on fees to external training providers in

the UK

£8bn

The developmental imperative

Professionals using their skills to leverage up-to-the-minute data, tools and working practices are the difference between success and failure.

If employees aren’t constantly moving skills and knowledge forward through learning and innovation – the whole organisation is falling behind.

of professionals are at risk of falling behind on the latest thinking in their field

100%8

We don’t know what we don’t knowIn today’s professional milieus it is impossible for large organisations to keep up with the rapid pace of change. The density of new scientific and academic information is too much.

Both businesses and professional bodies struggle to understand what new skills they need to know. of UK vacancies are hard to

fill due to skills shortages 9

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13: U

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The skills gap is realSkills shortages seriously impact profit and productivity inside the enterprise.

95% of employers that are affected by the skills gap

reported a negative impact on the organisation.

Increased demands on other workers is a reality for 84% of

businesses affected by the skills gap.

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The connected professionalThe professional bodies of old had one great strength: putting people in the same room. Bringing people with similar skills and interests together to share information and push the field toward maturity.

What fulfils this role today?

The Professional Learning Network – formal and informal webs of personal/professional contacts created and sustained through social media.

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Continuing professional development today

Today’s professional may or may not be enrolled in a formal process of continuing professional development.

But they are all updating and refining their skills and practices on a daily basis. It’s not possible to succeed any other way.

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Modern autonomous professional development combines online tools, adaptive resources and digital communities of open knowledge: Khan Academy, Lynda, Stack Overflow, PLOS, Knewton and CogBooks.

These are social and adaptive platforms delivering learning content aligned to precise audience needs.

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Connected learnersIn today’s networked businesses the professional becomes the key locus of skills and information in the organisation.

They know how to fix old problems in new ways. They know how to cut costs and establish new revenue streams.

If they’re facing a challenge that is too big – they know where to go to get the help they need. This decentralised learning strategy has hard results.

Social technologies that bring teams together in virtual learning networks reduce time spent searching for people and company information by 35%.

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New types of role

65% of today’s school children will work in jobs which haven’t been invented yet.

As these futures emerge, the need for accurate networked distribution of vital information and learning content will surge.

Source: Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions

The professionals of yesterday are not the same as the professionals of today – or tomorrow.

From digital marketers to app developers to SEO consultants, the workers driving the changes in the knowledge economies fulfil roles that didn’t even exist ten years ago.

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Professional solutions Agile businesses and less agile professional bodies are working to close skills gaps they can’t see.

The professional’s day-to-day involvement gives them invaluable perspective: mediating the skills and knowledge the organisation needs to compete in the future.

This changes the long established relationships between employer and employee.

The connected learner is the best source of innovation and competitive edge in today’s smart organisations.

The way we really learn i. formal learning

Learning in today’s flexible workplace occurs in one of several ways.

Formal learning: normally delivered by trained instructors in a systematic, intentional process within a recognisable classroom setting.

This is what we think of when we think of learning.

But according to a widely-discussed conceptual framework, perhaps as little as 10% of real learning takes place in this way.

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The way we really learn ii. informal learning

Informal learning takes place throughout the working day whenever we speak to our colleagues – or people anywhere who help us find the solution to our challenges.

This is an ongoing process embedded into the workflow which can take a thousand forms, from a chance encounter in the office kitchen to a meeting where new information is shared, or by consulting your Professional Learning Network.

Another 20% of organisational learning happens this way.

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The way we really learn iii. autonomous learning

What this means:The professional’s traditional ‘homes’ (their employer or professional body) only assist with a third of individual professional development.

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Formal and informal learning account for around an estimated one-third of the new skills and information-gathering achieved by any individual in the course of their professional career.

But the majority of skills and learning are acquired through the individual’s self-directed efforts: trial-and-error, personal research, and original, innovative thinking and discovery.

The way we really learn iv. the way we forget

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Performance support is a different form of learning that accounts for the realities of human psychology and the tendency to forget.

Learning is an iterative process: you learn something, and you forget some of it. So you learn a bit more. This process is repeated until knowledge reaches a sustainable working level.

Practice and rehearsal help to embed new understanding within easy grasp.

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve postulates that only 20% of information received in a formal learning setting is retained just one day later.

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20

40

60

80

100 Immediate recall

Mem

ory

Rete

ntio

n (%

)20 minutes

1 hour

9 hours

4 6 8 10 15 20 25 31

Elapsed time (days)

The way we really learnv. Performance support

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Performance support creates efficiencies and boosts core competencies by placing learning and working in parallel, mirroring their close and reflexive dynamic in knowledge-based industries.

Personalised performance support anticipates problems before they arise deliver immediate solutions to the learner at point of need.

Performance support represents an effective learning strategy for limiting the impact of the forgetting curve.

Performance support strategies can take many forms, but will usually consist of a series of targeted refresher resources sitting inside the workflow. Unlike formal training, the learner accesses them individually at the point of need.

Usi

ng P

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Qua

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Com

pete

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0

20

40

60

80

100

80%

55%

Source: Success factors in Implementing Performance Support Platforms, Eran Gal 2011

Personalisation: the professional’s perspective

Making these connections requires intimate knowledge of:

1. The learner

2. The workflow

Crafting personalised learning solutions for today’s professionals requires hard-won insight, deep consultation and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

Formal one-size-fits-all learning programmes don’t offer the depth, insight or functionality today’s professionals demand.

Performance support and personalised professional development strategies have the same learning goal:

Connecting the right resources to the right learners at the right time.

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Turning learners into leadersPersonalised learning joins the dots of how we work and learn. It puts the right information in the hands of the right people and empowers them to drive innovation and value.

It turns subject matter experts into innovators and leaders of their field. It turns professional skills into a competitive edge that flourishes at all levels of the organisation.

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Brightwave Group is the leading agency for personalised learning solutions, performance support services and professional development products

Let us show you how we combine expertise, creativity and innovation to drive professional development, boost engagement and transform performance throughout the organisation.

www.brightwavegroup.com@BrightTweet enquiries@brightwavegroup.com +44 (0)1273 827676