How professionals learn

In the November Issue of TJ,  Des Woods and Henry Marsden have an article called “How professionals learn”. As the former head of learning at Ernst & Young and head of professional development at Linklaters, Des is writing from considerable experience. This is a great article if you are relatively new to professional services in your L&D career, especially if you’ve worked in a different industry previously.

There were 3 things that really resonated with my experience:

1. Professionals want learning in small chunks as the pressure to remain chargeable is high. The monolithic e-learning that was imported from the USA firms in the early 2000s is an example of how not to do this. One law firm I know has a very popular chunk of e-learning that relates to a frequent question about Outlook – it lasts 53 seconds…perfect.
2. Professionals do not like follow up…”I understood it the first time”. The challenge here, especially in interpersonal skills is that just because a professional intellectually understands an effective way to behave and its benefits, they don’t necessarily do anything. For instance several generations of professionals are quite happy with the idea of what a SMART appraisal objective is, have they ever experienced one?
3. Professionals like business school style case studies. Phew…most of the courses I’ve run on career development and business development had significant elements of this, where the learning is active and practical…the challenge was normally to get high quality self reflection as professionals are so used to moving onto the next challenge.

That’s 3 points I’d endorse, but if this whets your appetite, have a read for yourself.