Life Long Learning in Corporate Business World.

There was a time when learning was considered to end after leaving school or university.  That was why the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” was so widely accepted as an axiom expressing a universal truth.  Prasanna Perera, a prominent Management Specialist and an Educator with over 17 years of experience, does not agree.  “You can teach an old dog new tricks; provided the dog is willing to learn…” he says.  The following article is based on a discussion with Prasanna on ‘Life Long Learning’

Life Long Learning is the continuous learning and development over the lifespan of an individual.  Learning is a non-stop process that continues from the cradle to the grave.  You don’t need a special time or a place to learn. Learning is an everyday, everywhere task. Only thing is you must have the hunger to learn and grow, and you must be willing to learn from anybody.  Even your dog can teach you a lot of useful things, if you are prepared to learn.   That tendency and craving for learning must come from within you.  The moment you say ‘I know everything, so I don’t need to learn any more’, you are out!

The difference between formal education from a college or a university and Life Long Learning is that the former is needed for you to develop a career for yourself.  It is a basic pre-requisite for you to qualify yourself so that you are made suitable to go on a certain career path.  Once you have selected your career path is when your Life Long Learning comes in.

Corporate Managers are required to update themselves through Life Long Learning more than the others.  The workforce today is multi-skilled and is more educated than it used to be.  If you are heading a workforce where there are a lot of qualified people and if you are not up to their standard, when you deal with your staff they will realize that there are gaps in your knowledge and abilities.  Therefore, corporate managers have to dedicate themselves to Life Long Learning.  If you want to get to the top of the corporate ladder, you must be extremely good in your specialization with a good knowledge of other related specializations.

Whilst you are the master in your discipline, you also need to have a good knowledge in other related areas.  For example, if I am a marketer, I should understand finance, general management, sociology and psychology etc.  Most people think “If I keep updating myself in my particular discipline, that is perfect”.  But in the corporate world, we need all-rounders, not specialists.  The more disciplines you know, the better.  That is why there is a big demand for MBAs, because it is a general management qualification.

If you look at various different professional institutes, they have CPD (Continuous Professional Development).  For example if you qualify as a Management Accountant, every year you are expected to put in a certain number of hours for Life Long Learning; for CPD.  If you take CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing), you need to be committed to CPD in order to be given a Chartered Marketer status and to maintain it.  So every year you are supposed to spend 35 hours dedicated for learning.  For example if you are doing an MBA programme, then you can get your 35 hours on that alone.  If you are imparting knowledge to others, depending upon the number of hours you teach, you can get certain amount of credit.  Even for reading publications and magazines and things like that you can get credit.

The whole idea is, once you qualify, you have to keep renewing your knowledge.  If you qualified in 1990, whatever discipline you are involved in, it would have changed dramatically today, 16 years later.  All these disciplines are required to change because of the ever-changing dynamic global environment.  When things are changing there are pressures for business organizations to change.  When the business organizations change you need to have a different skill set.  If you have not updated yourself, although you have the qualifications, you don’t have the skills to apply those qualifications in today’s context.

There are two ways that one can learn.  One is the learning opportunities provided by one’s organization; the training programmes and developmental programmes etc.  Then there are other study programmes that you undertake by yourself for self study.  An excellent way of educating yourself is through e-learning.  It is available 24/7, 365.  You can select the e-learning module of your choice and study at your own pace.  There are online tests too.  Internet is a fantastic tool for learning but you have to discipline yourself.  You should not give into numerous temptations that the internet has in store for you.  On the net there are online communities; forums, blogs and bulletin boards etc.  Participating in these can be very helpful in Life Long Learning.  The cost of using the internet to learn is comparatively much less and it is extremely speedy.  Then there is good old reading.  You can learn a lot about almost anything on earth through reading.    Another fantastic method of learning is teaching.  Teaching makes you aware of the lapses in your knowledge and you can fill these gaps through Life Long Learning.

The problem with Sri Lankan managers is they tend to expect their organization to give them the opportunities to learn.  There initiative to learn is somewhat less.  Sri Lankan managers are reluctant to invest on Life Long Learning.  They look at it as expenditure, not an investment.  You need to understand that while your workplace can provide you with a certain amount of training you also have to commit yourself for your development both financially and time point of view.  At the end of the day it is your own development that is at stake.  Sri Lankan managers tend to be a little lazy.  When they have an MBA, they stop learning.  The other problem is the higher they go the lesser they want to learn.  If you look at the rest of the world, it is the top management that wants to go for training programmes.  Here the top managers try to send their subordinates because they think that if they go for the training the others might think that they don’t know the subject. That is in our culture.  If the training programme is an overseas opportunity, they will definitely go, not for the training purpose but for the entertainment.  They consider such things as fringe benefits.  The other thing is, a lot of Sri Lankans do not understand the power of networking.  When there is an opportunity to go out and entertain your clients, or when you are invited to a function, a lot of Sri Lankans are reluctant to go.  But if you go, there is the opportunity to network with others and share a lot of knowledge.  Why not harness this power of networking?

In conclusion Prasanna’s advice to all of you who aspire to succeed in life in general and in the corporate business world in particular is, ‘commit yourself to a life of Life Long Learning’.  It is not something that you switch on and off whenever you feel like.  It is a continuous process.  It must be in your blood.  You must have a thirst for knowledge.

(This is an article I did for the Sunday Times in 2006)