HBR Guides to Managing Your Career Collection (6 Books)

CHAPTER 16

You Can Learn and Get Work Done at the Same Time

by Liane Davey

As you think about how you want to learn and grow, you don’t need to build your development plan around a formal learning program. Although we default to equating development with structured, instructor-led activities, you’d be better served to think of formal programs as the appetizer or dessert of your development, rather than the main course.

You take three risks when you depend on formal courses for nourishment. First, you risk being disappointed if your request can’t be funded because other priorities take precedent. Second, you underestimate how costly it is for you to be away from work, both in your increased workload before and after the training and in the price ...