Always Be Learning: The Importance of Professional Development

In our ever-changing business landscape, professional development is going through its own kind of transformation. To keep up with rapid-fire changes brought on largely by digital evolution, companies across industries are coming up with new, innovative ways to help their employees develop fresh skills and competencies.   Today’s guest, Stephen Waddington, is a partner and the Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum. He works with clients, he helps with business development and marketing, and he is responsible for driving the integration and innovation of digital and social capabilities throughout the Ketchum network across 90 offices. Ketchum encourages professional development through their own online platform.   In this episode, Stephen shares how and why the Ketchum model works and explains the necessity for continuous learning among professionals through both formal and informal online training.   In This Episode The learning potential in modern social environments Why email and static websites aren’t dying—but they should be How professional development is becoming borderless The challenges an organization faces with collaborative training When learning about tech needs to start and why   Quotes in This Episode “People are using platforms like Facebook day in and day out in their lives. They're using it across the web, but increasingly on mobile platform so, it isn't much of all lift then to introduce a technology like Workplace and say, ‘Okay, everything you can do on the public version of Facebook, you can now do privately in the work environment.’” —Stephen Waddington   “That’s the first thing you should do. Find [people you want to work with] on Twitter, and just listen to the conversations they’re having.” —Stephen Waddington   “[Teaching privacy and social media etiquette] has got to start the moment we give technology to children… Children need to be taught the basic good behaviors of communicating.” —Stephen Waddington   “If you want to be treated like a professional, you need to take continuous professional development seriously.” —Stephen Waddington   “You should find your own personal purpose and find work—do something that excites you—because you spend a lot of time at work. When you do that, you will do your absolute best.” —Stephen Waddington   Resources Stephen’s blog Contact Stephen Connect with Stephen on Twitter