CPD Is The Route To Survival Today
CPD can mean a lot of things to a lot of people – especially if you’re from Chicago, Cincinnati or Cleveland and you’ve had to call the local law enforcement.
The debate is ongoing around the “value of CPD” or Continuing Professional Development. Everyone has an opinion as to just how worthwhile it is to ourselves and for our staff.
Continuous Learning
From the moment we are born we are learning, our parents teach us how everything works, we then go to preschool and learn some more, onto primary and secondary education as our scholarly journey continues. Depending on our circumstances and interests we may go to college or university, some of us might choose a trade and begin our working life, regardless of the path chosen, one thing is certain – we will continue to learn every day for the rest of our lives!
I am a true believer in the University of Life and have always been conscious of the need to learn new things and the importance of developing fresh skills as we progress through life.
However, I only became formally aware of the term “CPD” shortly after I gained a qualification in Personnel Management. We were told at the time that this allowed us to put letters after our name but only if we maintained our qualification with CPD hours.
Adapting to change
According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself”. In a nutshell, in order to survive, we must first be prepared for change and then have the capacity to adapt accordingly.
So how does one know that the environment is changing if one is too busy working?
CPD provides the opportunity to stop, look around and benchmark. We can benchmark ourselves against others or against industry standards but either way, the very act of benchmarking in itself is the first step in this incredibly valuable process. It allows us to see how others are coping with challenges in their businesses or lives and how they choose to meet these challenges. It’s easier to recognise improvements to someone else’s processes than your own and it’s also less conflicting as after all we’re all creatures of habit.
Keeping Up with Change
If we are continuously learning, we are conditioning ourselves to be adaptable. This inevitably means we become happier, as change is not seen as the enemy but an opportunity for a new approach and the possibility of a better result. We no longer get frustrated when we reach a roadblock with no way back – instead, we look for the way around or up and over! At Intuity we continuously review our processes and encourage our team to do the same. We allow time in schedules to have members of the team attend events where CPD can take place. We encourage our teams to upskill in the knowledge that everything they learn will enhance their professional capabilities, endorse our belief in them, improve our collective expertise and ensure our customers receive even better solutions every time.
In the technology sector we inhabit today, change is fast and adapting is an absolute. In the business environment we operate in, CPD is essential because survival is the only option.