"Too Busy to Learn" – What Does That Say About Our Priorities?
Deborah Bigelow Crawford has more than 20 years of experience in business management and handles the operational and administrative functions of PM Solutions. Ms. Bigelow Crawford also serves as Co-CEO of the PM College®, PM Solutions' training division, where she is responsible for the fiscal management and quality assurance of all training and professional development programs. Prior to joining PM Solutions, she served as the Executive Director of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and was instrumental in providing the foundation and infrastructure for the exponential growth that the Institute has maintained over the last 10 years. In addition, she served as the Executive Director of the PMI Educational Foundation. Over the last decade, she has authored numerous articles in PM Network, Chief Project Officer, and Optimize magazines. Ms. Bigelow Crawford is also co-author of the book Project Management Essentials. She has presented a variety of papers as a speaker at international symposia and conferences, and is a member of the National Association of Female Executives and the Project Management Institute.
I recently sent a notice to my daughter, a young professional working in a major pharmaceutical firm, about a project management class I knew she would be interested in. She just got her CAPM from PMI and has a long-term goal of getting her PMP. Her response: “I’m too busy. I just don’t have the time, even though I know it would help.” It reminded me of myself and all the opportunities I have missed throughout my career because I was just too busy. According to recent research, more than two-thirds of employees report being overloaded at work. And the article where I found this statistic, "10 Things You Can Learn in 10 Minutes," about half the content covered ... you guessed it ... time management.
This makes me wonder … do we really value training? Why don’t we prioritize the time, if we truly believe it will help us perform better in our jobs? Are we too 
short-sighted to see the benefit? Have our lives become so chaotic that we just don’t take the time to really see where we want to go … and what we need to get there? OR … do we just not see the value in training? If not, is this because we have not developed ways to measure whether we actually become better at what we do once we are trained?
I have been in training where, once seated, I struggle to keep my eyes open! I’ve also been in training where I have been deeply engaged and came out excited to tackle the world. Maybe the trick is picking out the right training … making sure it is a topic of interest … or maybe it is the mode of training? It may even be a generational thing. I am not a good eLearner… I love face to face. My children, however, feel quite the opposite. But even with eLearning right at your desk, saving travel time and money … we still tend to make it a lower priority than our work duties. To the point that we just don’t do it. And a lot of companies don’t support it … not really. (Despite research that shows that high-performing companies train three times as much as low performers.) It’s the tasks at hand that matter most.
Are we doing ourselves a disservice? Should companies force employees to make the time to grow and learn? I know I had to learn to make time for my family and friends. Yup, work got in the way there, too. But some things are too important to push aside … or delay .. and delay … until you start feeling the ramifications.
What do you think? Do you prioritize training … or accept that everyday work will always take precedent?
Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin says:
Good one, Debbie! Here’s another set of time management tips from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/02/27/five-time-management-tips-to-lower-your-stress/#69e54d875a63\
Posted on February 29, 2016 at 11:00 am