As a production manager, I know what I do, I know what it means to do it well, and I know that doing it well makes me an asset to my coworkers and my company. But there’s constant change in that process. So while I considered devoting this space to a discussion about the technical details of production design or my passion of mid century modernist furniture, I thought it’d be more interesting to dive deeper into the topic of a recent lunch conversation with a colleague – continuous learning.

 A quick Google search later and I came across this statement that helps sum up what I’m talking about:

 “Continuous learning is NOT about continually taking courses – it’s about developing skills in reflection and inquiry – it’s about learning how to learn so that your life’s experiences become your own learning lab. The concept of continuous learning has become quite prominent over the past five years. Organizations are changing rapidly. Therefore, it’s difficult to find any approach to doing anything in organizations that doesn’t soon become outdated. The concept of continuous learning has become important because it places priority on noticing, adapting and learning from change.”

– Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Placing priority on noticing, adapting and learning from change (at least in my opinion) couldn’t be more prominent than it is in marketing. We in the advertising industry are paid to be on the bleeding edge of technology, understand it and even be in front of it. And, lets face it, technology is moving so fast that today’s “in” thing is tomorrow’s piece of trash. So in some respects, continuous learning is necessary just to survive. But I look at that necessity as a positive and work to embrace the unknown and learn from it. I attempt to look at every project as “how can I do one thing new that I’ve never attempted before?” Then, research it, learn more and execute. And I live by one simple idea: if you don’t understand it, how are you going to expect someone else to?

The best advice I can give… the easiest way to learn more is from those around you. And, here at Hart, the depth of knowledge in our office across every conceivable form advertising astounds me each and every day. So for me, learning is as easy as getting up and walking down the hall to talk to a co-worker. Also, learn from your elders and apply their experience to that bleeding edge technology. I can’t tell you the number of times that I took the advice from someone who was “in the business” for years and applied it to some new emerging technology format and had tremendous results. I’m a child of the ’80s, and one of my most influential teachers in college told us that my generation was one of the luckiest due to two simple truths. One that we can actually remember a life without computers, and two, we get to work with with the baby boomer generation and learn from them before they retire. That ability to blend the old with the new is what makes us a force to be reckoned with and why I think our society is moving at the pace it does today.

In the end, never stop wanting to learn, never expect the work to come to you, and the more you know will make you a better valued employee, help keep your company viable in an ever changing world and make you a well rounded human being.

So I ask, how do you keep continuously learning, and what are the things that inspire you?

Places that I look to learn or be inspired from:

• www.google.com (Is there anything it doesn’t know?)
• www.gizmodo.com (All things nerdy)
• www.foldfactory.com (Check out the 60 second super-cool fold of the week)
• www.cultofmac.com (Because I am the definition of an Apple fanboy, and Apple = Cool design.)
• www.thedieline.com (Great blog of packaging; my first love in design)
• blog.2modern.com (Just all around cool designed stuff)
• http://kelbytv.com/photoshopusertv/ (A new site I’ve recently been following to learn new tricks in that “ocean of possibilities” program we call Photoshop)