Returning from learning . . . now what?

A CEO Institute attendee’s 5 steps for ensuring your professional development experience informs your work going forward.

You’ve just returned to your office from a learning experience, full of excitement for what is to come. Your notebook is filled with pages of notes, take-aways and ideas you’d like to put into action. But when you open your email, you find yourself torn between moving back into your daily routine and pushing forward based on all of your new knowledge and experiences. How do you balance these two paths?

My recent experience attending CEO Institute I: Strategic Planning at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, was just as described above. Every day of the event, I returned to my room filled with new knowledge, ideas and contacts that I was so excited to bring back to my work/office.

When I got back to CUES in Madison, I couldn’t express how impactful the week had been for me and all that I had experienced. I put my materials on my desk and for a couple of days they inched farther and farther from my line of sight. On my third day back, I realized I was going to have to take action to truly apply my experience at CEO Institute to my work.

 

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