Plan Your Learning for 2024

What’s top of mind:

It’s a New Year! But not an entirely new me. You might have noticed I usually use these newsletters to tell you about myself and my experience as an instructor. This time, though, I want to talk about you, the dedicated learner. And since I talked about how we can determine what we really want to learn in the last edition, I’m going to use this edition to help you make a learning plan. (Need to catch up? Go back and answer these questions for yourself first.)

Got the topic you want to master? Let’s set you up for success!  

Where to start: 

At the end. Seriously. It doesn’t matter whether I want to learn a language or teach an SAP course. It doesn’t matter if the learning will take place in person in real time or taught online with recorded videos. I always start by identifying my end goal. 

I ask myself, “What do I want the learner to walk away from the course with?” If I’m the learner and I want to learn French, I need to know to what degree. Do I need to be able to dream in French or just order food? If I’m teaching an SAP course, I might want the learner to understand how to do their day-to-day job and how what they do in the system impacts the rest of the business. For Train-the-Trainer sessions, I want my learners to walk away with the confidence and skills to deliver effective training in the relevant topic. 

Whatever it is, I need a way to measure whether the learner met these goals in the end. Then I go back to the beginning. From here, I complete a Needs Assessment—a tool that tells me what knowledge the learner already has and what else they need to know—so that I can identify gaps in their (or my) knowledge or skills. 

Once I know where the starting line and the finish line are, I can build a curriculum, or a learning path, to get there. And I’m confident that you can, too! Whatever you decided you want to learn, I’ll show you how to do it the way an instructor like me would. Let’s take it step by step.

1. Define Your Success:

No matter why you want to learn something, establishing some measure of success will help determine what steps you need to get there. I’m a big proponent of goal-setting because I personally benefit from the structure, and I particularly like this article by James Clear. His advice helps us lay out our dreams in simple terms. WHAT do I want to learn by WHEN? Using that, we can figure out HOW to reach our goal. 

Here’s an example: 

Remember when we talked about external and internal motivators? Here’s a refresher anyway:

Say I want to earn a certification so I can make more money 💲. This would be an externally-motivated goal because I’m only taking the course as a means to an end. I’m learning for the purpose of something else. But if I want to learn to speak French because I like the way that language sounds, this would be an internally-motivated goal. I’m learning something purely for the joy it brings me. Even though the measure of success will look different in each case, we still need a clear goal to work toward. 

So, if I’m externally-motivated to learn SAP because it will earn me a promotion I can set a pretty straightforward WHAT by WHEN: I need to pass my SAP certification exam by June 1, 2024 so I can get promoted to the senior role.

Intrinsic goals are no less important, but they can be harder to define. I might have to get creative with my deadline and decide I want to speak enough French to converse with others at a foreign-language meetup on September 1, 2024.

2. Know Thyself

Go back to the beginning. Do your own Needs Assessment. Figure out where you are, right now, on your learning path. Identify what you need to learn to get where you want to go. And be honest with yourself! Don’t bite off so much that you get discouraged and quit. And don’t sell yourself so short that you get bored and lose interest.

If you already know some SAP but you want to get a Certificate in the MM module, you don’t necessarily have to go back to the basics. You could go straight to the in-depth training materials. But if, like me, the only French you remember involves ordering a ham and cheese croissant 🥐, you might want to rebuild your elementary vocabulary before you start reading Le Petit Prince in it's original language. Whatever the size of your goal, a clear starting point will help you plan every step of the way.

3. Create Your Curriculum

But don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel! Instead, gather resources like books, online courses, articles and videos. Then try “benchmarking” what you come up with. Benchmarking is a strategy in which instructors research the generally accepted outcomes of a topic and the best practices for reaching these outcomes. So look for university syllabuses or seek out the outlines for certifications you’re trying to achieve. 

Pro Tip: Consider reaching out to people who have stood in your shoes before. Even experts had to start somewhere! They often know the best approaches to try and the biggest pitfalls to avoid.

Or if you want to get high-tech, I’ve found AI to be a helpful tool. I wouldn’t rely on it to create a complete curriculum for me, but I have had luck experimenting with prompts, like:

“Evaluate my curriculum to learn X and point out any topics that may be missing.” 

Whichever route you go, be prepared to research, research, research! Experts suggest spending up to 5% of the total time you have to learn something on making sure you’re using the right materials. And it’s best to do that BEFORE you’re halfway through! 

Once you’ve gathered all your materials, structure your curriculum by grouping logical themes together. If it’s French, you can organize your vocabulary by verbs or foods! Then sequence the learning and allocate the time you’ll spend learning to meet your big goals. If it’s a certain module of SAP you’d want to learn the high-level process flow first.  Then you’d want to learn the transactions.  For example, learn the Order-to-Cash (OTC) process before you take on the steps to create a sales order in the system.  

Set some smaller milestones and celebrate them! Spend 30 minutes undistracted? Have a dance party! Make 5 sessions in a row? Treat yourself to a favorite coffee or tea. It doesn’t matter what the reward is—what matters is that you create a ritual by celebrating. 

4. Execute Your Plan

All that’s left to do is learn! You’ve done all you can to set yourself up for success. Now it’s time to execute on your plan.

Of course, no plan is perfect. Life happens, and you’ll probably miss a session or two. But try to stick to your schedule as best you can. Get back in the learner's seat as quickly as possible so you don’t lose any momentum. And be kind to yourself when you do miss a session.  Right now, I’m writing the advice that I need to hear. 🥲

What I’m learning: 

This one might be externally motivated, but LinkedIn Learning launched some learning paths of their own—including one on Supply Chain. The coolest part? If you complete the courses and pass the final exam, you get a professional certificate from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals! I’ve never had one of those before. But in hopes of brushing up on my Supply Chain skills, I’ve jumped into the CSCMP Supply Chain Foundations: The Essentials Professional Certificate, which includes courses from wonderful instructors: Daniel Stanton , Jamie Champagne , and Steven Brown . These courses are worth a watch!

What’s new with SAP:

A new article in Forbes claims the biggest talent gap lies in SAP 🤯😮

Catch up quick: Obviously I’m biased when it comes to the importance of learning SAP skills. But this article highlights the major reasons there just aren’t enough skilled SAP folks to work on all the projects out there. There’s a 2027 deadline from SAP to migrate legacy ERP systems to S/4HANA. 

The article references a 2020 survey from the America SAP User Group that found “only a fraction of SAP consultants were trained and prepared for the coming tsunami of S/4HANA work.”

TLDR: It’s a good time to get learning! 🌀🌪️

Shameless Plug:  This would be a really good place to start

What I'm reading right now:

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

I’ve been on a serious fiction kick. Time to switch gears and read a non-fiction book about Wall Street. This book has been on my “to-read” list for a couple years. I had been avoiding it because the subject matter didn’t seem super sexy. 

BUT I’ve been pleasantly surprised as it reads more like a psychology of crowds book than an investing book. For example, the author talks about the Dutch tulip mania that took place in the 1600s. Fortunes were made and lost speculating on the cost of rare bulbs. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to go buy some NFTs. 🤑

What Else?

Getting stuck creating (or executing) on your learning plan?  Message me here on LinkedIn. Even if I’m not an expert on the topic, I can ask some questions that will help you get back on track.

Looking forward,

JV

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