This presentation, delivered on May 12, 2022 at the MER 2022 conference in Indianapolis, IN, outlined an approach to building a personal professional development plan.

1. Professional Development for the
Information Professional
Jesse Wilkins
President and Principal Consultant
Athro Consulting
May 12, 2022

3. Agenda
What Information Professionals Need to Know
Different Paths to Professional Development
Your Professional Development Plan

4. What Information
Professionals Need
to Know

5. The AIIM ECM BoK c. 2002

6. MIKE2 as a Body of Knowledge
Source: MIKE2

7. ARMA’s InfoBOK and IGBOK

8. The Definitive IM
Body of
Knowledge
…doesn’t exist.

9. Boundary
Issues
• No IM body of knowledge
addresses every single information
management-related domain.
• For example…
• Engineering drawing
management
• Customer communication
management
• Web content management
• Document control

10. Taxonomy and Terminology
Issues
• Terms means different things to different
organizations and even different
departments.
• “Record”
• “Knowledge management”
• “Information governance”

11. The Expertise Dilemma
• Bodies of knowledge about a
thing…
• Are built by those who have done
it for a long time…
• Who are probably more senior,
meaning they aren’t “in the
trenches” anymore…
• And who may not be up to speed
on the newest developments.

12. It Depends…
• What you need to know depends on…
• Where you are in your career
• Where you want to go in your career
• What you want to do for the next X years

13. Different Paths to
Professional Development

14. Success begins with figuring out what
you want, then making the choices
that will get you there.
Shellye Archambeau
Former CEO, MetricStream
AIIM21 Keynote

15. Position Yourself for Success
It’s your professional development plan.

16. It’s Your Responsibility
• You know what you want to be when you
grow up.
• Determine your goals
• Assess your current state
• Assess what you need to do to achieve
your goals

17. It’s Your
Responsibility
You’re probably paying
for it.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

18. A Framework for
Professional
Development

19. The Four Pillars
of Professional
Development
Structured Learning
Unstructured Learning
Coaching and Mentoring
On-the-job Training

20. Structured
Learning
• Degree programs
• More recognized
• More valued…?
• Much more expensive
• Can get dated very quickly
• May be required for employment
or advancement

21. Structured Learning
Certifications
Formal designations
Generally require a formal
assessment and ongoing
maintenance
Should be updated regularly
Certificates
Less formal, may not include a
designation
Generally include learning and an
assessment of that content
Do not require ongoing maintenance
Should still be updated regularly

22. Training
Courses

23. Certifications (& Cert Prep Courses)

24. Unstructured Learning
• Books & publications
• Conferences
• Standards & templates
• Social media channels
• Blogs
• MOOCs

25. Conferences

26. Massive Open
Online Courses
(MOOC)

27. Coaching and Mentoring
Coaching:
More performance-driven
More structured & formalized
Mentoring:
More development-driven
Less structured
Both are valuable - but different – and you get from each
what you put into them

28. On-the-job
Training
• Observation of skilled practitioners
• “Practice” at job tasks under close
supervision
• Example: Conduct a records inventory
• Review the inventory process and approach
documentation
• Shadow team members who are conducting the
inventory
• Inventory a dedicated training location
• Inventory your own file share
• Very good for employees and organization –
but needs focus and attention to be
successful

29. The Five Types of
Competencies
Sector/industry competencies
Information Management process-
oriented competencies
Information Management technology-
oriented competencies
Professional competencies
Organizational competencies

30. Sector / Industry
Competencies
• What industry do you operate in?
• Example: Federal or provincial
government
• Example: Oil & gas - upstream
• What unique IM-related competencies are
required in that industry?
• Example: Responding to Freedom of
Information Act (FOI) requests
• Example: Managing well log files and
engineering drawings
• Where can you acquire those
competencies?

31. IM Process-Based Competencies
What is your role –
what processes do you
work on?
• Records
management
• Business analyst
• SharePoint user
What process-type
competencies do you
need to be effective?
• Reading a retention
schedule
• Leading a
requirements
gathering workshop
• Create and save
documents in
SharePoint
Where can you acquire
those competencies?

32. IM Technology-Oriented Competencies
What is your role –
what processes do you
work on?
Records management
Process owner
SharePoint administrator
What tools do you use?
A content repository
An office productivity suite
A specialized application
What technical
competencies do you
need to be effective?
Use analytics tools in
support of a file share
cleanup
Create a flowchart
Create sites and site
templates in SharePoint
Where can you acquire
those competencies?

33. Professional Competencies
Every information
professional needs
these!
Examples include:
Project management
Communication / public
speaking
Change management
Where can you acquire
those competencies?

34. Organizational Competencies
• How do you do your job at your organization?
• Organizational culture
• Risk tolerance
• Terminology and acronyms
• How a specific tool is implemented and
configured
• Specific workflows and processes
• Changing organizations – or departments – may
require you to relearn these
• Where can you acquire those competencies?

35. The PD Plan Matrix
Domain Structured
Learning
Unstructured Learning Coaching/ Mentoring OJT / Experiential
Degree programs
Training programs
Certifications
Certificates
Conferences
Books & publications
Standards
Social media
MOOCs
Lunch & learns
Formal or informal
(More effective with
more structure)
OJT: As directed,
with/instead of
coaching or mentoring
Experiential:
Just Do It! ™
Sector/Industry
competencies (e.g. energy,
legal, government)
IM process competencies
(e.g. RM, BA)
IM tech competencies (e.g.
metadata, flowcharts)
Professional/soft skills
competencies (proj mgmt.,
change mgmt.)
The Professional Development Plan Template

36. My Plan for 2021
Domain Structured
Learning
Unstructured Learning Coaching/ Mentoring OJT / Experiential
Sector/Industry
competencies – for me this
is associations and
government
Complete 1 ATD
certificate course
Attend NAGARA 2022 N/A N/A
IM process competencies
– for me this is privacy and
general IM process
developments
Complete CIPM
prep course and
exam
Attend ARMA InfoCon
2022
Review updated ISO
standards
Maintain CIPP/US
N/A N/A
IM tech competencies –
for me this is analytics and
RPA
Complete
certificate program
on ML
Complete MOOCs on
RPA and analytics
N/A Build a demo
information inventory
using Treesize
Professional/soft skills
competencies – for me this
is change management
Attend Prosci CM
course
Read 2 specific CM
books (AKDAR, Kotter)
N/A Build a CM plan
template with examples

37. Questions?

39. For More
Information
Jesse Wilkins, CIPP/US, CRM, IGP, ICE-CCP
President and Principal Consultant,
Athro Consulting
https://www.athroconsulting.com
jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com
Twitter: @jessewilkins
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewilkins