A CUES senior editor shares her strategies--and wants to know yours.
By Lisa Hochgraf
A week from today, I'll have the privilege of reporting on CEO Institute I from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia. (All three segments of CEO Institute usually run in the spring--this is the first-ever summer session, which we've added due to high demand.) I promise I'll blog about the great ideas I hear from faculty and students alike, but as I prepare to go, I want to have a dialog with you about what needs to be done to get ready to make the most of professional development time. I'm going to share what I've been up to this week and then hope you'll share your best practices for professional development prep in the comments. First of all, I'm taking some pauses. To think about being away and to prepare for it, I have to step back from the September issue of CU Management magazine that's currently in production, take a break from checking on the CUES Skybox blog that just went live within CUES' main website, and postpone (slightly) starting on the next issue of the newsletter for CUES Director Membership.These are important little pauses before the big professional development pause for the actual event, which I wrote about in a previous post. Second, I'm taking care of logistics--thinking about my best road warrior tricks and getting logged into Wharton's event website to see what sessions are when and what reading I need to do. I'm also making a list of the regular work things that have to get done around the edges, even when I'm gone. The third big thing I'm doing is seeding the great networking I'm anticipating doing at the event. I've gotten the registration list and am checking in with other CUESers about what we might collectively know about the people who will be in attendance. That way, I can ask some intelligent questions from the get-go. I'd expect to have a great week at Wharton even without these efforts, but I'm also hopeful my endeavors will facilitate additional good learning and networking. So now it's your turn. What do you do to prepare for professional development?
Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor. CUES' new Blended Learning maximizes learning and minimizes travel. Offered through Cornell University, the first two courses, "Women in Leadership" and "Leadership Brand and Shadow" start in September. Photo credit: dollarphoto.com/tashatuvango
