Build Your Own Learning Program

Turning curiosity into your competitive edge

Forget the paid, off-the-shelf course and instead build your own bespoke program of learning.

Early in my career, I attended my fair share of management courses until a hospital Chief Executive showed me a better way. He organised a development program in which we visited several top hospitals in the United States, such as Johns Hopkins and Cincinnati Children’s, to name but two.

We met their executive teams as a group and then had one-to-one sessions with our counterparts. In those conversations, we could explore areas of personal interest, ask targeted questions, and follow up where we needed clarity.

It was entirely different from the typical classroom course where you sit through a slide deck with forty others and get a few minutes for questions at the end.

With the hospital CEO's bespoke approach, I covered more ground in an hour than I would have in a full day of traditional training.

Since then, I’ve built my own development programs. Instead of signing up for formal courses, I’d arrange coffee or dinner with people who had the expertise I wanted to learn from. It was more efficient, more personal, and a great deal less tedious than those long days in a lecture theatre.

When my eldest son considered adding a postgraduate year to deepen his knowledge in his chosen field, I suggested he take a similar path: seek out experts and design his own learning plan. It worked. He gained more for the same cost and in far less time. True, there was no certificate to frame, but as an entrepreneur, he didn’t need paperwork to prove his understanding.

When I’m hiring, I’m obviously interested in a candidate’s technical qualifications, but I’ve never asked for proof of every course they’ve taken. Aptitude shows through the work they deliver.

And the higher you climb in an organisation, the more bespoke the issues become. The real problems often aren’t covered by formal courses. In those moments, finding someone who has faced a similar challenge can yield insights you’ll never find in theory.

Textbooks and lectures are excellent at describing best practice, but experience is better at explaining what actually works.

Another advantage of building your own development plan is that those conversations themselves become a network. People remember who asks thoughtful questions and who listens. You never know what opportunities might come from that.

As for executive programs, those three-to-six-week residential courses at top business schools, I’ve done one myself. My organisation gave me the choice between Harvard and INSEAD. I chose INSEAD for its Singapore campus and the exposure to Asia. Ironically, my career later took me west to the United States.

The program cost the company a considerable sum, and I’ve always appreciated that investment. I can’t recall every case study, but what stayed with me were the discussions with peers and the way the faculty could simplify complex ideas. That’s where I learned the value of adjusting your message to your audience; a lesson that shaped my leadership style ever after.

Was it worth the cheque the company wrote, or could I have learned it elsewhere? Hard to say.

I’m not dismissing formal courses. They can be hugely valuable, particularly early in your career when you’re still building breadth. But as you progress, your learning should become more deliberate, anchored to your specific goals and the real problems you’re trying to solve.

That’s when you realise that the best education is the one you build yourself.

Reflection: Expertise is built conversation by conversation.