What is Strategic Learning?

As I write this column a mere ten days after the completion of SLA's 2000 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, I find myself reflecting on the various conversations my colleagues and I had with SLA members eager to learn more about the idea of "strategic learning." These inquiries are important pathways that demand our exploration, so that all of us who are participating in the SLA community understand the purpose of and directions in which strategic learning is likely to take us over the next many months and years. And what better place than Strategic Learning Outlook to begin this continuing journey?

Each of us intuitively understands that learning is a far more complex and dynamic process then we are led to believe during our traditional educational careers. Learning begins with us as individuals, but it involves far more than just us. It involves all of the people in our lives, at home, at work, and at play. It involves the organizations in which we work. It involves the communities with which we choose to affiliate ourselves, and it involves the society in which we live. For many of us, these various dimensions of learning are clear yet implicit and, therefore, not discussed. When we speak of strategic learning, we are saying that each of these dimensions must be made explicit and considered in the learning process itself. This is exactly what we are trying to do.

The very core underlying belief that drives SLA's Strategic Learning and Development Center (SLDC) is that learning can make a profound difference and actually effect positive change for individuals and groups, and within organizations, communities, and society. While our starting point will always be with the magnificence of the individual learner, our ends will always require us to gaze beyond the our own immediate needs to the horizon of possibilities for those individuals, institutions, and systems that all share a common bond of learning with us. We believe that individual learning is incredibly important, and that learning beyond the boundaries of the individual is critical. Strategic learning, by incorporating the whole, accrues to the benefit of all, catalyzes positive change, and enhances our ability to shepherd the powerful shaping forces of the twenty-first century.

All of us within the SLA community understand the extraordinary challenges that information professionals face today. The rapid proliferation and adoption of new technologies, the compression of time, the need to serve an increasingly diverse universe of customers and clients in new ways, and the dizzying prospect that these challenges will only intensify in the years ahead are just some of the realities that blend to create the need for strategic learning. We can choose to believe that change is something that will always be inflicted on us by others, or we can choose to believe that we are capable of initiating and impacting the direction of change within our own spheres of influence. Strategic learning urges to choose the latter and think of ourselves as part of a larger whole, striving to make change happen in ways that help us grow as people, develop our organizations, build our communities and renew our society.

The SLDC tagline, "Helping Information Professionals become Indispensable through Learning," is also an expression of our vision for the possibilities of strategic learning. Of course, we recognize that the notion of indispensability truly is an aspiration. Not only does "becoming indispensable" take on very different meanings in different organizational settings, but it is also an ideal condition that will be quite difficult for most of us to attain. Nevertheless, we believe that you—the information professional—can, through strategic learning, advance confidently toward a future in which you operate and are viewed by others as a truly distinctive contributor to your organization. This evolutionary (or, perhaps, revolutionary) process simply cannot occur, however, without your active participation in it.

As our tagline suggests, we can "help" you change and grow, but we cannot do it for you. In this sense, "Helping Information Professionals become Indispensable through Learning," involves much more than an offer from us to you. Indeed, it might best be described as an implicit contract between you and your future. Keeping up with what is going on today is necessary, but preparing for and actually creating "all your tomorrows" is essential.

The SLDC staff stands ready to be your partner in learning and we hope you will call on us.