Charting Your Course
Providing support for your learning journey
Catherine Lombardozzi here with a short announcement:
These days, I’m working on my next chapter… becoming a writer-beach-walker, a role that has long been a dream of mine. I’ve relocated to the beach at Lewes, Delaware, and I’m writing personal essays on cmtl.me. All the content I developed for Learning 4 Learning Professionals is still available here, although it’s not being updated after 2025. I like to think the material is still useful, though, and I invite you to reach out as well if you think I can help you in some way. I have been proud to be part of the L&D community for over 40 years, and I know there is more great work in your future.
Charting Your Course
Your guide for in-depth self-directed learning
In today’s environment, people don’t have to go back to school to gain the in-depth knowledge and skill mastery they need. The internet is a treasure trove for people who want to learn. But finding the right learning resources and activities, planning self-development, and being accountable for outcomes are not as easy to accomplish as you might think.
Charting Your Course for Self-Directed Learning is a guide for the development journey.
Whether you are interested in developing your own skills or hoping to support others in defining their own self-directed learning journeys, Charting Your Course provides the structure and advice you need.
Charting Your Course will help you to:
> Design a comprehensive self-development plan for a specific knowledge base or skill
> Strengthen your development plan by including a range of tactics that support your learning
> Bolster your core self-directed learning skills
The Process
Charting Your Course has three phases:
Orientating – where you’ll identify and clarify your destination – your overall goal for the learning project
Wayfinding – where you’ll make a plan for developing a specific knowledge base or skill
Journeying – where you’ll follow your plan in order to advance your knowledge base and develop your skill
The Charting Your Course Workbook provides a template for creating a robust self-directed learning plan. (Download for free below.) The Charting Your Course Guidebook elaborates on Orientating, Wayfinding, and Journeying, further detailing the process and providing links to additional materials that will help you to create and execute an interesting and instructive itinerary.
Take control of your professional development by mapping out your own path. Savor the journey!
// Previews
- Professional Development for Busy People, introductory webinar hosted by Michelle Ockers (December 2021)
- Self-directed learning success, Learning Uncut Podcast with Michelle Ockers, Elevate #16 (November 2021)
- Becoming Future-Ready Through Self-Directed Learning, L&D Cares Career Growth Summit Webinar (February 2021)
// Charting Your Course Workbook
The Charting Your Course workbook is a template for planning in-depth self-directed learning journeys.
Free to download for personal use only.
// Charting Your Course Guidebook
The Guidebook provides in-depth guidance on crafting and executing your self-directed learning plan through Orientating, Wayfinding, and Journeying. It contains more detailed explanations of the process and 35 links to useful resources to support your efforts and is available to those who work with me on charting their course. Contact me if you would like a complimentary copy.
Charting Your Course Consulting Services
I collaborate with you and your team to successfully implement the Charting Your Course process. Contact me for a free consultation around what you are trying to achieve.
Let me be your guide and learning coach, providing personalized assistance in devising your course of action and effectively completing your self-development journey.
No matter how many resources you might find on an internet search or how committed you might be to developing your knowledge and skill, creating and executing a robust self-development plan is not an easy process. By collaborating with me on Charting Your Course, you’ll have help identifying your goals, finding and selecting resources and activities, crafting a workable plan, navigating around obstacles, and successfully achieving the skill advancement you desire.
// Navigator Services
With the Navigator Services package, you get a full-service learning concierge to identify your destination and plan your itinerary.
As your navigator, I will:
- Work with you to clarify your destination – provide you with tools to help you to evaluate your skills and act as a sounding board to discern your priority development goals.
- Collaborate with you to research your potential itinerary – identify personalized recommendations for resources and activities to address your learning goal.
- Create a proposed plan – suggest a detailed list of activities, timeline and waypoints.
Navigator services include two or three one-on-one meetings (usually virtual) to identify your destination and to discuss, review and finalize the itinerary. Along the way, you’ll be asked to complete preliminary assessments and worksheets to feed into the process.
// Guide Services
The Guide Services package provides personal consultation as you take your learning journey and arrive at your destination.
As your guide, I will:
- Act as your learning mentor – help you to make sense of what you are learning and decide how you might apply it, and engage with you to review the challenges and successes that result from your efforts.
- Coach you in applying new skills – guide and critique your application projects, encourage your progress, prompt timely action, and urge completion of the journey.
- Consult with you on progress and course corrections – help you to redraw your map as necessary as things change along the way.
- Help you to develop the skills you need to learn on your own – coach you on developing the “wherewithal” that allows you to manage your own learning projects
Let’s collaborate to ensure every member of your team has an effective, robust self-development plan and the support they need to successfully upskill or reskill to ensure their ongoing success.
Use Charting Your Course as part of your strategy for planning individual development on your team. We can customize a workshop to orient the team around self-development and create a solid ongoing initiative that will help your team significantly advance their knowledge and skills.
// Team Expedition
A team expedition package is customized to your needs and might include:
- The Charting Your Course workbook plus licensing for additional resource materials to guide your team to create more impactful self-development plans
- A one-hour Professional Development for Busy People webinar that thoroughly describes the process and discusses challenges (can be customized)
- Customized recommendations for creating a team environment conducive to self-directed learning
My detailed, on-demand resources guide employees through the process of charting a course for deep learning.
Now more than ever, organizations need to support employees in upskilling and reskilling – and often this is best accomplished when employees themselves take the lead. The Charting Your Course process and the accompanying in-depth resources can help ensure that employees create development plans that are targeted, robust, and effective – thereby ensuring that your organization has the skills it needs to move forward.
// Charting Your Course Resource Package
If you are supporting your organization in embracing self-directed learning, license the Charting Your Course workbook and in-depth supporting materials for all your employees.
The full Charting Your Course package (to be uploaded for access within your organization) includes:
- Charting Your Course Workbook
- 4 short videos that describe the process OR live webinar(s)
- Detailed guidance and curated resources for Orientating, Wayfinding, and Journeying
- Charting Your Course infographic
- Additional customized materials as determined in consultation with you
All recommendations in the Charting Your Course materials are grounded in adult learning research and theory, most especially in self-directed learning theory. For a synthesis of what the research says, see my research report, Self-Directed Learning: Essential strategy for a rapidly changing world (Learning Guild, 2020). Also see my Curated Resources on Scaffolding Self-Direction at Work.
Let’s have a conversation about what you are trying to achieve. Contact me for a free consultation.