In an effort to keep up to date, i spend a fair amount of time cruising around the web, reading technology news articles and the like (Database Weekly is pretty great for that) so i can get general information on new technologies and the like. I have to prioritize which particlular things i dive into for greater detail; i am still working after all. So, with a focus primarily on what's applicable to my current work environment/project i try to work with something enough to get a basic understanding. From that point, i can figure out more complicated implementations relatively simply and quickly (should the need arise). the best example of this was SSIS. I knew SSIS had serious potential for streamlining the system i was working on, so i poked around a bit. Although none of th work i've personally done has involved coding in SSIS, i did end up teaching the new DBA at our (the company i work for's) client how to use it. He now sets up various simple packages for the export of Excel reports.

I am by no means an SSIS expert, but having taken this approach, i'm confident that i could rapidly train up to perform any tasks for which i might be called upon.