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Tips: Development Planning
Benefits of Development Planning
1.
Identifying Development Needs
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Creates regular & frequent opportunities to discuss personal
development.
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Encourages team members to take responsibility for their own
development.
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Provides specific and useful feedback about performance.
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Identifies team members strengths and areas of development.
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Establishes what needs to be done to create a learning
environment.
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Involves team members in defining personal development
goals.
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Challenges team members to make significant improvements.
2. Planning for Development
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Structures appropriate learning experiences for team
members..
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Matches individual development programmes to company
requirements.
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Takes actions to identify the way team members prefer to
learn.
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Seeks to match learning activity to individuals preferred
learning styles.
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Challenges team members to try out other roles/activities.
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Is able to identify opportunities where tasks may be used as
learning experiences.
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Dedicates time to discuss development opportunities with
team members.
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Creates opportunities for team members to learn new skills
and experience new situations.
3. Implementing Development Plans
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Devotes time and energy into developing the competencies of
his/her team members.
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Gives others the freedom to explore their own initiatives.
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Creates an environment conducive to learning.
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Encourages team members to reflect on and learn from
everyday experiences.
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Gives praise for a job well done.
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Provides constructive feedback on a regular basis.
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Encourages others to try different approaches.
4. Personal Development
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Seeks frequent feedback from others and acts on it.
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Openly admits mistakes and learns from them.
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Has a clear personal development plan.
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Gives priority to personal development activities.
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Continually challenges self to ‘see things differently’.
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Listens to, considers and tries out the ideas of others.
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Asks others for help in achieving development goals.
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Acts as a role model to others in the area of self
development.
Development Needs
Remember
training and development is a process therefore treat your
development needs as a general guide to your development.
The real value in implementing your development needs is
the learning you achieve.
Remember that your development needs are a result of the skills and/or
competencies related to the job and that each job skill and/or
competency usually has an associated proficiency level.
To increase your proficiency level consider the differences between the proficiency levels and what areas of knowledge and skills are needed to reach your required level for the job.
Things to consider when implementing your development:
- What specifically must be accomplished ie what objectives need
to be reached
- Which of these objectives require learning new areas of
knowledge and skills
- What order should the learning be
organized as it is may be
useful to learn certain areas of knowledge and skills before
learning new areas
- What type of training activity is best suited for your
development need i.e. enrolling on a programme, reading a book,
watching a video, on line learning, talking with people who are
experts
- Does the training activity match your preferred learning style
ie doing, listening, reading as understanding your learning
style helps you learn more effectively
(associated topic Learning Styles)
- Does your training activity take advantage of real life learning
opportunities ie on-the-job training, use of projects
- What evidence will you be able to produce to show the observable results of your learning
- What will you be
able to do as a result of the learning
- Completing a development plan is a good way to document your learning activities (see associated topic example development plan smart objectives)
Understanding Your Learning Style
By recognizing and understanding your own learning styles allows you to improve the speed and quality of your learning. Sometimes you might use a variety of learning styles. It is recommended to choose the best training activity for you to achieve the best learning experience as not always the information is presented in ways that best suit you.
Some training activities ie workshops, practical activities or through case studies may suit some people more than others. Sometimes, people feel they are not good at learning when it may be just that they don't know their own learning styles.
General Descriptions based on Kolbs
theories
There are four different styles in Kolbs cycle
Activists
Activists involve themselves fully and
without bias in new experiences. They enjoy the here and
now and are happy to be dominated by immediate experiences.
They are open-minded, not skeptical and this tends to make them
enthusiastic about anything new. Their philosophy is:
“I’ll try anything once”.
They tend to throw caution to the wind.
Their days are filled with activity. They revel in short
term crisis fire fighting. They tackle problems by
brainstorming. As soon as the excitement from one activity
has died down, they are busy looking for the next. They
tend to thrive on the challenge of new experiences but are bored
with implementation and longer term consolidation.
They are gregarious people constantly
involving themselves with others, but in doing so, they hog the
limelight. They are the life and soul of the party and
seek to centre all activities around themselves.
Reflectors
Reflectors like to stand back to ponder
experiences and observe them from many different perspectives.
They collect data, both first hand and from others, and prefer
to chew it over thoroughly before coming to any conclusions.
The thorough collection and analysis of data about experiences
and events is what counts, so they tend to be cautious, to leave
no stone unturned. “Look before you leap” “Sleep on it”.
They are thoughtful people, who like to
consider all possible angles and implications before making a
move. They prefer to take a back seat in meeting and
discussions. They enjoy observing other people in action.
They listen to others and get the drift of the discussion before
making their own points. They tend to adopt a low profile
and have a slightly distant, tolerant, unruffled air about them.
When they act, it is as part of a wide picture that includes the
past as well as the present, and others’ observations as well as
their own.
Theorists
Theorists adapt and
integrate observations into complex but logically sound
theories. They think problems through in a vertical, step
by step, logical way. They assimilate disparate facts into
coherent theories. They tend to be perfectionists who
won’t rest easy until things are tidy and fit into their
rational scheme. They like to analyze and synthesize.
They are keen on basic assumptions, principles, theory models
and systems thinking. Their philosophy prizes rationality
and logic. “If it’s logical it’s good”. Questions
they frequently ask are: “Does it make sense?” “How does
this fit with that?” “What are the basic assumptions?”.
They tend to be
detached, analytical and dedicated to rational objectivity
rather than anything subjective or ambiguous. Their
approach to problems is consistently logical. This is
their ‘mental set’ and they rigidly reject anything that doesn’t
fit with it. They prefer to maximize certainty and feel
uncomfortable with subjective judgments, lateral thinking and
anything flippant.
Pragmatists
Examples of Training Activities
|
Go for |
Activist |
Reflector |
Theorist |
Pragmatist |
|
On
the job activities
& responsibilities |
Observing others, watching videos |
Learning about things as part of a model, a concept part
of the larger whole |
An obviours practical link between the subject and their
job |
|
|
Been
thrown in at the deep end |
Having time to think, ponder & work things out before
having a go |
Chance to explore things methodically and look at the
logic |
Learn techniques that will be of practical help |
|
|
Real
projects |
Researching, reading & gathering information |
Like being stretched intellectually |
Have a chance to practice and get feedback from an
expert |
|
|
Action based training |
There
is structure & forewarning to activities, so they have a
chance to prepare |
Situations which are structured and have a clear purpose |
They are given role models they can respect |
|
|
The
opportunity to discuss and have a go at things |
Minimum time pressure |
Listen to, watch or read about ideas/concepts, which
focus on rationality and logic |
Immediate opportunities to practice |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Avoid |
Lectures |
Being
forced into the limelight into action before preparing |
Thrown into action without having a theoretical context |
Learning or activities not related to an immediate
practical need |
|
Long
distance study |
Having to make presentations or lead groups |
Dealing with a situation that empathises feelings and
emotions |
Obstacles are put in the way of practical implementation |
|
|
Sitting and Listening, watching others or reading |
Having to give instant reactions |
Unstructured activities where ambiguity and uncertainty
is high |
The learning is too abstract and theoretical
disconnected from practical reality |
|
|
Abstract theories in isolation |
Having patch information and being expected to reach a
conclusion |
A ‘once-over lightly’ book or course that skims the
surface |
There is no apparent practical payoff for the
development |