One of the things that I hear regularly from people in the learning and development community is, “our people don’t know how to write good development plans. ” In the next breath, often comes a request such as, “Can you show me some examples of well-written plans that I can use to help educate my people?”
This would seem to be a reasonable request, right?
Actually, I don’t think that providing examples of “good development plans” is the best way to help a person guide their own development. Why? Well, a good development plan doesn’t necessarily look much different from a bad development plan.
The most critical components of a good development plan are all those things that don’t make it onto the development plan form–the quality of the process used to get meaningful feedback on strengths and weaknesses; the effort invested in reflecting on where you are trying to go in your job and career; the extent of personal insight and self-awareness behind the plan, etc… Of course, the problem is that all of this other work is the hard work of development that many people aren’t ready to do.
So, the interest in “well-written development plans” can be a sign that there is too much emphasis on the talent development process and not enough on the hard work of actually helping to develop capability.
Don’t get me wrong. Development plans are important and useful tools, and it is good to have one that is based on a thorough self-examination. My point is simply that the writing of the plan is actually pretty easy when you know what you are trying to accomplish. It is every other part of the process that is difficult. As a result, looking at “well-written development plans” is not that instructive for the individual wanting to drive their own development in the most effective manner.
This reminds me of something once told to me by a college classmate that has stuck with me through the years. He was describing his experience in trying to write a paper for our philosophy class:
”At first, I thought I knew what I wanted to say, but I just didn’t know how to say it. Then, I realized, that’s just another way of saying I really don’t know what I want to say.”
It’s not that people don’t know how to write good development plans. Its that they don’t really know what they need to develop and how to develop it. Unfortunately, that is a much harder problem to solve.
Filed under: Creating a high-impact development plan, Executive Education, Self-Development, Uncategorized
At least with a written development plan maps out what you are trying to accomplish. To succeed or not is another different thing.
Simplemindpower,
thanks for the comment. I am a proponent of written development plans. In other posts in my blog you will see that I advise written plans to clarify thinking and focus progress. My point in this post is simply that there is no secret for the written plan itself. In fact, looking at prepackaged or prewritten plans is like picking a destination for vacation before thinking about how you want to spend your time. It is the reflective process of creating the plan which can produce the right plan for an individual.
Thanks again for posting.
Mark