I have realized that there are several reasons why development plans are so vexing for people:

1) “Development needs” tend to be identified in terms of personal competencies; qualities of the individual to be improved or leveraged.  They ultimately involve descriptions individual skills, abilities, characteristics, orientations, outlooks, mindsets…or whatever other term you want to use.

2) The most easily identified and packaged solutions for “development needs” are training  programs.  If you have a need to improve on communications skills, take a communications class. Problem solved. But these solutions are very limited.  They don’t address the important development needs of high potential employees.  So, you are going to put him or her into the company’s leadership development program. That is great, but will it really help them to make a larger contribution to the organization? To be more effective on a larger playing field? Probably not.

3) Real development comes from having experiences. But, we don’t know how to identify the right experiences for a given individual, and we are hard pressed to explain why we think a given experience is the right one in the first place.  When asked to describe why a particular experience will be useful, it is hard to get people to go beyond “It will just be a great experience–they will learn so much, and see different parts of the company, etc…” The point is, we don’t have a simple method of unpacking the learning potential in potential developmental assignments. And, if we don’t really understand the key lessons we want an experience to teach a person, why would expect them to?

So, I have developed a process for creating what some have described as an “experience-based development plan on steroids”–a robust process that guides the individual through a thought process that yields an insightful development plan.  The basic steps, which are supported in the FrameBreaking Leadership Development Workshop with a mixture of online and print tools and exercises, goes like this:

1) Clarify your long-term career aspirations.  While this can be a tough step for some, it’s an important that one’s development plan is put into a larger, career context.

2) Conduct a personal experience audit

4) Ensure your passions are aligned with the experiences you are having and need to have to achieve your long-term career aspirations

5) Document your plan in a simple form and approach it with a Learning Mindset. Adapting a simple reflective practice that I can an “ActiveLearning Routine” can help you to keep learning top of mind once you are embroiled in an experience-based development opportunity.

If you are interested in learning more about this robust approach to experience-based development, check out the workshop description or attend a free webinar on January 18. I have just recently finished a book on this subject, and will post details once it is available for purchase.

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.

Okay, this last of my Five Things to Consider may seem like a throw-away item, but I am including it for a reason.  One of the things that I have noticed throughout my career is that some people invest themselves in their development plans, and others treat their development plans as just an exercise.  I have consistently found that if you work at your development plan, you will improve.  It’s that simple.  If you create a good plan and you dedicate time to achieving that plan, your effort will pay off.  You might not turn your weaknesses into strengths, but you will make progress at improving yourself.

On one hand, this is reassuring and comforting to hear.  Of course, you need to be clear about what you put into your development plan.  You should be certain that you really, really want to follow through on it.  We each have limited time and energy, and by focusing on a development plan that you are serious about, you are committing yourself to channeling some of your energy into achieving a specific goal.  Try it, and you will see results.

On the other hand, if you want to see the glass as half empty, this post makes the converse point that if you don’t work at it, you will not improve.  I have never seen someone spontaneously improve on any significant behavioral dimension. It always takes work!

The only way to learn how to ice skate is to strap on a pair of skates and get out on the ice.  You could spend a lot of time reading up on skating and the importance of balance, but it would be difficult to apply any of that theoretical knowledge to your first time wobbling out onto the rink.  However, within even a few minutes on the ice, you begin to get immediate and direct feedback about what works and what doesn’t.  You suddenly find yourself on a highly accelerated learning curve.   

Most people spend less than one tenth of one percent of their work lives in formal structured learning programs.  As the head of Carlson Executive Education, I would certainly like to see people spend more time in formal learning programs! But the reality is that, formal structured learning is just one tool for developing yourself. In fact, if you are relying solely on formal education to develop your leadership capability, you may have fallen into the trap of trying to find a quick fix.  While formal learning programs, such as those we offer in executive education,  are a valuable resource, you should not think of them as the only resource.   In addition to looking for programs on leadership, you should be looking for opportunities to do things in your job or through special assignments that will teach you leadership lessons. 

Many leadership lessons can only be learned through experience.  The challenge is that, while experience can be the best teacher, great learning experiences are scarce.  And, the costs of bumbling your way through some experiences (i.e., “learning on the job”) can be quite high.  I would rather not go under the knife of anything but the most experienced surgeon, thank you very much!

My point is simply that you should be looking for learning insights in the workplace, and, when the great development assignment comes along, you need to be prepared to get the most from it.  In my experience, talking with hundreds of managers and executives about their development paths, few people are actually good at learning from their work experience.  Those that are good at it, are often the most successful leaders who see it as second nature, and don’t even think of it as learning.  

The subject of experience-based development is a personal passion of mine.  If you are interested in getting into this area more deeply, I will be teaching a 4-hour course on the subject in the new Momentum Series offered by Carlson Executive Education this spring.  Send me an email (mkizilos@umn.edu) if you want to get on the mailing list for this new series of practical and accessible progams.

Someone once suggested that the defining feature of a totalitarian state is that anything that is not required by the state is prohibited by the state.  In other words, all activity is structured, and there is no room whatsoever for individual discretion.  When you talk to some people about their personal development, you might think that you were talking to citizens of a totalitarian state.  “My day is so filled with a constant barrage of activity—much of which is driven by the need to respond to others—that I don’t have the discretionary time to work on my own development.” 

The most powerful thing you can do to deal with the demands of an oppressive schedule is to impose a little structure on your development agenda.  If you create specific goals with action plans and timelines associated with them that are written down on paper, you will be more likely to make the time to follow through and improve yourself.  If you leave your development goals as vague outcomes you would like to achieve when you get the time, you will be much less likely to accomplish them.

 If you don’t know where you’re going you won’t know when you get there.      It is important to take some time to put your development activities into a larger perspective.  What are you trying to develop, what approaches will you take, and how will you know when you have succeeded?  To do this, you need to approach your personal development with a certain degree of thoughtfulness and planning. 

 Basic development planning is very straightforward—you select a development need, identify some development activity to address it, and arrange to complete the activity.  Perhaps someone tells you that you need to be a better team player, or, you have a time management problem.  So you sign up for a course.  At the conclusion of the course you may feel that you learned some valuable things, but did the course help you meet your long-term development goals?  Was that development activity the best way to learn what you needed to learn?  If you let your development progress in an ad hoc manner, you won’t be on the most accelerated path to achieving your goals. 

On the other hand, if you have a personal development plan—a specific set of needs that you are working on over an extended period—it enables you to make better choices about your development and stay on an accelerated course. 

Before launching into any activity with the intention of improving yourself it is useful to understand a few basic principles of self-development.  Stepping back to reflect on your personal needs and the process of developing yourself can be very helpful in highlighting ways for you to jumpstart your learning and make real lasting changes in your life.  The following five principles of self-development may be helpful to keep in mind as you begin creating a development plan for yourself. 

ONE:  Self-Awareness is the first step toward Self Improvement.  Personal development is difficult because most people resist self-awareness.  They reach a point where they are pretty comfortable with themselves, and they become resistant to change.  A common attitude I have encountered when helping others through personal change is, “It’s worked for me in the past, so why fix it if it isn’t broken?”  In order to grow beyond who you are today you must first acknowledge that there is room for improvement. 

If you don’t have a lot of self-confidence to begin with, focusing on areas for improvement can be pretty threatening.  If you have a high level of self-confidence, it is easy to dismiss significant critical feedback. It is one of the major reasons why people don’t change easily.  It’s very hard to admit that you need to work on a significant personal change goal.  In fact, not only will most people ignore their development needs, many will deny them vehemently when they are pointed out.  Recognizing that there is a need for change then is the fundamental pre-requisite for making any important change in your life. 

So, before beginning a journey of self-development, you need to recognize that you may not like or agree with everything that you encounter along the way.  You may find that you are not as good at some things as you thought.  If, after understanding your development needs, you decide not to attempt some personal change, then it is at least a conscious choice.