Can You Show me the Way?

A few months back a colleague had shared an article on health status of Developmental processes in different companies.

The article laid out a framework for a robust developmental process – evaluation, feedback, and planning. It subsequently elaborated on what the study had found about the existence/effectiveness of these sub-processes in different companies.

While most companies seem to do a good job of evaluation, lesser number of companies focus on providing feedback to their employees on the basis of evaluation. A miniscule number of companies focus on providing adequate developmental opportunities and on the effective usage of these opportunities, on the basis of the evaluation shared.

Is this framework complete? Does it cover all important aspects required to ensure effectiveness of developmental processes?

I think it does but it doesn’t flesh out some important aspects of the Developmental Planning and Execution phase. The presence/absence of these aspects can ensure the success or failure of the process.

Firstly, individual ownership for his/her own development. If i am not interested in my development, the efforts of others on my development would not result in any progress.

Secondly, I might know that I need to develop but how do I go about doing it? If I were to look back at the times I have developed/not developed can I pinpoint the reasons for it? This certainly is not an easy task.

There is a risk that a developmental planning discussion degenerates into one blind asking the another blind to draw the way out for him. The intention of both the parties (even though positive) would not fructify into results.

Hence an evidence generating procedure (evaluation and feedback is one manifestation of it), developmental opportunities (identification and deployment), individual ownership, trust in the relationship, and a shared understanding of how an individual develops (and this understanding has to be at the individual level) seems to be the crux of the matter when it comes to Developmental processes.

-

Sourav