Shipulski On Design

If you want to help someone grow, use the work.  Put them on mission-critical work that gives them the opportunity to demonstrate next-level skills.  And the work must fit the person – it can’t be too difficult or too easy.  It must be just right.   And don’t create new work. Instead, for the company’s most important projects, identify the critical path work that is vital to the projects’ success and assign them to the work.

Rule 1: A personal development plan must be made from real work.

People don’t develop skills when they talk about the work, they develop skills when they do the work.  But if the work isn’t new, they don’t develop new skills.  And if the work is too difficult, they don’t develop new skills.  The role of the leader is to define work that stretches the individual without pulling them apart.  To do this, the leader must select the work appropriately and pay attention as the work proceeds.  When the going gets rough, the leader shows them how it’s done and then lets them do the work in a supervised way.  The leader does it right when it can be done independently after the work is done with supervision.

Rule 2: A personal development plan is only as good as the leader’s involvement.

There’s great pressure to create personal development plans for everyone.  It’s a good idea in principle, but in practice, it’s not effective.  Good personal development plans are resource intensive.  Even before the work starts, the planning and coordination require significant resources.  And once the plan is up and running, the company’s best talent is applied to the best (and most important) work and the best leaders must stay close to the work for the duration.  The level of commitment is significant to design and manage a good personal development plan and this limits the number of development plans that can be done well.

Rule 3: Fewer personal development plans create more personal development.

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