Make growth part of the work, not an extra program

Set a development goal inside a task you already have, instead of adding a course or coach beside the work.

Warum es wirkt

Kegan and Lahey describe the usual answers to developing people, such as executive coaching, high-potential programs, off-sites and leadership development programs, as “punctuated inputs, delivered from time to time rather than continuously”, meaning occasional rather than ongoing. They describe these as sitting “beyond and outside the normal flow of work”, and as provided “only for a few, generally for the 5 to 10 percent of employees” designated high potentials. They also say such activity raises the problems of transfer and cost. The DDO alternative structures people’s growth directly in their work, so that developing people and developing the business are treated as one pursuit.

So gehst du vor

1. Pick one task this week that you have to do anyway.
2. Write one capability it will ask more of you, in words you can check afterward.
3. Agree with one colleague who will see how you did it that you will talk about it at the end of the week.
4. Keep the goal inside the task rather than in a separate learning plan.

Evidenz

The critique of external programs and the call to structure growth in work come from the SSIR excerpt of An Everyone Culture (2016), which describes design assumptions shared by the DDOs the authors studied. The excerpt reports no comparison of outcomes between the two approaches. (anecdotal)

The critique is the authors’ argument. Outside programs can also help people grow, and the sources read do not compare the two approaches on results.

Quellen

• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2016, April 6). An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization [excerpt]. Stanford Social Innovation Review.
• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L., with Miller, M. L., Fleming, A., & Helsing, D. (2016). An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Häufiger Fehler

Keeping the development goal in a separate learning plan. That rebuilds the outside program inside the company and leaves the work itself unchanged.