An individual development plan is applied
self help self improvement.

This page describes the individual development plan process; why bother with
a personal development plan; and suggests a practical definition of learning.
In addition, it links the process to receiving and giving feedback and to some
learning theories.

Individual development plan or personal development plan,
what are they and why bother?

Self improvement is a BIG topic and it is easy to get lost in it or get
overwhelmed by it.

A personal development plan is applied self help self improvement and
may be thought of as having the following aims:

* to make explicit a commitment to proactive action and change

* to facilitate an investment in your personal growth (a bit like continuous improvement for you)

* to be a really useful aid to successful career planning

* to help in releasing and realising more of your potential, which
may be quite a transformation, and

* to create a means of
enhancing your capacity to create your own future
(which is the definition of learning we use in self improvement).

Individual development plan - why bother?

Increasingly in today’s world and, almost certainly, in tomorrow’s world:

* there are no guarantees (e.g. of security in a job)

* no one owes us a living or will do it for us – it’s up to us to be proactive

* the only unchanging thing is change and the best way to manage change is to help create it (e.g. by investing in an individual development plan)

* becoming a “victim” is self-hurting in the long run, and dependency and spoon feeding creates “victims”.

So, if the world is changing, so must we - we must invest in an individual development plan, which, in practice, means we must learn to move:

* from: expecting a “job for life” – to: no job is “safe” or unchanging over time (e.g. we must keep learning new skills)

* from: relying on a single skill – to: developing multiple skills

* from: attitudes such as, “keep your head down, it’s only a job” – to: take ownership, contribute, initiative, innovation & continuous improvement

* from: being employed by a single employer – to: working for multiple employers

* from: having a career planned for us – to: planning our own career and development

* from: training in narrow specific tasks – to: lifelong learning

* from: “certainty” – to: ambiguity, uncertainty

* from: a “leave me alone, that’s your job” mindset – to: working in teams and inter-dependency with others

* from: having a job (or technical) focus – to: having a customer and business focus

* from: negative thinking in terms of limitations – to: positive thinking in terms of possibilities.
(Click here to see the benefits of negative thinking).

Ok, so how do you do an individual development plan?

The good news is that creating your individual development plan is simple. You only have to do five things:

1. take stock of where you are right now.

This will involve a good, healthy "look in the mirror" about yourself.

No cheating, no being too kind or too cruel on yourself, no defensiveness etc. etc.

Simple, but not necessarily easy. Here's a couple of suggestions that might help:

* use your journal or learning log to list out your existing skills, knowledge, relationships, contribution etc.

* do a self-diagnosis exercise and use the self diagnosis summary to explore self improvement opportunities from the resulting pattern of strengths and weaknesses

* if appropriate, (e.g. career planning or thinking about change or promotion in your work) prepare a resume that includes responsibilities and achievements (rather than just job titles) or write a story of your career to date

* go and seek some feedback from trusted others who you know will be ok with giving feedback and valuable insights and help with your individual development plan.

2. consider where do you want to be in the future?.

Think about the future you want to create and what it will mean in terms of your personal growth (and career planning?) and personal development plan.

What does this future look like? Use visualisation techniques to make the picture as sharp and real as you can.

Again, capture this in your journal and / or ask a trusted other to facilitate your thinking here (e.g. try thinking differently, "out of the box", in terms of possibilities, rather than limitations).

When you've got a "big picture", an overall purpose, turn it into a series of SMART goals

3. what do you need to learn or change to move from 1. to 2?.

This step will produce your personal development plan of action based on your learning and change needs.

It will usually require you to:

* list out WHAT you need to learn and change

* for each item, identify HOW you will do it.

That is, what learning methods will you use? (e.g. courses, self study on the web, coaching, shadowing someone else, reading, mentoring, self help DVDs).

And, what habits or behaviours will you change? (e.g. here you may want to use the i-c-s-i process or self hypnosis - click here for an example self hypnosis script).

For steps 1, 2 and 3 above it is usually very helpful to get others’ perceptions through giving feedback processes such as:

* 1-to-1 conversations

* 360 feedback sessions

* team look-in-the-mirror sessions

* x-team feedback sessions

* self review and appraisals.

4. just do it.

That is, implement your individual development plan.

JUST DO IT, close the loop (and review your progress) and go to step 1. again so that this becomes an annual cycle and never ending process.

Keep it simple and keep your personal development plan objectives clearly in mind – to develop yourself so that you can make a better contribution in the short-term present AND for your personal growth over the longer term (e.g. enhance your capacity to survive and thrive in an ever changing future, rather than be a “victim”).

5. control and learn.

That is, check out how well you have achieved your goals and closed the gap between 1. and 2. above - control.

If needed, make modifications to your individual development plan and "just do it" again and again until you get the outcome you want.

It's unlikely that you will have considered everything, or predicted everything perfectly, so be sure to see this process positively - it is not a failure.

Failure would be to NOT modify and improve and persevere.

Then be sure to take some reflection time and use your learning log or journal to capture your learnings from the experience.

Do this for the two key aspects of your personal development investment:

1. the content - e.g. WHAT have you achieved? what has been the return on your investment in an individual development plan?

2. the process - e.g. HOW did you do it? if you were doing it all over again, what would you do differently / better?

An individual development plan will yield personal growth, improved self confidence and help with career planning.
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Other recommended sites:
The Personal Development Cafe.com
If you wish to see more advice and guidance about personal and career development; NLP; equality and diversity; team building; and CV / resume writing, click here to visit this really helpful site. (this will open a new window).

If you want a unique and holistic approach to personal development focusing on your health, wealth and happiness, click here to visit Black Belt thinking. This site shares with you the many secrets, forgotten wisdom and cutting edge information to help make your life the best ever and importantly never look back. (this will open a new window).

If you are planning a career change and need to make a FREE Printable Resume or need a Resume Sample for a Waitress, Preschool Teacher, Executive, Bartender, or a College Student Intern click here to visit this excellent helpful site, www.eresumes4vips.com.


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