As with any DIY project you need the right tools, and managing your own development is no different, says Andrew Mayo. Ensure you have the right training culture behind you, personal expectations and knowledge and skills, he advises, to avoid a DIY disaster.
One of today's familiar mantras is to say to employees that 'we expect you to manage your own development'. How often have I observed participants on courses listen to this as the opening or closing comment by a L&D director, and watched their eyes register some puzzlement as to what exactly that might mean. I can choose my own future courses? I can get that job as branch manager for Cornwall just by asking? I can go and do the MBA I have looked forward to for a while? They are puzzled because they know that none of these things are that easy or are under their control. The same directors are rarely explicit about 'and this means that...'.
There is a distinction to be made between learning and learning opportunities. Given an opportunity, we have considerable control over how much we learn from it. Good facilitators can motivate, encourage and stimulate us, but what we actually learn depends on us individually – our motivation, and our personal discipline. But do people need more than an exhortation to be able to successfully manage their own development? We can sign up readily to this as a goal. To have all our people focused on their own learning and growth would create a great foundation for a learning organisation, with the natural spin offs in motivation and performance. But I suggest that to make this a reality we need to do a lot of things.
"One major construction company I know has its learning resource centre immediately behind reception – every visitor can see it; it has its own manager; it has campaigns and events and the message of valuing learning is clear to all."The first, and perhaps most difficult, is to build a culture where this is expected, where learning is valued and the investment in it is as important as any other investment. That requires consistent messages from leaders, and the evidence of time and money being made available. Visible support helps too. One major construction company I know has its learning resource centre immediately behind reception – every visitor can see it; it has its own manager; it has campaigns and events and the message of valuing learning is clear to all. There are many other ways to promote a learning culture – another firm had a learning innovation award for teams demonstrating management of their own learning – the reward was a combination of a treat plus a personal learning opportunity for each team member, chosen by them.
The second area is to clarify expectations of the participants in the learning process. What exactly do we expect an individual to do? And what does this mean for the role of the manager? Or indeed, for the learning specialist? The manager's role shifts from being controlling to coaching, facilitating and advising. It may mean negotiating with each staff member a budget of time and money for development. It may mean a significant shift in mindset – from parent-child to adult-adult (to use the language of transactional analysis). As for the individual we will be expecting them to build their own development plans and to make choices about how their learning objectives can be met. And the learning specialist will spend more time being a coach of both managers and individuals in managing learning – and maybe less time teaching or organising training events.
This leads us to the third area - the knowledge and skills to be able to make all this happen. 'Managing my learning effectively' is a starting point. Is this a natural personality trait, or can it be learnt? As a trait, there is no doubt it is unevenly distributed. But, just as in creativity, there are things we can do to enhance what we have naturally. It's a good start to be sure we understand our own learning style. We can be given some guiding models (such as the learning cycle) that help us understand effective learning, or have lists of development options – ranges of learning opportunities for different capabilities and learning styles. There are disciplines to be learnt about on-the-job learning opportunities too. How do I capitalize systematically on the opportunities that my work gives me?
Managers need to take a coaching role (ideally), but individuals also need to know how to solicit and optimize coaching from the people around them. What might they know that I do not, that I might be able to tap into? How much do I know about their past experiences? Do they have some particular personal or technical skills that I could be coached in?
The principle of personal management of development is highly desirable. But making it a reality requires a lot of effort. Let's not take the lazy way of just telling people – but fully support it with the processes and skills needed for all parties.
Andrew Mayo is Director of Mayo Learning International and Mayo Training. He can be contacted at andrew.mayo@mayolearning.com
