Make Learning Stick....with a Personal Development Plan

This is my final post in my Making Learning Stick series.

Making Learning Stick is all about getting the most from your learning investment - something that is currently more important than ever for everyone involved in L&D.  From the emails and comments I have received it's clear that this is something on the minds of many people involved in L&D at the moment.

In my final post I want to highlight how  having a personal development plan (PDP) can be a useful tool to help people grow and develop.

Like most people I have had various development plans over the years - some detailed and some scribbled together 'on the back of a fag packet'. However the ones that helped me the most had a couple of things in common:

1) I wrote them - they were not written for me.  I found that the objectives I set myself were usually more challenging that the ones someone else thought up for me. I know where the limits of my comfort zone are more than anyone else.

2) They were written following discussion with someone who I respected and who was interested in my development. I have had some good and bad managers over the years (who hasn't!) but the good ones took the time to talk with me about what I wanted and how I could get there.

3) These first two points are great starting points but for me my most successful PDPs have been the ones that have changed and developed over time.  Finding the motivation to do this is much easier if you can see yourself making progress and also if you have someone giving you a gentle shove now and again.

The simple act of going through the motions of writing a PDP makes you really think about who you are, what you want to do and what the routes are to get there. Making Learning Stick in an organisation means helping people take real ownership for the own personal development. There are many tools that can help you do this, most of which do not require large investment........