Personal development plans: unlocking the future

David Taylor Employee Development Manager, Anglian Water, Cambridge, UK David Edge Works Manager, Anglian Water, Cambridge, UK

Reports on a change process at Anglian Water using personal development plans (PDPs). The plan encourages staff to think of their whole life and their hopes, ambitions and expectations. Explains the PDP process. Dimensions of the PDP include job skills, the wider business, the home and personal life and the wider community.

Career Development International 2/1 [1997] 2123 MCB University Press [ISSN 1362-0436]

Conventional thinking suggests that secure people perform and insecure people do not. However, it is in the nature of business today that people perceive themselves as less secure (and with some justication). We believe that the personal development plan (PDP) can help by moving ownership of a career from the company to the individual, en route transforming insecurity into opportunity or at least exibility . There is nothing like living through a major reorganization that has involved the loss of 900 jobs to bring into sharp focus the paradoxes inherent in the relationships between individuals and organizations. On the one hand there is the employee with his or her aspirations and potential and on the other there is the company with its vision, objectives and nite resources. The challenge we face is to identify the framework within which the paradoxes can be worked through and the common ground identied. Over the past three years Anglian Water has been engaged in the task of transforming itself from an effective but bureaucratic command and control organization with a local government background to a business that is more efficient, customer-focused and less risk-averse. Less risk-averse in this context does not mean jeopardizing public health it means being prepared to seize the business opportunities that arise in our rapidly changing world. The authors of this article have both been involved in this transformation process and have lived with these dilemmas. In recent months we have come together to work on a vital element of the development framework the personal development plan. It is becoming clear that the personal development plan provides a useful starting point for establishing a dialogue between individuals and the organization. It is important not to dismiss past achievements and it is essential to draw from the lessons of the past. There are numerous examples within the organization of people whose progression has been aided by the organization or enlightened individuals within the organization. What has been seen to be lacking is a process that facilitates on a

consistent basis the release of potential locked in the organization. It can be argued that the dogged determination of motivated individuals to better themselves is a vital ingredient in the development process and therefore why should the organization become involved? The justication for encouraging all employees to think about personal development is the belief that it is possible to widen the pool of talent available by enabling people to think in different ways of what they have to offer. It is in this way that the personal development process can help link individual and corporate interests. We now recognize that the skills and experience many employees acquired beyond the organization have equipped them with skills that are valuable within the organization. For example, during the 1994 business re-engineering, it was recognized that the loss of 900 jobs would be highly traumatic for almost all the workforce. Therefore the business embarked on a programme of counselling training to enable managers to help employees or to recognize when extra help was needed. This process uncovered a large number of people who were practised counsellors and who now make up a network at the heart of the counselling provision within the business.

The personal development plan

The PDP is a process through which the individual prepares a training and development plan, and for which the individual takes responsibility The development model used . to widen peoples thinking beyond mere job skills is set out in Figure 1. Section 1 of this model is structured and is related to the qualications, skills and experience necessary for any particular role within the organization. While the modern career path is much atter and more likely to have large horizontal components there will always be a need to dene the capabilities required for a role in terms of academic achievement. This is, however, a limited view of the contribution that an individual can make.

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David Taylor and David Edge Personal development plans: unlocking the future Career Development International 2/1 [1997] 2123

Figure 1 The personal development model

1. Job skills Clerk Craftsman Technician Operator Counsellor Team leader Union rep. Trainer Safety rep. Linguist Painter/decorator Traveller Sportsman Adventurer Musician 3. Personal objectives/family Club organizer Sports coach Fundraiser Counsellor Representative Jobbing builder Relation Parent Gardener Facilitator Change agent Guide Scientist/engineer Manager Director Mentor 2. Wider business competences

Company goals Conceptual thinking Networker Developing others Expert Innovation Customer service Champion Flexibility Coach Initiative Team working Interpersonal understanding

Volunteer Magistrate

Helper 4. Wider community contribution

Section 2 recognizes the wider competences that are valuable to the organization and exhibit themselves in a range of off-the-job roles and responsibilities. The nine competences on the right of the block are those identied by Anglian Water as being key for the business of the future. Sections 3 and 4 are included in recognition that the roles played in the family and wider community enable people to exhibit competences and abilities that can resonate within the organization. Thus in developing their PDP, individuals are encouraged to think of their whole life and their hopes, ambitions and expectations. In that broader context they put together, and own, a plan which will sustain them either within or beyond the organization.

The process
The plan is developed through a series of stages. The rst being the identication of the

job roles and associated skills and competences within the work group. Following that exercise, work groups are gathered together for a half-day session during which they are introduced to the plan and the process. This is followed, after two or three weeks, by a session with their manager, during which the managers expectations, and the individuals aspirations are discussed and set into a realistic organizational context. After about a month the individual has the opportunity to discuss development of wider business competences with an in-house training facilitator and talk to an external careers guidance counsellor with whom career opportunities and learning opportunities can be explored. A draft plan is then prepared which is discussed with the facilitator, manager and with the budget-holding team and the means of delivery determined. The preparation of a plan with clear and measurable objectives is then only the start of

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David Taylor and David Edge Personal development plans: unlocking the future Career Development International 2/1 [1997] 2123

Figure 2 The personal development plan process Define job skills and competences

PDP workshop

Meeting with manager Review Meeting with facilitator and/or external counsellor Execute plan Draft plan Agree this years plan with budget holding group

Determine with manager, facilitator, counsellor, optimum delivery route

the process, As with all learning, the processes of reection and review are critical and must be sustained by a commitment to regular updating of the plan. The process is illustrated in Figure 2.

Delivery
It is key to the process that the delivery of development does not only take place in the training course environment. There are many ways to skin the development cat and participants are encouraged in discussion with manager and guide to nd the appropriate means of delivery A model has been devel. oped which shows the four dimensions of development in a new arrangement (see Figure 3). This model shows the dimensions of personal development and shaded in are some of the delivery systems which are supported by Anglian Water. It is stressed that ownership of the plan is with the individual and that Anglian Water will support that training which results in business benet. The denition of business benet is broad as the encouragement of a learning culture means that evening classes are supported in order to encourage the practice of learning skills.

Figure 3 The dimensions of the personal development plan

Knowledge

Understanding

Coaching and onthe-job training Job skills Skill training courses Practice Individual Evening classes Development training Organization Community Wider business competences

Conclusion
We believe that the PDP transfers the ownership of personal development back to the individual for both the benet of the individual and for the benet of the organization. The challenge for the individual is to lose that dependence on an organization as a means of dening a career or more properly a vocation. The challenge to the organization is in utilizing the energy that we expect to be released by the PDP process.

Personal and family

Wider community contribution

Family

Home

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