Individual Development Plan
| Client | Role | Year | Modality |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Align Technology |
Sr. Learning Experience Designer |
2022 |
e-Learning (Rise / Storyline) |
Situation
Recorded webinar content required a rapid conversion into an e-learning format.
Task
I divided the content into topic areas using video and Storyline to enhance the course’s digestibility. Additionally, I incorporated interactivity and knowledge checks. A Portuguese version was also created, including a Portuguese speaker and text.
Action
I utilized Rise as the course container and combined After Effects to generate waveform videos with Audacity for audio editing. Storyline was used to house the videos and incorporate clickable elements.
Results
The outcome was a speedy and well-received effort.
I’ve included sample knowledge check questions I created for the course after each video.
Storyline
Welcome and thank you for joining us here today to talk about individual development plans. There’s a lot of energy at Align right now around individual development plans. So, I thought this is a great opportunity to come together and discuss the what and the why behind an individual development plan.
So, here we are today. We will talk about the what and the why, but also the how of creating an individual development plan. We’ll talk about the Think, Plan, Do model. We’ll also talk about the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset when using the 70/20/10 learning approach in creating your individual development plan. We’ll share with you some examples of stretch assignments. We’ll share with you some examples of stretch assignments. We’ll walk through the IDP template, and we’ll talk about a few other resources that you can use when crafting your individual development plan.
So at its core, an individual development plan (also known as an IDP), is a tool to help facilitate growth, development, and learning- both personally and professionally. It can help you and your people (if you’re a people manager), achieve longer term career aspirations by building in shorter term goals to learn new skills. Fundamentally, this process also helps individuals take some ownership of where they want to go, what they want to learn, and how to use this process to get there. So, IDPs really ultimately present an opportunity to learn something new, enhance an existing skill, but it also is important for us to remember that an IDP doesn’t necessarily mean a promotion. It’s really just focusing on learning and growth for an individual. Also, as a reminder, individual development plans are not the same as performance improvement plans and also not the same as our GROW performance goals. This is really about growth and learning.
IDP is a tool that facilitates what? Select all that apply. (Hint: There are three)
Growth. Development. Learning. Hiring. Team-building
IDP is a tool that facilitates what? Select all that apply. (Hint: There are three)
Answer: Growth. Development. Learning.
So, as we think about where to even start with creating your individual development plan, you see on your screen here the Think, Plan, and Do! process and there are a few different steps within each step of this process; such as looking at past conversations, thinking about where a development opportunity might be and ultimately having really healthy meaty conversations. So, we’ll walk through each one of these steps together.
In the Think, Plan, Do! model, in which stage is "looking at past conversations"?
Plan > Explore. Think > Define. Think > Revisit. Do > Focus.
In the Think, Plan, Do! model, in which stage is "looking at past conversations"?
Answer: Think > Revisit
Step one is Think. And there’s a lot of different ways to think about where you are today. We want to find what is our current state. Where are we right now? It could be a little bit of where have we been, and how did we get to this current state? So you might want to think about reviewing past performance conversations. We want to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are. And that reflection might come through some conversations that you have with either your manager, your business partner, your peers (who)- may be on your team or on another team that you’ve previously worked with. We want to reflect personally and where you’ve been in the personal growth that you’ve seen over the years and how did you intentionally make that growth happen? What are your strengths? What are your areas where you just feel in the zone? What are the strengths in which you exhibit through past projects? And then the last piece on here (as a consideration) is to take the outmatch development assessment to understand where those growth opportunities might be. This outmatch development assessment assessment is aligned with our Align ACA values. So, it really ties in well to also your GROW professional goals.
Current State thinking forces us to consider what?
Past performance conversations. Status of the business. Our peers. Current projects.
Current State thinking forces us to consider what?
Answer: Past performance conversations
So, once we know where we are, then we can start to think about where do you want to go? Where might you want to be in one or two years? Or where might you want to be in the next one or two roles? Maybe you can even envision where you want to be five years from now. Think about what are you passionate about? What do you want to learn more about? Where do you maybe want to grow? Again, thinking about where you were in the zone previously. Maybe that’s a great place to think about what you’re passionate about. Where do you want to stretch yourself? What might be an area that you think interests you that you could stretch your development goals into? Keep in mind, as a people manager (if that’s you), don’t assume you know what your people want. Don’t assume you know what they’re passionate about. But also don’t assume that their career plan or path or interests are the same as yours. It might be different. They might have a different idea of something that they want to learn outside of their immediate role. So we know where we’ve been. We might have an idea of where we want to go. But let’s think about the right mindset of the “now what”? What do we do with that?
As a people manager you should already assume your employees' future goals by their past work performance, job title, and responsibilities.
True or False
As a people manager you should already assume your employees' future goals by their past work performance, job title, and responsibilities.
Answer: False. It's okay for people managers not to know, so don't assume you do. You may be incorrect.
So, the best approach when thinking about the individual development plan process is to have a growth mindset approach. So, those of you not familiar with growth mindset, here’s the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset. A growth mindset embraces challenges, welcomes feedback, looks at failure as a chance to learn and pivot and adapt and adjust. A fixed mindset is simply the opposite. When failure is looked at as a permanent state of defining abilities and feedback is taken as a personal attack, then chances are you’re in a fixed mind state. A growth mindset is truly open. It’s an open mind. It’s an open approach into looking at your future. It’s also being open to something new, possibilities of something you have may have never thought about in the past, but it’s also looking at maybe something that didn’t go so well in the past. And thinking about how can we learn from this? How can we learn and adapt and adjust moving forward? So, as you embark on creating an individual development plan, consider your mindset. Is it a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? And you have the choice! So, choose to have a growth mindset. Challenge yourself into leaning into that a little bit more.
There are many ways to think about our growth mindset and what we’re going to develop when looking at an individual development plan. The 70/20/10 model is a well known, well researched learning and development model that suggests a breakdown of how people effectively learn. So, most of our best learning comes from experiences and knowledge that we gain from on the job itself and that represents that 70%. It might be through projects. It might be through those individual assessments. It might be through stretch assignments. We learn by doing. The next 20% comes from relationships that we develop and cultivate. It’s also the exposure from seeking out others to learn from, or a department that might be different from your own. It’s ultimately through conversations with mentoring and coaching, conversations with your manager or peers. Also, it could be networking internally and externally. And finally, the lowest percentage of learning comes from traditional coursework and training. A common mistake with development plans is to focus purely on a list of training courses. Instead, a development plan should focus on ways to develop employees in that day-to-day, or that 70% of work. Not to say that formal training isn’t important, it just shouldn’t be the top thing that you’re looking at.
So, let’s think about those stretch assignments that were maybe in that 70%. So here are some examples to consider as you look at what might be actionable for your development plan. These are just some ideas to get you thinking differently about what might be applicable to you and your role, or ultimately that future state. The key question when considering a stretch assignment is why? Why would this be important in my growth? Why will this help me continue to expand my network? Also, how, how is this going to help me? How will this help me expand? How will this become a benefit to both me and maybe even my team or Align? On the bottom, you’ll see the job challenge framework. So, according to the Center for Creative Leadership, this framework helps individuals identify developmental assignments through key challenges that stimulate learning. These are just some thoughtful considerations (on the bottom) when thinking about what a stretch assignment might look like for you. So, we’ve talked about our our previous state, our current state, maybe a future state. We’ve talked about the 70/20/10 model, we’ve talked about growth mindset. So what do we do with all this this thinking? We move into the do stage of our process, we begin writing our individual development plan.
What you see now is our Align template for writing out your actionable development goals. We need to consider all areas of the goal before committing to the end result. This document is in a Word format, and we encourage everyone to take the time to first write out- it could be either handwritten or digital. But to take the time to write out an a Word version, just a draft of what might be on here. As a people manager, this is a great opportunity to help provide guidance and support when helping your employees also write out their own individual development plan. So, let’s review an example that we’ve drafted for you. The first step, is to determine a S.M.A.R.T. development goal. And keep in mind again, this smart development goal is different from your GROW performance goals. The GROW performance goals are focused around the business and performance measures for your function, your department, your team. But these individual development goals are more personal in nature. So once we have a goal, we need to think about what skill will this help me develop and grow? Could be project management, could be team management, or a leadership skill. Maybe even change management, communications, and influencing. Then we can consider what actionable steps will help me meet my goal. What will you do? What steps will you take? Is it part of a project team? Is it attending a meeting? Is it developing a project plan? Then once we know that, we can think about what is the outcome or measurement that you desire at the end of the goal. It could be qualitative. It could be quantitative. We also talked about that 20% being exposure or conversations. So, who might you meet with to work on this goal that you would like their input, their support, their guidance? And then lastly, how long will this goal be in process? Is it one month? Is it one quarter? Is it one year? Maybe it’s an even longer term goal and it’s two years. So, what you see is just an example to highlight the different pieces of action to get you started. And again, depending on how you structure your thoughts, how you think through this, we recommend beginning this on a Word version. Then you can actually populate it into your Workday. Keep in mind, the individual development plan is owned by you, the employee. This is your template. This is your development. Again, people managers can help conversations, can provide input and guidance, but ultimately it’s you, the employee that’s writing out your individual development plan.
What is the people managers' role during the individual development plan (IDP)? Select all that apply. (Hint: There are two)
Writing, To own, Help conversations, Provide input, People managers do not have a role in the process
What is the people managers' role during the individual development plan (IDP)? Select all that apply. (Hint: There are two)
Answer: Help conversations, Provide input
What is the first step while writing out an individual development plan?
Get input. Determine a S.M.A.R.T. development goal. Decide on the length of the goal. Schedule a meeting with your manager
What is the first step while writing out an individual development plan?
Answer: Determine a S.M.A.R.T. development goal
So, once we have that plan, then we can move into Workday. And within Workday, the individual development plan is relatively straightforward. It enables the user to input their yearly development goals in one place that can be tracked all in Align’s system. Again, keep in mind the individual development goals are again different from our GROW performance goals. So, be sure that you’re selecting the correct drop down when inputting. You’ll see here on the slide, the steps in which to complete the input of the development plan into Workday. Another benefit is the employee can also share this individual individual development plan with their manager. Lastly, as you’re going through your GROW check-ins with your manager (or your employee if you’re a people manager), it’s a great tip to both review the GROW performance goals as well as your individual development goals at that time. You can update notes in here as well.
What is the main purpose of IDP in Workday?
Allows the user to search for growth opportunities. Allows the user to input their yearly development goals in one place. Allows the user to request time off. Allows the user to coordinate follow-ups with their manager.
What is the main purpose of IDP in Workday?
Answer: Allows the user to input their yearly development goals in one place.
So, we’ve written our individual development plan, we’ve input it into Workday; a few other resources that I just want to share with you as we’re talking about development. We have our Align Careers page. And you can search on our website in two different ways. What careers and jobs might be out there for you? You’ll see two different colors on your screen; here the green. You can do a job search by keyword or key location. But you can also search by job matching. Finding matches based on your current role, your profile and your location. But please remember, throughout this entire process that you should be having these conversations over time with your manager and/or your employees (if you are the manager). If you’re waiting for a job to be posted- you might be too late, so start those conversations now. So, when the time is right, when a new job might be coming up, you are part of the consideration process. You’ve already maybe had those conversations.
What are the two ways you can search the Align Careers website? Select two.
Job search (keyword or key location), By degree required, Years of experience, Job matching, Internal or external candidate
What are the two ways you can search the Align Careers website? Select two.
Answer: Job search (keyword or key location) and Job matching
Also, remember to check out our Align University Online library of classes and learning that’s available to you. This might be that 10% of your individual development plan. There are hundreds of sessions out there and they range from 5 minutes, to maybe even a few hours long. You can search via keyword within the library. There is everything from leadership development, to soft skills, to global operations. There might be a little bit of finance even in there. You can see the categories listed on the side as well as a way to search. So we encourage you to go out there and explore what might interest you. What’s out there? What peaks something in your brain? And again, these are already free and available to you right at this moment.
Align University has free resources ranging from hours to a few minutes of content on subjects like leadership development, global operations, finance, etc.)
True or False
Align University has free resources ranging from hours to a few minutes of content on subjects like leadership development, global operations, finance, etc.)
Answer: True
Lastly, another way to think about learning, growth, and development would be to look outside of Align and maybe some external resources. Maybe there’s a group that you could join? Maybe it’s through LinkedIn or or some other social tool? Maybe it’s a local resource that can help provide you with insight or mentorship? Might there be a book that you heard about? Might there be a podcast that interests you? Maybe there is a training certification program outside of Align? Again, your resources could be both internal or external. And learning and growing can happen in so many ways. Just be intentional about what that passion is, what is of interest to you, and take ownership of where you want to go.
Can you identify the choice that is not considered an external resource?
Podcast, LinkedIn, Group membership, Mentorship with a colleague
Can you identify the choice that is not considered an external resource?
Answer: Mentorship with a colleague
If there’s one word that I want you to walk away with, it’s “opportunity”. Because there are so many opportunities here at Align and there are so many developmental resources just within our walls here. So, open your eyes and think about- “what could I do?” “What interests me?” “What have I not maybe talked about or looked into quite yet (but I’ve always thought about it)?” “What is one thing that you can start today?” And if this is overwhelming or this big template sounds like; “where do I even start?” Just pick one topic, one idea, or one thought and have a conversation to try something new to look at something differently. And just begin. As always, if you have any additional questions, please reach out to your HRBP. They’re always open to have these conversations. And thank you for your time. And best of luck in your development journey!