Training is an event. Development is an on-going journey. To succeed in today’s world with rapidly advancing technology, increased competition, and things like unforeseen global pandemics, you need to create a culture where development of your greatest asset – your employees – is not an occasional, “check the box” activity, but rather is a part of everything you do.
As I discussed in my last post, Hope is Not a Business Strategy, you need to look at talent development as a strategy and work to create a culture of development within your organization. What does that mean? It means that learning and growing is a priority – for everyone. It means your People Leaders see their primary responsibility as being one of helping their people continuously develop. It means that time is set aside for formal and informal learning. It means that learning is integrated into day-to-day work life. It means that you are constantly experimenting with new learning methods. It means that development is promoted and rewarded.
Lastly, it means that your employees are involved in their own development. They are asked about what’s important to them and they are listened to. They are given opportunities to create a development plan with their manager and given opportunities to implement their plan.
A development culture is no longer an idea to be discussed but never implemented. You can not afford to ignore how great a need this is. As I said above, your employees are your greatest asset and they’re making decisions around what companies to invest their time in and what companies to leave based on the development opportunities available to them.
Next time, I’ll explore the techniques an organization can leverage to create a development culture.
See how MEA supports Members with training and development.
About the Author
Margaret Uhrich’s approach to life is a combination of “anything’s possible” and “let’s see what happens when we do this”, making her the ideal leader for the Talent Development function at MEA. As a consultant and leader, her creative solutions and “can do” attitude inspire others to take action and bring about the changes they wish to see.
