How to build an effective development plan?

Our recent 360° feedback experiences show that building effective development plans is a difficult exercise. So, how? Here are some common sense rules.

Accept the limits of the tool

The 360°, via assessments and open comments, provides valuable clues. Beneficiaries must nevertheless have the opportunity to challenge them to be able to appropriate and complete them. Beyond the 360° teachings, the debriefing interview can highlight other areas that are not apparent from the report. The quality of the restitution favours the selection of the relevant development directions.

Few but precise actions

In terms of development, abundance hampers efficiency. Few but relevant and actually implemented actions are better. Beyond 5 or 6 actions, vigilance is required to avoid the risk of losing focus. It is also important to ensure the accuracy of these actions. For example, how to improve the internal customer / supplier relationship without setting up cooperation objectives and specific individual road maps with the main stakeholders? How to strengthen delegation without documenting it with forms indicating the nature of the tasks, the expected reporting and the delivery dates? 

The 70, 20, 10 rule 

The temptation is great to reduce the development plan to training actions. But the winning model is 70/20/10 (70% of live situations and experiences “on the job”, 20% of mentoring and coaching, only 10% of training). It is therefore important to ensure that development plans respect this rule, which is not only effective but economical (training can be expensive!).

Measurement indicators

No development plan worthy of the name without precise indicators. In answering the question “what will progress look like?, beneficiaries undertake to identify the relevant measurement indicators. These indicators can be quantified or not: often feedback from stakeholders can be a good indicator.