ORGANIZATIONAL ROADBLOCKS AND THE ROLE OF PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

If I had to call out once of the greatest roadblocks, I've seen out in the field it's the lack of fairness and equity.

In terms of the quality L & D opportunities and experiences provided to the whole team. Most attention is given to the development of Leaders and Managers with little focus on the rest of the team.

The outcome of this mindset and approach?

It’s what I refer to in my work as organizational bottlenecks.

These bottlenecks are not only costly in the people sense but also poor business practice for a couple of key reasons:

1??

Talented and ambitious for good people doesn’t stay in dead end organizations with no/minimal development opportunities.

High turnover anyone?

2??

You make the organization vulnerable by focusing capability and skills building in higher levels.

And not spreading the risk across teams, people and functions.

HOW FAIR AND EQUITABLE IS YOUR APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT?

The future of teams and organizations are based on fairly and equitably distributing the L & D growth opportunities across ALL roles.

Fairness we tend to be familiar with what it means but equity not so much when it comes specifically to the development and growth of our teams.

In my space equity is recognition and understanding that we all don’t start from the same place.

It’s also based on:

• the idea that people have different needs and may require different levels of support to succeed

• employees being valued based on their skills and abilities not other factors
• employees having fair access to training and development?across all roles
• ensuring employees have access to the same opportunities, resources, and rewards as other people in senior roles
• addressing imbalances and roadblocks that hold people back from reaching potential

And taking the actions to remove those personalized roadblocks where it is possible to do so.

BEING A MATURE ADULT AND TAKING A STOCKTAKE

There’s a lot of work to be done in this space but you can’t plan a way forward if you are not willing to acknowledge the current reality.

Whatever that may look like.

Here’s some of the respectfully curious questions I ask partners early on in part one of The Circular Workplace to get a real insight into the state of play.

1.??Looking at your L & D investment in the last 12 months where is the spread across roles, teams and functions?

?2.? What criteria or factors influence how budget is allocated in terms of L & D across the organization?

?3. What are some of your organizational expectations as it relates to investing in L & D and “training” in the next 12 months?

?4.??How does your current approach to allocating professional development opportunities move you closer to these expectations?

?Or does it move you further away?

FACTORS INFLUENCING TIME NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT DURABLE L & D

As L& D is a personal experience there are a number of factors you need to consider when allocating time for end-to-end delivery.

Here are the key factors I will always consider when designing timeframes to ensure it's fair and equitable:

-???How complex the goals and objectives are as identified with the initial project phase.

-??The complexity and nature of the skill gaps, threats and risks identified within the innovation capability review.

And the solutions that need to be created and implemented to fulfill skill gaps and respond to threats and risks.

-???The existing talent, skill set and experiences of participating people and teams.

-???The time that people and the team will dedicate to the application of the approach.

-???The ability for people to commit to the agreed timeframes and delivering on this.

?SKILLS SCHEDULING AND THE PACE OF LEARNING

How you schedule skilling and the pace in which you expect people to learn will be a key determining in whether you will create durable outcomes and impacts.

Not just now but ongoing into the future.

It is also a sign of how fair and equitable you are in terms of the L & D experiences you deliver.

Exactly what this will look like will depend on a number of factors including:

-? Individual learning needs and style.

-??Current skills and relevant industry experience of team members.

-??How long a person has been in their current role.

?-?The flow of skills and what has to be learnt and in what order to deliver durable outcomes and impacts.

?-?How long it takes for each member of the team to be competent and confident in the specific skill or skill set cluster.

A FINAL TAKEAWAY

Learning and Development is a personalized, human experience.

Not a transactional one.

When designed in a certain way it has the power to connect people in new ways and re-wiring existing relationships that were fractured.

But it is not a benefit that’s only available to the selected few.

Organizations that are designed to be well and commercially fit have fairness and equity are the center of all L & D initiatives.

So here’s my question for you.

How do you measure up right now in terms of how fair and equitable you are when it comes to people development.

*Article written by Ali Uren Founder of Kiikstart and The Circular Workplace??.

PS ??If you're a purpose led Leader/Founder serious about solving brain drain please follow me @Ali Uren and subscribe to my monthly LinkedIn newsletter- The Experiment *

*Original wisdom + lessons + strategies tested and proven in the real world.

Details on my profile page.

?