Agreeing Development Objectives



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Contents

Contents 3

Copyright 4

Why this subject matters 5

Key ideas 6

How to use this Program 7

What is in this Program? 7

Who is the Program for? 7

What does this Program do? 7

How does this Program achieve its objectives? 7

Individual self-study 7

In an existing training Program 8

A complete one-day training Program 8

Evaluation of learning 8

Model training session 9

Learning objectives 9

Pre-course work 9

Session plan 10

Show the video in its entirety (20 minutes) 10

Use the PowerPoint® presentation to remind people of the key ideas (10 minutes) 10

Review (15 minutes) 10

Review (15 minutes) 10

Video sequence – James and Paige 1 (20 minutes) 11

Video sequence – James and Paige 2 (20 minutes) 11

Video sequence – James and Pamela 1 (20 minutes) 11

Video sequence – James and Pamela 2 (20 minutes) 12

General conclusions (1 hour) 12

Applying the lessons (I½ hours) 13

Preparation 13

Interview 14

Feedback 14

Administer the post-course test (page 26) 14

Close the session 14

A guide to agreeing development objectives 15

Analysis of individual scenes 19

Examples of effective objectives 22

Post-course test 25

Multiple-choice test 26

Answers to multiple-choice test 27

Copyright

What you can do

The copyright in both this User’s Guide and the accompanying DVD belongs to Telephone Doctor, Inc. Buying the DVD gives you certain rights to use the material. You may use the DVD in your own organization for training your own employees.

You may photocopy or otherwise reproduce all or part of this User’s Guide without limit for use in your own organization. You may also do so for use with your customers and clients provided that you or another employee of your organization delivers the training. Any reproduction of this User’s Guide, or part thereof, must carry the notice:

© Telephone Doctor, Inc.

You may edit and reproduce the PowerPoint® presentation without limit for use in your own organization. You may also do so for use with your customers and clients provided that you or another employee of your organization delivers the training. Any reproduction of the PowerPoint® presentation must acknowledge Telephone Doctor, Inc. as the source.

You may host and deliver the DVD and this User’s Guide on your internal intranet provided that you purchase an additional license from Telephone Doctor, Inc. to do so and provided that you observe the terms of that license.

You may sell or otherwise transfer the DVD to another person or organization provided that you advise Telephone Doctor, Inc. of the transfer and provided that you require the transferee to agree to these conditions. You will be liable for any loss sustained by Scott Bradbury Ltd as a result of a breach of these conditions by the transferee if you have not complied with the terms of this paragraph.

What you cannot do

You may not copy the DVD, not even as a backup. We understand that DVDs can become unplayable due to scratching or other damage and so we will replace the DVD if it becomes unplayable within five years of purchase, even if this is the result of carelessness or accident. We will not charge for this but you must return the unplayable DVD in order for us to replace it.

Acceptance of terms

By using the DVD or the material in this User’s Guide, you are deemed to have accepted these terms. If you do not accept them you should return the DVD without using it, for a full refund.

Why this subject Matters

Developing and improving performance is the only way organizations today can survive and prosper. And that means that the performance of the people who work in them also must develop and improve.

Development is not something that you can do to people. People have to do it for themselves. Organizations can provide the environment in which this is possible, but only people can choose to make it happen. All development is ultimately self-development.

Self-development occurs all the time as people experience life. But if self-development is to be harnessed – to be used to improve the quality of people’s lives and to improve the performance of the organization – it must be planned and directed. And, the first step in this process is to set relevant and effective developmental objectives.

In many organizations, the critically important process of setting objectives for a person’s development is nothing more than a bureaucratic exercise – a question of getting the form filled in for another year. But setting development objectives that work is much more. It involves an active engagement between manager and employee leading to the full and enthusiastic involvement of each individual in his or her own personal development.

This will not happen unless the manager is fully equipped with an understanding of the principles of supporting self-development and has been enabled to develop his or her own skills in this area.

It is no exaggeration to say that supporting self-development is the single most important function a manager has.

Key ideas

Development requires motivation

Motivation to develop comes from a person’s aspirations. A manager must start with these. He or she must help individuals understand what they want from their job and then help them identify development areas that will enable them to achieve it. If people do not clearly see how development helps them to achieve what they want, they will not be motivated to develop. And, the best development plan in the world will be nothing more than a waste of paper if the individual is not motivated to follow it.

Development must be aligned with organizational interests

Development must be aligned with an individual’s aspirations or it will not happen. But it must also be aligned with the organization’s interests or there will be no point in it.

Development needs measurement

Development will not reliably occur without targets and targets require measurement. Measuring development is different from measuring learning. Development is getting better. Learning knows more. You measure development by measuring the change in performance. You measure learning by measuring the change in capacity.

A.I.M – the criteria for success

Successful development objectives will address Aspirations, organizational Interests and Measurement – A.I.M.

Development should precede promotion

Dr. Laurence Peter in his 1968 book, “The Peter Principle”, stated that, "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." This will always occur if people are promoted because they are good at their present job. They will continue to be promoted until they reach the first job that they cannot do. They will then stick there until they are fired or they leave.

The way to avoid this is to require people to develop competencies that are higher than those required for their present job. Development should precede promotion, not follow it.

How to use this program

What is in this program?

• DVD - Agreeing Development Objectives

• This manual

• PowerPoint® presentation.

Who is the program for?

Any Manager, Supervisor or Leader who is involved with the development of your organization’s employees.

What does this program do?

• Develops an awareness of the importance of setting developmental objectives

• Develops an understanding of the principles of setting effective developmental objectives

• Develops skill in setting effective developmental objectives.

How does this program achieve its objectives?

By providing a resource that your organization can use in several ways:

• For individual self-study

• As part of an existing on-going training program

• As a one-day training session.

Individual self-study

You can give the DVD and a copy of A guide to agreeing development objectives (on page 15) to an individual to view either on a computer or a DVD player. This will give the individual an understanding of and remind them of the important principles.

In an existing training program

The program has been designed as a resource for you to use as you choose. You can use the DVD as a training video in the conventional sense. Or, you can use the different interviews as the basis for exercises and discussions. We have provided you with an analysis of each interview that you can use to prepare your own exercises. And, you are welcome to use the PowerPoint® presentation and the component parts of this manual in any way you choose.

A complete one-day training program

This manual contains trainer’s notes for a complete training session lasting seven hours.

Evaluation of learning

We have included a post-course test on page 25 along with an answer key on page 27. This will give you an indication of whether your participants have understood the key ideas. (It will not help you assess whether their skill has improved but there is an exercise on page 13 which will help you to do this.)

Model training session

Here is a training session that you can use with the video. If you run it in its entirety it will take most of the day. If you start at nine you should finish by four, allowing for an hour for lunch and two breaks of thirty minutes each. These timings have been worked out on the basis of a group of around eight people. If you have many more than this, you should allow extra time.

You are welcome to take ideas from it or to use it as it stands. It can be run in a single day or divided into two half-days. The accompanying PowerPoint® presentation has been designed to be used with this session.

Learning objectives

There are three objectives for this session, which we have made measurable in accordance with the ideas in this guide.

1) Learners will be able to write down the three criteria for effective development objectives and explain in a short answer of 250 words or less what is meant by each one. These answers will incorporate the points made on page 6 of this guide.

2) Learners will be able to differentiate between measurable and non-measurable objectives in a multiple-choice test.

3) Learners will be able to demonstrate the use of questions to help a subordinate clarify his/her aspirations in an observed demonstration.

Pre-course work

The exercise on General Conclusions will work much better if people have thought about it in advance. It is recommended you write to your participants at least a week before the course and ask them to prepare by considering the following questions:

Think of a recent appraisal or other occasion on which you have set development objectives:

• What problems did you encounter?

• What worked well for you?

• What didn’t work so well?

Identify an individual who works for you who does not seem to have any ambition and also one who works for you who does seem ambitious.

• How would you approach setting development objectives in each of these cases?

Session plan

Allow ten minutes for welcoming participants and covering housekeeping issues. We assume you’ll know the participants. Allow extra time for introductions if you do not.

Show the video in its entirety (20 minutes)

Use the PowerPoint® presentation to remind people of the key ideas (10 minutes)

Review (15 minutes)

Divide your group into groups of three or four people. Pose the following questions (using the PowerPoint® slides or a flipchart)

The mnemonic puts aspirations before the organization’s interests:

• What arguments can you see in favor of this?

• What arguments can you see against this?

Allow about ten minutes for the groups to discuss their answers to the questions. Then invite a spokesperson from each group to summarize the views and allow five minutes for this.

This topic is covered on page 15 and you should read this carefully and think about how you will respond to the points that may come up.

Review (15 minutes)

Shuffle your groups to keep people fresh. Use the following questions, again using either the prepared slides or a flipchart:

The video argues that measurement is important:

• What arguments do you see in favor of this?

• What arguments do you see against?

Allow ten minutes to discuss answers and five minutes for summaries by spokespersons.

This topic is covered on page 16 of this guide.

Video sequence – James and Paige 1 (20 minutes)

Refer to page 19 for ideas on using this sequence. Play only the first part of the sequence as described on that page.

Shuffle your groups again and put the following questions to them:

• Why does James not accept Paige’s statement about promotion at face value?

• How does James open up the discussion to test Paige’s intentions?

As before, allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Video sequence – James and Paige 2 (20 minutes)

Play the remainder of the video sequence. Use the PowerPoint® slides to put the following questions to your syndicates:

“What changes do you need to make to achieve your aspirations?”

• What are the strengths of this question?

• What problems do you see with it?

• What does being good at your job tell us about how you will perform if you are promoted?

As you listen to the various groups discussing these questions, you may notice that people say that present performance tells us nothing about how a person will perform if he/she is promoted. If this happens, point out that present performance actually tells us a great deal about potential future performance. It may not tell us everything, but it does tell us a lot. However, we cannot be certain that a person will perform well if promoted until we have seen them demonstrate the behaviors that are important to success in the more senior position.

As before, allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Video sequence – James and Pamela 1 (20 minutes)

Refer to page 19 for ideas on using this sequence. Play only the first part of the sequence as described on that page.

Shuffle your syndicates and put the following questions to them:

• Why do you think that James raises the issue of shorter hours?

• What are the advantages of this approach?

• What are the risks?

As before, allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Video sequence – James and Pamela 2 (20 minutes)

Put the following question to your syndicates:

• If James suspects that typing is the answer, why not just tell Pamela to learn to type faster?

Ask your syndicates to discuss this question. Allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

General conclusions (1 hour)

Shuffle your groups again and put the following question to them:

Consider your own recent appraisals (or other occasions in which you have set development objectives).

• What problems do you encounter?

• What has worked well for you?

• What different approaches would you now like to try?

Allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Now ask the following question:

Think of an individual who works for you who does not seem ambitious.

• What questions could you ask him/her?

• How could you engage his/her interest?

• How might you motivate him/her?

Allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Now ask the following question:

Think of an individual working for you who does seem ambitious.

• What questions might you ask him/her?

Allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Now put the following question:

Think of a real development objective from a real appraisal or objective-setting meeting.

• How would you measure it?

• How might you make it more clearly measurable?

Allow ten minutes for discussion and five minutes for summary.

Applying the lessons (I½ hours)

In this session each of your participants will help another to clarify his or her aspirations and to set a self-development objective. This will help your participants to try out their skills in a safe environment.

Begin by dividing into groups of three. During the next hour and a half each group will conduct three interviews. If the three members of each group are A, B and C then A will interview B, B will interview C and C will interview A. Each individual will therefore be both an interviewer and an interviewee. In each case, the third member of the group will be the observer.

Each interview should take half-an-hour, divided as follows: ten minutes for preparation, ten minutes for the interview and ten minutes for feedback.

You may find that your groups do not divide exactly into groups of three. If so, adjust accordingly. Each interview within this group will have two observers. If possible, allow extra time so that each member of this larger group can conduct an interview.

Preparation

Each interviewer should give careful thought to the questions he or she intends to ask. For example:

What will my opening question be?

What follow-up questions should I ask?

Use the PowerPoint® as a reminder that they may wish to focus on what the individual wants to achieve or to focus on problems with the present job. They can switch strategies if one is not working. So they should prepare questions for both approaches.

After five minutes or so of individual thought, talk with their observer out of the hearing of the interviewee. He/she should explain how they intend to approach the discussion so that the observer is in a position to give feedback on how their approach appears to the observer in practice.

Since everyone is also to conduct an interview, the other members of the group can use this period to think about their own interviews and to prepare their own strategies.

Interview

Each interview should cover:

• What the interviewee wants to achieve (Aspirations)

• What changes the interviewee must make to achieve this.

• A specific development objective that is:

o In the organization’s interests

o Measurable

Feedback

After each interview, the observer and the interviewee should give the interviewer feedback, including the following:

• The kind of questions asked and their effectiveness

• How well the interview uncovered real motives

• How well the interview identified changes that needed to be made

• How well the interview identified developments that were in the organization’s interests

• How clearly the resulting development objectives could be measured.

Administer the post-course test (page 25)

This will provide you with an important piece of evaluation. It will tell you how well people have actually learned. The test will help you to evaluate how well you have achieved the first two objectives.

The third objective should have been observed during the interview.

This should take no more than fifteen minutes to complete.

You will see that we have asked people to give their names. Although you could do the test anonymously, the advantage of having people’s names is that you can review the material with any one who had difficulty with the questions.

Close the session

Summarize and review the session, thank the participants for their time and administer your own course-evaluation sheets.

A guide to agreeing development objectives

What is development?

Development is improving your performance. It is different from learning. Learning is either knowing something new or acquiring a new skill. Development is behaving differently – and better. You can learn without developing although you can’t develop without learning. Learning is improving whereas development is about improving your performance.

No development without motivation

People cannot be developed – they must develop themselves. They need to be motivated to do this and this is the fundamental point of this program. There will be no development without motivation. There are many things that you can force yourself to do without being motivated to do them, but development is not one of them. People will only develop if they really want to do it.

Motivation comes from aspiration

People will be motivated to develop if they want to achieve something that the development will enable them to achieve. If someone wants to be a doctor badly enough they will undertake the necessary training and hard work. If they don’t, they won’t. Motivation to develop comes from what a person wants to achieve – their aspirations. The foundation of any development is motivation and the basis of motivation is aspiration.

The organization’s interests

The organization must benefit from a person’s development, too. If there is no motivation, there will be no development. But if the organization does not gain, there is no point to the exercise. You might wonder why this program does not start with the organization’s interests. Why not start by identifying development that is in the organization’s interests and then look for ways of motivating someone to develop in that way? The answer is because that does not work. People feel that they are being manipulated if you try to fit their aspirations into the organization’s aims. You end up selling them on a particular development not their aspirations.

People respond better if you focus on them – on what they want to achieve – and then look for advantages to the organization later. You end up with a much more motivated individual if you begin with him or her. Remember, motivation is more important than any other single aspect of development. It is much better to have someone strongly motivated to develop in a way that is somewhat helpful to the organization than to have someone not really motivated to develop in a way that is very helpful to the organization. Half of something is always better than all of nothing.

Start with the individual and look for things that motivate him or her. Then apply the organization’s interests to select which of those things to support.

Getting objectives to work

You are half way there if the person is motivated. The other half comes from clarifying the objective so that the individual knows exactly what they have to do. This clarification comes from answering the question: how will you know when the development has been achieved? If you can answer this question, you will have a measurable development objective.

Measuring success

Development is about improving performance. You therefore measure development by measuring performance. Performance is usually measured by observing the effect of that performance. For example, you would measure leadership by observing the effect of the leadership on the team. If leadership has improved the team performance will improve.

You therefore need to identify an effect of the development that you can observe and measure.

For an objective to be clear, the measurement of success must be clear and unambiguous. There can be no room for argument about whether the objective has been achieved or not. Choose an observable effect of the improved performance and then agree a clear measure of that effect.

Why S.M.A.R.T is not smart for development

You sometimes hear about S.M.A.R.T objectives. Different sources give different explanations for S.M.A.R.T but all agree that T stands for Time-line. One typical expansion of S.M.A.R.T is:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-line

S.M.A.R.T comes from performance management. It arises from setting performance objectives, not development objectives. It does not address the issue of motivation at all, which is fundamental to development, and it imposes time restrictions. In setting a development objective, you have no idea how long it might take. This is a fundamental difference between a development objective and a performance objective. In setting performance objectives, you assume you know how to achieve the objective. You can therefore set a time frame. In discussing development, you don’t know this.

Time comes in later, when you discuss the development plan. When you discuss how an objective is to be achieved, you discuss methods and approaches and you can set time frames.

Don’t discuss time at the point at which you are clarifying the development objective itself. You don’t have the information to set a realistic time frame.

Development objectives are agreed using A.I.M.

Aspirational, in our

Interests, and

Measurable

The manager’s role in agreeing development objectives

Your role is to help people think. Development is the personal responsibility of the individual concerned. You can help them embrace this responsibility by helping them to think.

Questions are the most powerful tool you have to help people to think. Making statements invites challenge. Asking questions invites thought. All questions are good but some are particularly powerful. Open questions are very effective in helping people to think. Open questions are questions that invite the person to talk about a subject rather than to give a specific piece of information. Examples are: Why do you feel that way? How would you go about it? Tell me what happened?

There is nothing wrong with closed questions: how many people work for you? Do you like selling? When was that? Closed questions can uncover really useful information but they are less effective at causing people to think.

The other person usually knows the answer to a closed question. But they have to think to answer an open one.

Questions to ask

Start with questions about aspirations. Take your time over this and work with the individual until both you and he, or you and she, are clear about what the individual wants to achieve.

A good place to start is to ask: what do you want to achieve in this job?

This may result in a cogent stream of thought about a person’s aspirations in life and at work and if it does you are well on your way to agreeing development objectives. If it fails you will need to try a different approach. Two approaches that usually work are:

● Ask about problem areas at work, and

● Ask about areas that are satisfying at work

It is best to select one or other of these to start with, depending on your assessment of which is likely to work better with a particular person.

The reason these questions are effective is that they tend to uncover hidden aspirations. If a person has a particular problem at work, he or she is likely to become motivated to solve it once it becomes clear that this might be possible. Similarly, if there is an area of work that they particularly enjoy, they are likely to be motivated to develop in this area.

What changes do you need to make to yourself?

Once you have agreed upon a development area you need to help the individual to take responsibility for the development. An excellent question to ask is: what changes do you need to make to yourself in order to achieve your aspirations? This can have the effect of focusing the individual on change. Many people assume, without really thinking about it, that they can achieve what they want to achieve by carrying on as they are. But no one can make progress without changing behavior.

Gauging the organization’s interests

You may need to take a broad view of the organization’s interests. It is likely that you will have a clear statement of goals, objectives or priorities in your mind and it is also likely that the individual’s aspirations may not be an exact fit. Will not fit If they do, you hit a home run!

What you must not do is try to steer the individual into agreeing to an objective that fits your organizational goals. The individual will see this coming and tune you out.

You need to stay with the individual’s aspirations and then select the ones that best fit your organizational aims. Sometimes, you will be disappointed and find that nothing the individual wants to achieve really helps you very much. (This may tell you something about the individual’s suitability for the role that they are in, but that is a subject for another time). The idea is to focus on any development rather than no development.

There are two reasons why any development is better than no development. The first is that human beings like to develop. They may need a bit of help to get going, but once they start, they usually enjoy it. People who are developing are likely to be more motivated and more alive. So in one sense, all development is in the organization’s interest, regardless of what it is.

The second reason is to help people get into the habit of development and into the habit of thinking about development as a possible solution to problems. Even though a particular piece of development may not directly help the organization today, (other than in a general motivational sense), it may set the scene for more useful development in the future.

So if you cannot agree on a development area useful to your organization, agree on one that is close rather than none at all. Remember, ultimately, all development is useful.

Analysis of individual scenes

Shawna and Joe (1)

This scene illustrates the kind of well-meaning but ineffective conversation that often takes place during a discussion on self-development.

It is very easy to criticize Shawna but there are a number of good things in her approach: she is genuinely trying to help Joe develop; she is not imposing her own view on Joe; and she does make appropriate suggestions.

James and Paige

For the purpose of this exercise, we’ll break this into sections.

Section 1

In this scene, Paige says that her long-term aim is to join top management. This section is all about clarifying aspirations.

Paige says she wants to be promoted. Why does James not just accept this? The answer is that only real motives lead to real development. Paige may be divulging her real motives, but equally, she may be saying what she thinks James wants to hear.

James challenges the claim by asking Paige what it is about promotion that appeals to her. It is obvious from Paige’s answer that she has not thought about this much and cannot give a reasoned answer. James falls back on a powerful technique, which is to ask Paige what she likes about her existing job. Most people can answer this and it gives James the material he needs to check whether Paige really does want promotion.

Section 2

This runs until Paige says she would like to try getting more input from her team and James asks how they are going to do that.

This section is about helping the individual to think in terms of change. The key question is, “What changes do you need to make to yourself to achieve your aspirations?”

Many people assume that promotion will come their way if they are good at their present jobs. Successful promotion comes from demonstrating the competencies that are necessary for the job that you want to be promoted to. Paige needs to demonstrate that she can perform at the next level up and she is not doing this at the moment. James helps her to see that she needs to do this and how to go about that.

James and Pamela

For the purpose of analysis, this sequence has two sections. Section 1 runs until Pamela says, “I’d given up thinking about it, really”.

Section 1

James begins the discussion by asking Pamela if she is happy with her present job. Like so many people, Pamela says that she is. It would be very easy for the conversation to fizzle out at this point without achieving anything. James might have asked if Pamela wanted to develop any skills and Pamela would have said that she was entirely happy as she was.

Instead, James looked for a possible reason for discontent by asking about the earlier request for reduced hours. Many managers in James’s position would have chosen to let sleeping dogs lie and not to raise the issue. Instead, James hit it straight on. There are advantages and disadvantages with this approach.

An advantage is that it is real. And only real motives lead to real development. James could have talked about something that was not terribly important to Pamela and she might have obtained a half-hearted commitment to do something about it. But by choosing something that Pamela was likely to feel strongly about, she is more likely to uncover a development need that Pamela would commit to strongly.

A related advantage is that talking about real issues makes the process credible to Pamela. She is much more likely to engage in a discussion about something that really matters to her.

The disadvantages of this direct approach tend to be more imagined than real. The first thing people ask is whether this approach will stir up discontentment. The answer to this is it might help Pamela understand why she is discontent, but it is hardly likely to cause the discontentment.

The second question people ask is whether it will cause conflict. Again, it may bring conflict into the open, where it can be addressed, but it can hardly cause it.

The third objection is that it might cause a focus on the negative aspects of the job and prevent discussion of more positive aspects. This may be true, but it is much more likely that any attempt to discuss positive aspects would be undermined by simmering resentment over the negative ones. It is surely better to deal with the problems first.

For all these reasons, James is justified in tackling this issue head-on.

Section 2

James now begins to engage Pamela in realizing that development might be in her interests and not just in those of the organization.

James explores the reasons why Pamela cannot work part-time. She begins to suspect that Pamela might be able to solve the problem if she could type properly. She could at this stage have told Pamela that she ought to learn to type faster. This might have worked, but it might equally have caused Pamela to advance reasons why it would not solve the problem. This could have led to a sterile argument on the subject. Instead, James asked questions that helped Pamela think the arguments through and come to her own conclusion.

The result is that Pamela ends up enthusiastically wanting to give the idea a try, rather than sullenly going along with something she does not believe in.

Shawna and Joe (2)

Shawna begins her second attempt to agreeing on development objectives with Joe by asking him directly what his aspirations are. This is a good place to start and often works. In this case, it does not. Joe does not take the question seriously and tries to make a joke of it. It soon becomes clear that Joe has not thought about this question at all.

Shawna’s challenge is to help him think it through. A good way to do this, and the one that Shawna chooses, is to ask what aspects of Joe’s job are satisfying to him and which are not. A more positive person than Joe would be aware of the enjoyable parts. Joe is aware of the parts of the job that he does not like. Shawna therefore decides on a strategy of helping Joe think about ways of dealing with the parts he does not like. She reasons that this is more likely to motivate Joe than any other approach. In this case, they agree to talk about Joe’s dislike of paperwork.

Shawna helps Joe to identify coaching as a development need. In contrast with the earlier discussion on project management, Joe can clearly see the advantage to himself. Shawna has to consider whether this development would be in the organization’s interests before she can support it. In this case the organization has a policy of fostering a coaching approach to management so the development is clearly in the organization’s interests. Shawna is therefore able to support it.

Shawna now poses two of the questions that she learned from James. The first is, “What changes do you need to make to yourself to become a better coach?” and the second is, “How will you know when you have done that?” These questions lead to a clear development objective.

Development objectives are about developing performance. The best way to measure an improvement in performance is to measure the effect of that improvement. For example, if someone is a better leader, the team will work better and achieve more. This is the effect. If there is no effect then it is hard to see how they can be a better leader. In this scene, Shawna and Joe choose the effect of Shawna’s coaching, which is Joe’s newfound ability to do the paperwork without error.

Examples of effective objectives

Effective objectives are:

Aspirational, in the organization’s

Interests, and are

Measurable

Here are some examples of effective objectives.

The case of Melinda

Melinda was a junior clerk in the accounts department of a large organization. Mark was the manager of the accounts department and was a professionally qualified C.P.A.

Melinda had taken accounting classes at the local university, but was otherwise unqualified.

Melinda was bored and listless at work and Mark was worried and annoyed by the fact that much of her work was found to contain errors that resulted in “charge backs”. She also failed to complete significant parts of her work on time, causing Mark or another clerk to have to step in towards the end of each month to make sure her work was completed.

Mark offered the chance to take several courses on basic bookkeeping but they had not made any sustained difference to her performance.

Mark decided to work with Melinda to agree on developmental objectives.

He began by asking about her goals and ambitions, but she did not appear to have any. He asked what she liked about her job and the answer was, “not much”. He asked her what she didn’t like about her job and the answer was that it was dull and boring.

Mark asked Melinda if it could be made less dull and boring. Her answer was that the qualified accounts staff did all the interesting work and that she could not qualify because she did not have a college degree. Mark explained that there were qualifications that did not require degrees.

Melinda became quite animated at the thought of qualifying and asked if she could take a course. Mark knew that the organization would consider paying for such a course, but he was concerned that Melinda might not take full advantage of it. He was also concerned that other staff might see that he was rewarding Melinda for poor performance. He decided that he needed to see evidence of improved performance and commitment before he would recommend Melinda for company paid accounting courses.

Mark therefore had a serious discussion with Melinda about the need for her to improve her performance in her current role before he could recommend supporting her on a course. Melinda accepted this and was clearly motivated to do it. Mark had found an aspiration and a motivation that flowed from it.

Improving performance was clearly in the organization’s interests – no problems there – so the next question was how to measure success. They fixed upon the two effects of her poor performance – the number of charge backs and the late completion of work – as being the measures of the effect of her development. The development objective they agreed upon was:

Melinda will improve her performance in her current role and she will know she has done this when her charge backs are fewer than two per month for three months and it has not been necessary for another member of staff to complete her work, again for three months.

Melinda achieved this development goal and is now part way through her AAT studies. Her work has not slipped back and she is now a motivated and productive member of the department.

The case of David

David was a team leader in the service department of a photocopier supplier. He managed a team of eight service engineers whose job it was to visit customers’ premises to repair malfunctioning copiers.

His boss, Donna, carried out an appraisal that both parties found satisfactory. David was doing an effective job and Donna was pleased with his performance.

During the discussion of development needs, Donna asked David if there were any part of the job that he found unsatisfactory. “When people don’t do what they are supposed to do” shot back David. Donna asked for an example and David explained how his attempts to implement the company policy of “proactive service” had failed. He had told his engineers that he would like them to do more than simply fix machines. He asked them to talk to the person with responsibility for the machine in the customer’s organization and discuss their satisfaction with the machine. This should enable them to head off many problems before they arose.

In fact, only three of his engineers were doing this with any degree of reliability and David was very irritated and frustrated by his lack of success. He said that he had told the other five engineers several times that they should have these conversations, but they were not doing it.

Donna asked if the five understood that they were not achieving what David wanted and his reply was that they should. Nonetheless, Donna began to suspect that they did not understand the importance that David attached to this issue. He asked David how he had given feedback on this issue and it became clear to both of them that David was not doing this very well, if at all.

They therefore agreed on the following development objective for David:

I will improve my performance at giving feedback. I will know that I have achieved this when at least three of the five engineers currently not discussing satisfaction with customers do so consistently for a period of one month.

David and Donna subsequently discussed ways of developing David’s skills in this area and the objective was achieved. David’s team is now the second-top performing team as measured by the success of the proactive service program.

Post-course test

The purpose of this test is to measure how well the learning objectives of the course have been achieved.

|Name: | |

|Date: | |

|Trainer: | |

Use the spaces below to write down the three main criteria that an effective development objective must meet and explain what is meant by each one in a short answer of 250 words or less.

|First Criteria |

|What it means |

|Second Criteria |

|What it means |

|Third Criteria |

|What it means |

Multiple-choice test

For each pair of development objectives, state which ones are measurable.

|1 |A) To get better at coaching |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my coaching skills so that people are able to get better at their jobs. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|2 |A) To involve people more in decision-making so that three quarters of them say that they feel more involved. |Both ( |

| |B) To involve people more in decision-making so that my average score in a feedback form increases by at least one |A ( |

| |point. |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|3 |A) To improve my time-management skills so that all the important jobs get done. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my time-management skills so that I am on top of my job. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|4 |A) To improve my customer-handling skills so that customer complaints fall to half of present levels. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my customer-handling skills so that customer satisfaction is increased. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|5 |A) To improve my maintenance effectiveness so that the machines don’t keep breaking down. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my maintenance effectiveness so that downtime is reduced by fifty percent. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|6 |A) To improve my bookkeeping accuracy so that the time taken correcting errors is reduced by half an hour a day. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my bookkeeping accuracy so that we don’t keep making mistakes. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|7 |A) To improve my processing speed so that I can get home earlier. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my processing speed so that the data is input one hour earlier. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|8 |A) To improve my territory planning so that I don’t get lost all the time. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my territory planning so that fuel cost is reduced by fifteen percent. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|9 |A) To get better at leadership. |Both ( |

| |B) To get better at leadership so that my team is more effective. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|10 |A) To adopt a more inclusive leadership style. |Both ( |

| |B) To change my leadership style so that the majority of my staff say I am being more inclusive. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

Answers to multiple-choice test

For each pair of development objectives, state which ones are measurable.

|1 |A) To get better at coaching. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my coaching skills so that people are able to get better at their jobs. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|2 |A) To involve people more in decision-making so that three quarters of them say that they feel more involved. |Both ( |

| |B) To involve people more in decision-making so that my average score in a feedback form increases by at least one |A ( |

| |point. |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|3 |A) To improve my time-management skills so that all the important jobs get done. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my time-management skills so that I am on top of my job. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|4 |A) To improve my customer-handling skills so that customer complaints fall to half of present levels. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my customer-handling skills so that customer satisfaction is increased. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|5 |A) To improve my maintenance effectiveness so that the machines don’t keep breaking down. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my maintenance effectiveness so that downtime is reduced by fifty percent. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | | |

| | |Neither ( |

|6 |A) To improve my bookkeeping accuracy so that the time taken correcting errors is reduced by half an hour a day. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my bookkeeping accuracy so that we don’t keep making mistakes. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|7 |A) To improve my processing speed so that I can get home earlier. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my processing speed so that the data is input one hour earlier. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|8 |A) To improve my territory planning so that I don’t get lost all the time. |Both ( |

| |B) To improve my territory planning so that fuel cost is reduced by fifteen percent. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|9 |A) To get better at leadership. |Both ( |

| |B) To get better at leadership so that my team is more effective. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

|10 |A) To adopt a more inclusive leadership style. |Both ( |

| |B) To change my leadership style so that the majority of my staff say I am being more inclusive. |A ( |

| | |B ( |

| | |Neither ( |

-----------------------

A.I.M. For Development

Setting Personal Development Objectives That Work

A guide to effective development

By

Hugh Murray FCIPD

User s Guide to:

A.I.M. For Development

Setting Personal Development Objectives That Work

Produced and published by:

Newmarket Learning"!

A division of Telephone Doctor, Inc.

30 Holl

User’s Guide to:

A.I.M. For Development

Setting Personal Development Objectives That Work

Produced and published by:

Newmarket Learning™

A division of Telephone Doctor, Inc.

30 Hollenberg Court

St. Louis, MO 63044

Telephone: 800.882.9911

Fax: 314.291.3710

Web:

© Telephone Doctor, Inc., All Rights Reserved

This course may not be distributed outside of North America.

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In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

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