Development Cycles 
This Development Cycle is designed to create behavior change, growth or emergence. Many times we sign our employees up for training classes, workshops or conferences hoping to create positive changes in them or in our business. The events they attend get them “fired up” and excited about new ideas or methods only to have 95% of that forgotten as they get back into the daily challenges, tasks and routines. The Development Cycle I am about to share, was created to address the need for learning, implementation and actual long term change.
When we recognize that individuals, teams or whole organizations are stuck, underdeveloped or unable to fulfill the vision of the organization, we need to first determine what is missing. It could be technical skills, leadership skills or even motivation. Before introducing the employee, team or organization to some sort of catalyst that will provoke change, we need to decide what the ultimate Goals and Outcomes will be. This can be determined through a “pain point” conversation or through a “vision” conversation with the supervisor or leader of the organization. Until you know what specific goal or outcomes are desired, you are shooting blindly at a target and hoping you hit a bulls eye.
Once you have determined the goals and outcomes sought, you need to develop Benchmarks, ways to know that you are making progress. What behaviors will be different or now present after the program is implemented, and how will you measure them? It is important to know this before moving into the Tactical Planning Development stage in order to have a realistic time frame and allotted resources for real change. It is in the planning that you decide the methods for teaching and developing these behavior changes. Will you start with a training course, motivational speaker, or communication strategy to introduce concepts? What about implementing a mentor program where concepts are taught 1 on 1? What other methods can you employ to teach new behaviors? Once the plan is developed, who will execute it? This is where the Development Activity comes into play. One of the methods that I frequently use is to observe behaviors in real life after teaching the concepts in a training environment. The initial training allows me to get group buy-in and excitement. The observations provide deeper explanations and the “how to” of implementation.
The last step of the cycle is Evaluation. Did you achieve your goals and outcomes? What benchmarks were met along the way? This is absolutely critical in order to determine the ROI of your investment in training, time, man power, etc, as well as in modifying your strategies for the next big change.
Many thanks,
Sondra , Coach
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