Are You Ready?

Development in our lives happens at times when we are receptive and ready for the growth. This is an epiphany that has come to me as I am going through an amazing amount of growth in my personal life. As I migrate on this path of my life, it is apparent to me that the lessons that I am learning now are lessons that would have gone without notice at earlier times in my life with earlier versions of me. 

 This life lesson is really driven home as I relate it to my daughter. She is constantly in a state of growth and development as she should be at her age. What I have found difficult is to realize that her learning and growing is at the pace and at the desire of her needs and her maturity, they are not changed by my desires for her growth. 

 The reason that I mention this observation is that it has now occurred to me, that the way we develop young pliable minds like hers and the way that we develop static and rigid minds of adults like me, are based in the foundation that we must have the lessons that are being sought by individuals. These lessons should be available at the place and time of those that need them and are looking for them. 

 This illustrates to me the flaws within our current models of talent development. We hold training classes at times when we have problems, we send people for certifications when we have it on the schedule and in the budget, and we provide training to fix problems not to create opportunities. This model of training and development is broken and it is our job to fix it. 

 We require learners to be ready to learn when we are ready to teach. 

If you have read some of my previous writings you know that I believe in “just in time training” which is exactly how it sounds, training available when it is needed. You have also heard me espouse the ideology of “just enough” training which means short bursts of information that fills the current need without extra non necessary information. But with this epiphany I realize that the development that people need also needs to be consistently and constantly available for the development of new concepts in life and also the refinement and improvement of concepts as time and people evolve. 

Through my daughter I understand that if she is not ready for a “life lesson” that she will be someday and it is not my job to make her ready. It is my job as her father to be ready for her when she needs me. 

 As leaders and mentors, the same is true. This doesn’t mean it is not our job to get them ready. What it does mean is that we hire the right people and then provide a culture along with an environment of engagement and support. 

 By doing these things the readiness factor in our organizations will perpetually be in a growth mode. By having an organization in a growth mode we will be leading an enterprise that will find exceptional results. We will get that “discretionary effort” out of our employees that are growing and stretching their wings.