I have serious doubts in people who say they are ready - who feel they are over and done with developing themselves and are already best what they can be in their roles.
Surely at some point of time in your career you feel pretty confident about certain areas (you should!) but saying there’s nothing you could improve or having no curiosity left in trying out some new ideas.... well, I feel for you.
The fixed mindset vs growth mindset definitely sets people apart. Organisations who aim to grow and want to be on top of the game are learning organisations by nature, not promoting it only on paper and showing off in fancy job ads. People with fixed mindset will most probably never fit in there.
But how do you keep on supporting the professional growth for your people in this learning org? Especially when majority of the external training options seem to be way too generic and little connected with what you do on a daily basis, little tied to your business needs and style of working. In addition to great books, super wide and ever-growing choice e-courses and practical forums, there’s one more important place to look into.
Look inside!
Your own peeps! Most probably you have quite much wit and experience hidden between your own walls and when you figure out how you can make that internal transfer of knowledge flow, well congratulations, you’ve made a big step onwards.
There are different Learning and Development initiatives we’ve started at Fortumo. From specific and regular internal trainings to eye-openers around more general topics.
We’ve played around with different formats. To name a few:
practical workshops
panel discussions
mini lectures on someone's (changed) roles and responsibilities
analysing case studies with some awkward but darn useful role playing
engineering lunches
pair programming
Learning-on-the-job is happening all the time.
The value you can create within the team got the last boost with launching our internal mentoring program. This has grown now into a firm L&D practice that people can grab after when they want to improve a specific skill, wish to have someone (in addition to their team lead) to be accountable for, yearn for a bit pushy and honest buddy who helps to go for their goals or just helps them figure out where they’re actually stuck. Although your own team lead is a great resource, people have pointed out that this external look from someone outside their team can offer a super useful fresh look on things. And this extra kick is often all you need to get the ball rolling.
Sounds like a silver bullet? In a way it surely is :)
Wanna know what it takes to build up a program like this? Stay tuned for the next post - will tell you more.