Development Discussions

When I think about development discussions I have a bit mixed feelings. I strongly feel that people need to be nurtured and given chances to develop themselves. They should be encouraged to find their current limits and surpass them. Organization needs to support employees professional development by allowing (or even insisting) time to be allocated for practicing and learning new things. But then again, the initiative should come from the person him-/herself.

One of the saddest things I know is when people afterwards say that "no-one developed me". In this case afterwards means when people have been fired due to their low performance or because their skills have been outdated beyond repair. Fortunately these are extreme cases, but I also feel bad when people who still have jobs are not interested in learning new things.

I seriously doubt that it is possible to learn everything you need to know in school/university and then just apply that knowledge at work until you receive a gold watch and a nice retirement package. Maintaining your attainments is simply a must. And not just in a niche speciality area. Let's say you knew everything there is to know about VHS cassettes. After the introduction of CDs, Blu-Rays and set-top boxes rules of the game changed. The things you knew just weren't valid anymore. Or they were valid alright, but no-one cared because no-one used VHS anymore.

And this is why I believe everyone should craft their own development plans. Your knowledge/career is your product and you should be managing it. Think about where you want to be in five or ten years and what skills you still need to obtain. Then keep that in mind in your next development discussion. If you don't say it out loud, how can your company help you reach those goals?

Set your own goal, keep it in mind and pursuit mastery. External motivation is so 90s. :)