Edited by Joe Meyer
Why this is so important?
We have no choice but to develop our people at an ever-faster pace. The spoils go to the fast. The faster to innovate, to market, to change.
Our people expect to have the opportunity to grow. I personally have had the experience of addressing this issue of losing good people in more than a few fortune 500 companies. These companies lost great people not because of money or health benefits but because they didn’t feel they had enough opportunity to learn, grow and become better leaders.
The fast eats the slow!
We are living and working in a time of extreme speed. We have access to so much information in nanosecond speed. Our competition and our employees have that same access. Let’s make sure we are at the forefront of helping our employees grow at a very fast pace.
It takes real concentration to do this and development cannot be a second thought. If it is a second thought, we will be too late!
Is it our brand or reputation?
What are we known for? Do we treasure learning and development? In particular leadership development? It is very much an incentive to attract and get good people join an organization. So, is it a part of our brand? We want potential employees to come work for us because we help them grow personally and professionally. We distance ourselves from others by the speed of learning in our organization.
Is it viewed as really important?
Why is it that the first thing to be cut from a budget when things have to be cut is learning and development? It’s because it is viewed as a nice to have instead of a must have. We have to get used to that fact that learning and development is a part of our survival.
