Introducing a New Development Concept – Development Circles
Traditional individual development strategies are inherently flawed. Traditional development planning, when it occurs, is part of the manager/employee relationship. Human resources may be brought in by the manager to facilitate the planning process but developmental planning is done in a box.
Multi-rater processes may be used to involve others but these events are single points in time and others are not actively involved on an ongoing basis. An alternative approach would be to use a social media approach to broaden collaboration.
The key component of this approach would be the addition of a personal development capability and focus that could conceivably touch every individual within a client organization in a very positive and engaging manner. Given the high degree of interest in social media and the potential power of harnessing a social network for personal development support, there is a great opportunity for a developmental offering that would create a social media collaborative learning environment. Such an environment might be called a “Development Circle”.
The Development Circle within Social Media
A Development Circle would be a social network established within a client company. The application would allow individuals within a client company to make requests for other individuals to join their Development Circle. Each individual would have various user settings to determine what activities they are willing to participate in.
By joining a Development Circle, these individuals would make a commitment to each other to foster development through collaboration. The Circles would be based on trust, transparency, confidentiality, and civility. Typically members would be peers but hierarchical relationships could exist but would not be required. Circles could also be used for action learning projects with the group sharing a common goal.
Key functionality in the application could include some or all of the following:
- Informal and formal multi-rater assessments
- Real time feedback/comments/ratings on published development goals
- Discussion threads and Wikipedia’s
- Instant messaging and email messaging
- Access to online development resources
- Gamification features to encourage participation
Social Media and Talent Management
The application of social media for talent management purposes is not new. One only needs to look at how LinkedIn has become such a powerful recruitment tool. There is no reason that the same power could not be leveraged for personal development. OMNIview plans on being on the leading edge for such applications.
