Make things as simple as possible – but not simpler. Albert Einstein. Is linking people development to business impact an exception to Einstein’s advice?
Simplicity that is too simple ultimately tends to erode the effect of the effort that people put into a process. This seems to be the reason why people development is often not making an impact on business performance. The processes applied to manage people development is either too complex and therefore resource heavy or relegated to focussing on development that adds very little value due to limitations.
Simplicity that assures business performance seems to be the “not simpler” balance people development requires. Our experience of how companies, parastatals, government departments and even training and development institutions dealt with people development has led us to gradually identify the following six key elements:
- Ensure learning is confirmed in the workplace
- Define workplace competencies
- Integrate available information
- Move text documents to information platforms
- Consider “reminder” automated features
- Allow people to manage their development
