Disrupt or be disrupted - Dialogue Review

In a fast-changing business environment, individuals’ professional development drives organizational success

As organizations seek to recruit and retain the best talent in a hyper-competitive marketplace, and as individuals seek to position themselves for their next role, professional development has emerged more prominently than ever as a value creation strategy.

Within that strategy, a clear line can be drawn from overall organizational goals to an individual’s professional development goals. The cross-cutting mantra is: “Disrupt or be disrupted.” For individuals and businesses alike, the status quo is not good enough, and innovation drives success. Professional development targeting individuals, which facilitates acquiring or honing new skills, can address individual disruption and innovation needs, while at the same time serving organizational aims. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship between individuals and organizations where professional development inextricably links the two together (see graphic).

The framework unlocks potential at multiple levels and in multiple ways, where the organization and the individual support one another through professional development. Organizations must recruit and retain top talent, while individuals must position themselves for advancement and promotion, whether inside or outside the firm. Organizations must align individual work with the larger organizational strategy, while individuals must adjust to new demands and skills needed to execute that strategy. Organizations must create value through cycles of innovation, while individuals must remain continually relevant, interested, curious and inspired.

In many ways, the duality that can exist between organization and individual is addressed via the alignment found through professional development. To illustrate this point and see the framework in action, let’s look at a couple of examples.

The individual’s potential unlocked

An executive leader in healthcare consulting for over 20 years, Sonya was working as the strategic lead for interactive analytics and communications within a mid-size firm. Primarily an economist and researcher, she was gifted at leading a consulting service, providing interactive and innovative tools to disseminate complex scientific information to diverse audiences. However, she suddenly found her job shifting rapidly because of her company being acquired – meaning a new direction and responsibilities for her work. Sonya knew that what she had known would no longer be enough.

Seeing change unfold motivated Sonya to go outside of her new organization to seek formal education. She recognized that she had no way of assessing some of the changes under way in the organization: “Is this good, bad, or how other companies do it?” Ultimately, she decided to pursue a non-degree certificate in leadership and management, grounding her experience via access to best principles and new, cutting-edge insights to fill gaps in her knowledge, address her needs, and position herself for further success.

The programs Sonya chose as part of that certificate were helpful in explaining what she had been seeing daily. They gave her the vocabulary to really understand the changes under way, and to adjust course if necessary. She also benefited from building a network of peers outside her firm, sharing leadership plans and journeys. This gave her a better sense of her strengths and weaknesses relative to other executives from other functions and industries. Thanks, in part, to her intentional professional development journey, Sonya was soon promoted to the role of vice president, health economics and outcomes research. She is now even more focused on using her newly acquired knowledge and skills to determine what may be her next big career ambition and challenge.

There are countless stories like this one, and the lessons for the individual ring true across them all.

The organization’s success unlocked

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Shane was leading a team within the healthcare division of a global manufacturing company that builds medical devices for their customers. He and his team found themselves facing a spike in demand for the company’s medical products, while trying to navigate supply-chain disruptions, logistics that were at a breaking point, and employee shortages affecting their plants globally. “The challenge in front of us was daunting, but the desire to ensure our customers were able to help their patients was our rallying call to make it happen,” Shane recalls.

While the company faced uncontrollable external factors impacting global production, the power of effective leadership was something that they could leverage. By adopting a tone of communication that resonated, demonstrating agility in action, and embracing creative problem-solving, they could effectively tackle the company’s challenges. Fortunately for the business, Shane had recently completed an external leadership program. It equipped him with the precise skills required to lead decisively during crises – a strategic investment that paid off for the company, and for Shane.

One of his team’s biggest tasks was to increase their production of ventilators from 50 per month to 5,000 per month. It was not an easy ask at a time when resources were stretched to the limit and the global manufacturing environment was nearly at a standstill. As Shane led his team through unprecedented hurdles, he applied insights from his professional development experience, guiding his team through a maelstrom of obstacles. His leadership was not merely theoretical: he put key principles into practice, fostering improved communication and empowerment among his team members.

In the end, says Shane, he and his team were successful in meeting the increased demands. “This was accomplished, in part, with key takeaways from the leadership program,” he reflects. Moreover, he has now twice been promoted into more senior positions at the company. His professional development experience proved instrumental in navigating the organizational challenges posed by the pandemic, meeting the increased demands of team leadership organizationally, and advancing his own career.

Shane’s story illustrates how successful and sustainable organizations are partly defined by their people continuously growing and improving. It is imperative for any organization, through its people, to always be learning so as to always be ready for whatever comes next. The strong benefits of individual professional development and its ROI for the organization make it worthy of resourcing. Ultimately, the organization grows its ability to create value for all stakeholders through individuals’ pursuit of professional development.

Guiding practices and action planning

The individual and the organization reciprocally benefit from unlocking leaders’ potential. What are the steps needed for each to maximize the benefit of professional development?

For individuals

For individual leaders, here are five essential steps to accelerate career progression and further impact organizational success.

Identify your gaps and urgent needs What knowledge, skills, and/or capabilities are urgent for you to develop? This could include a focus on your current role or the role to which you aspire and for which you want to be positioned. If you are not sure about your needs, do your own 360 (even if informal). Talk to colleagues, to executives who you work with and report to, and to your team or those you manage.

Talk to others who have pursued professional development and learn from their experience How did they choose what
to do? How did they ensure value and ROI from the experience? What did they bring back to
their work? How did they use it to help advance their career?

Check whether your organization supports professional development Many firms provide funding for leadership development.
If they do, take advantage of it. If they don’t, make
a case to your supervisor about how supporting your professional development will generate a positive return for the team and organization. Everyone must view it as an investment and understand how that investment could generate profound value in return.

Engage in a professional development opportunity Identify programs that could address your gaps and needs; identify the time needed, and when would be the optimal time to engage. Then jump right into the experience. Enjoy the process of ‘going back to school’ in a context that is geared toward professionals like you and is equipped to meet your needs.

Assess the experience: measure success Take learnings back to work and apply them immediately. Impactful learning does not happen in a vacuum. What did you learn? What can you apply immediately to do your job better? How did this enhance your skillset, your resumé, and your positioning for new and greater opportunities? How does it add to your professional career narrative? How can you demonstrate ROI from the learnings? ROI matters, so be ready to tell your ROI story to various stakeholders.

For organizations

Here are five things that organizations can do to accelerate individual development aligned with organization goals.

Support individual professional development Make time and space for people to prioritize learning. Provide resourcing and funding to enable people to undertake development.

Build it into the performance management process Tie individual professional development to individual KPIs that clearly roll up to team and organizational KPIs and overarching strategic goals.

Share success stories Find ways, both informally and formally, to highlight the impact of individuals who have leveraged professional development in their current roles for the betterment of the firm. Motivate, inspire and acknowledge the individual work, while calling out how it drives organizational success.

Reward progress Highlight how individuals have advanced through the organization and how their engagement in professional development served as an accelerant.

Be consistent and strategic with the investment in individual professional development During economic downturns, one of the first things to be cut is professional development funding. That is a mistake. We know that the firms that come out of an economic downturn most quickly and can spring forward to achieve new levels of success are those that invest in innovation during the downturn itself. Again, it’s about what is urgent, and that will shift due to various factors. Organizational priorities may necessarily be relatively fluid, but aligning individual professional development with those shifting priorities will perpetually deliver strong returns on the investment for the individual and the organization alike.

How organizations learn

Organizations that survive and thrive all have a common trait: they are all, at their essence, learning organizations. These organizations are adaptable, agile and growth oriented. They attract smart, ambitious people who are skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge.

In his groundbreaking book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, renowned expert Peter Senge noted: “Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it, no organizational learning occurs.” Senge’s words were published in 1990. Yet they express a deep truth that is as relevant as ever today – and for developing the capabilities that individuals and organizations need to thrive tomorrow.

Richard Freishtat is associate dean, executive education, at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business